2018 Geograph Autumn Vol 103 Party 3 AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL • 125 years of the Geographical Association • Twenty-five years of progress in physical geography • Geographies of mobility • Local practices in Fairtrade’s global system Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

Geography Editorial Policy and Vision

Geography is the Geographical Association’s flagship journal and reflects the thriving and dynamic nature of the discipline. The journal serves the ‘disciplinary community’ including academics working in geography departments in higher education institutions across the globe together with specialist teachers of the subject in schools, academies and colleges. Our role is to help ‘recontextualise’ the discipline for educational purposes. To do this, we enable readers to keep in touch with the discipline, which can be challenging but also immensely rewarding. Likewise, it is beneficial for university academics to keep in touch with the school subject and its changing educational context.

Geography contributes to this process by stimulating dialogue and debate about the essential character and contribution of geography in the UK and internationally. The journal spans the breadth of human and physical geography and encourages debate about curriculum development and other pedagogical issues.

The Editorial Collective welcomes articles that: • provide scholarly summaries and interpretations of current research and debates about particular aspects of geography, geography as a whole or geographical education • explore the implications and consequences of changes in the subject and in education for the well- being and progress of geography at all levels • make meaningful and substantive connections between everyday life, public policy and geographical understanding and so help to widen participation and interest in geography • foster a critical and analytical approach to the subject and aim to challenge popular assumptions about place, scale and environment explore and develop opportunities to gain geographical insights from and develop synergies with other GA strategic partners • disciplines and new and unusual resources.

Articles submitted should normally be one of the following types: • Main articles: substantive articles (3000–4000 words) with a clear focus, analysis and summary or conclusions. An abstract of 100–150 words should be included. Main articles will be peer reviewed. • Challenging Assumptions: short items (1000–2000 words) presenting a well-argued viewpoint that challenges existing ideas or throws new light on a current issue or debate. • This Changing World: short articles (1500 words) aimed at updating readers about a current topic, place, educational matter or trend. • Spotlight on…: short items (2000 words) focusing on a book, idea, approach, resource or technique and exploring its relevance and challenges for geography and geography education.

For more information about writing for Geography, visit www.geography.org.uk/getinvolved/writingforthega

Submit articles to: Dorcas Brown ([email protected]), The Geographical Association, 160 Solly Street, Sheffield S1 4BF

Geography Editorial Collective: Dr Sue Brooks (Birkbeck, The authors alone are responsible for the opinions expressed University of London); Dr Matt Finn (University of Exeter); in their articles. Professor David Lambert (University College London, Institute of Education); Professor Katie Willis (Royal Holloway University Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to identify and of London); Professor Richard Yarwood (Plymouth University). contact the original sources, we apologise if there have been

any inadvertent breaches of copyright. International Commissioning Editor: Professor John Morgan (University of Auckland). For advertising queries, contact Harriet Brookes Honorary Reviews Editor: Mr Hedley Knibbs ([email protected]) For copyright queries, contact Dorcas Brown Advisory Panel: Professor Alastair Bonnett Geography ([email protected]) (University of Newcastle); Dr Clare Brooks (University of London); Professor Noel Castree (University of Manchester); Geography is published by the Geographical Association (GA). Professor Brian Chalkley (University of Plymouth); Professor The GA is the leading subject association for all teachers of Tim Hall (University of Winchester); Mr Duncan Hawley; Mr geography. Our charitable mission is to further geographical Jonathan Hooton (Notre Dame High School, Norwich); knowledge and understanding through education. Our journals, Professor Andrew Kirby (Arizona State University); Professor publications, professional events, website and local and online Stuart N. Lane (University of Lausanne); Dr Alan Marvell networks support teachers and share their ideas and practice. (University of Gloucestershire); Dr Tracey Skelton (National The GA represents the views of geography teachers and plays University of Singapore); Dr Liz Taylor (University of a leading role in public debate relating to geography and Cambridge); Dr Chris Winter (University of Sheffield). education. www.geography.org.uk Production Editor: Dorcas Brown Copy Editor: Diane Rolfe Geography (print) ISSN 0016-7487 Designer: Bryan Ledgard Geography (online) ISSN 2043-6564 Cartographer: Kim Farrington The GA is a registered charity: no. 1135148 Print and bind Buxton Press, England Company number: 07139068

© Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018

Contents

Contents

Editorial: 125 years of the Geographical Association David Lambert on behalf of the Geography Editorial Collective 114

125 years of the Geographical Association Peter Jackson 116

Twenty-five years of progress in physical geography: a personal view of its antecedents and trajectory Angela Gurnell 122

Geographies of mobility: a brief introduction Simon Cook 137

Everyday justice? Local practices in Fairtrade’s global system Agatha Herman 146

This Changing World The changing world of the Arctic Duncan Depledge and Caroline Kennedy-Pipe 154

Major European retailers and the circular economy Peter Jones and Daphne Comfort 162

Reviews Edited by Hedley Knibbs 167

113 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

Editorial

the divergence of school and university geography is Editorial: 125 the Association’s growing interest during the first century of its existence in primarily educational matters (see Marsden, 1997) – and, indeed, years of the distinctly primary education since the introduction of the National Curriculum for geography in 1991. Thus the GA, as a ‘community of practice’ rightly is Geographical concerned with questions about the future of the discipline, but always within the context of its Association purposes and potential in educational settings. This is a very distinctive position, and in facing the challenges ahead Peter wisely counsels an outward- David Lambert. David Lambert facing attitude for the GA. Photo: © Bryan Ledgard on behalf of the Geography Editorial Collective One of the (many) attractive aspects of Angela Gurnell’s article ‘Twenty-five years of progress in It will not have escaped the attention of members physical geography: A personal view of its that the Geographical Association (GA) is 125 years antecedents and trajectory’ is the implicit use of old this year. The anniversary has been marked in what David Hicks (2007) has called the ‘extended many ways, including a display of archive material at present’ (p. 183), which encourages us to look both this year’s Annual Conference. Looking back into back and forward and see our lives in a temporal the ‘foreign country’ of the past can be illuminating, context. Thus, when the Editors invited Angela to yet reminds us of how many things remain the review the last 25 years of physical geography she same. While social, political, economic and rightly concluded that she could not, as ‘many environmental circumstances may change, recent developments have their foundation in sometimes radically, the need to express the earlier decades’, including some of the ‘truly strength and potential of the discipline, especially transformative changes in the discipline of physical as a school subject, remains constant. Likewise, geography’ (pp. 122–3) that took place in the the need to support teachers in developing their 1960s. Angela therefore takes the reader right back understanding of geographical perspectives on the to the ‘foundations’ of physical geography in the world, and to keep in touch, not only with each nineteenth century and provides a chronology and other but also with the dynamic, evolving discipline ‘trajectory’ in her incredibly useful tabulation of key itself, is of enduring concern. texts. The article provides a rich account of how the discipline has developed and makes observations This journal, which as Peter Jackson reminds us in on its contemporary significance, noting, for his wonderful overview article ‘125 years of the example, how research has shown the importance Geographical Association’ began its life as The of vegetation in river and floodplain environments, Geographical Teacher back in 1905, has identified and, more broadly, the trend towards multi- its enduring core purpose as helping to bridge the disciplinary study. This article, which should have gap between school geography and the dynamic, if enduring use as a source for teachers and somewhat unruly, discipline in universities. As Peter students, ends on a remarkably optimistic note and points out, concerns about the school-university a call to recognise the enormous potential of divide have been expressed since the beginning of ‘applied’ geography, both now and in the future. the twentieth century and have grown as the discipline has slowly emerged from its ‘masculinist’ One way in which this journal has attempted to help (and, one might say, deterministic) straitjacket as a bridge the school-university divide has been to result of feminist and other radical critique. By include articles that aim to ‘open up’ some of the 114 focusing his gaze mainly through an ‘internalist’ GA discipline’s ‘big concepts’, and in this issue, Simon lens, Peter suggests another important reason for Cook’s considers ‘Geographies of mobility: a brief © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 introduction’. The article is also a brilliant example Finally, following Dame Ellen MacArthur’s memorable of what has recently been referred to as the Public Lecture at the GA’s Annual Conference in Editorial ‘powerful knowledge’ that is constructed in 2013, Geography was pleased to publish an article specialist disciplinary communities such as on ‘The circular economy: a reappraisal of the geography (Maude, 2016). ‘Powerful knowledge’ is a “stuff” we love’ (Pollard et al., 2016). As the tricky term, disliked by some as it conjures an ‘circular’ notion gains more traction generally, we are outmoded vision of hierarchical or elitist structures, delighted to include Peter Jones and Daphne exposed in recent years through debates about the Comfort’s study of ‘Major European retailers and decolonisation of knowledge (see Jackson, p. 116) the circular economy’. With environmental issues in geography and other disciplines. However, the such as the ‘plastic crisis’ now widely discussed, it genesis of the term (Young, 2008) explicitly places it is sobering to read that while many of Europe’s in opposition to an earlier conception of authorised major retailers are signalling a commitment to the ‘official’ curriculum knowledge as the ‘knowledge of circular economy, ‘such commitments are largely … the powerful’ (Young, 1971). As Simon points out at aspirational’ (p. 165). The article shows that a the very start: ‘Although movement has long been a circular economy requires embracing all stages of concern of geographers … the conceptual emphasis the product lifestyle; this is the power of the on mobility is a more recent and important concept, and we should watch for (and perhaps development within the discipline’ (p. 137). He demand) rapid development from the retail sector in argues that while geographers can describe and this regard. account for movement in studies of migration, trade or tourism, for example, understanding mobility Putting together an issue of this journal is never a requires a theoretical approach that makes it single-handed operation. This is why the Editorial relational and ascribes agency to movement (not Collective exists: we each have interests and just something that happens in between places). expertise in different areas of this immensely broad- Acquiring an understanding of mobility might not be based discipline, enabling us to ‘cover’ the straightforward, but once achieved it will give intellectual territory that a journal called Geography students a powerful new way of encountering and should endeavour to reach. We recently welcomed comprehending the world – through geography. Dr Sue Brooks to the team and it is now my great Mobility, then, may qualify as one of geography’s pleasure, on behalf of the Collective, to welcome Dr ‘threshold’ concepts (see Cousin, 2006). Matt Finn, Lecturer in Human Geography at the

University of Exeter. Among Matt’s research If mobility is a concept that has developed partly interests are the geographies of education and through geography’s concern to understand schooling – a specialism that the journal has not globalisation, then a good example of a global touched upon in recent years – and the geographies industry is the wine trade – and Fairtrade is a great of childhood, youth and young people. We very much example of the creation of an institution to promote look forward to his contributions to the journal. global justice. In her article, ‘Everyday justice?

Local practices in Fairtrade’s global system’, Agatha Herman provides a challenging and engaging References case study from South Africa, which analyses the Cousin, G. (2006) ‘An introduction to threshold concepts’, material and relational impacts of Fairtrade, Planet, 17, pp. 4–5. Available at www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/~mflanaga/Cousin%20Planet%2017.p following a careful and very useful discussion of df (last accessed 14/9/2018). ‘justice’ – relevant to A level specifications that Hicks, D. (2007) ‘Lessons for the future: a geographical require critical studies of ‘global governance’. contribution’, Geography, 92, 3, pp. 179–88. Marsden, B. (1997) ‘On taking the geography out of The first of this issue’s two ‘This Changing World’ geography education: some historical pointers’, Geography articles discusses ‘The changing world of the , 82, 3, pp. 241–52. Maude, A. (2016) ‘What might powerful geographical Arctic’. It is hard to imagine a more topical and knowledge look like?’, Geography, 101, 2, pp. 70–6. politically-charged subject than this. In their Pollard, S., Turney, A., Charnley, F. and Webster, K. (2016) geographical account, Duncan Depledge and ‘The circular economy – a reappraisal of the “stuff” we Caroline Kennedy-Pipe provide powerful knowledge love’, Geography, 101, 1, pp. 17–27. that will enable a broader and deeper understanding Young, M.F.D. (ed) (1971) Knowledge and Control: New directions for the sociology of education. London: Collier- than perhaps is obtainable through popular everyday Macmillan. media – starting with that understated but key Young, M.F.D. (2008) Bringing Knowledge Back In: From geographical realisation that the Arctic, like most social constructivism to social realism in the sociology of vast regions, ‘is far from homogenous’ (p. 154). education. Abingdon: Routledge. Again, the scope of this article in the context of studying aspects of global governance is 115 considerable. Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

125 years of the Geographical Association

125 years The inaugural General Meeting of the GA was held in December 1894 at the Royal Colonial Institute in London (the GA’s first corporate member). The of the record shows that four key questions were discussed: Should geography exam papers be set by experts? Should physical geography be an Geographical essential feature of a geography course? Should knowledge of the whole world be required or more detailed regional knowledge? and Should Association geography be a compulsory school subject? To varying degrees, these questions are all still An early GA lantern relevant today in the context of recent reforms to slide. Source: GA GCSE and A-level geography; the increasing archives. Peter Jackson specialisation of geographical knowledge within as

well as between human and physical geography;

debates about the decolonisation of geographical

knowledge; and persistent questions about the

place of geography in the school curriculum. ABSTRACT: This article provides an overview of our

disciplinary history on the occasion of the It is, of course, a daunting task to review the Geographical Association’s 125-year anniversary. It accepts that a definitive and comprehensive disciplinary history cannot be written, covering human and physical geography, conceptual and methodological developments, key figures and significant moments, also paying adequate attention to the changing intellectual environment and wider social context. Instead, the article is loosely chronological in structure, noting continuities and discontinuities between past and present, and raising questions about the kind of history we need in order to reflect critically on the past and to inform the Association’s future trajectory.

Introduction On 20 May 1893, a dozen men gathered in the New Common Room at Christ Church, Oxford, to establish what was to become the Geographical Association (GA). The meeting was called by Halford (later Sir Halford) Mackinder and Douglas Freshfield (who would shortly quit the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) over its refusal to Facsimilie of the letter admit women) and attended by ten others, who inviting schools to attend what would become the first were mostly public school teachers. Therefore, meeting of the Geographical 2018 is the 125th anniversary of the founding of 116 Association, in May 1893. the GA, a cause for celebration and critical Source: GA archives. reflection. © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 history of the discipline over more than a century, essays, tracing the flow of ‘words in motion’, with covering human and physical geography, core skills, an emphasis on debate and disciplinary 125 years of the key concepts and methodological trends. Readers contestation. Johnston and Sidaway’s Geography Geographical might be expecting a history of geography (as a and Geographers (now in its seventh edition) is discipline) and an account of changes in equally indispensable, providing an authoritative Association geographical education (its pedagogical principles and provocative guide to the development of Anglo- and practices), emphasising key events and American human geography since 1945 (Johnston institutions, and focusing on leading figures, and Sidaway, 2015). The GA also has a useful academic trends and seminal publications. (recently updated) chronology of key people, However, these ‘internal’ factors need to be achievements, places and events on its website balanced by an understanding of the wider social (see GA, 2018), and there is W.G.V. Balchin’s context that shapes the intellectual environment in invaluable centenary history of The Geographical which our disciplinary history has evolved. Association (1993), optimistically sub-titled ‘the first hundred years’. All this is to justify my refusal to attempt to write a comprehensive or definitive history of the GA – an impossible task in my judgment. An alternative A loose chronology When the GA was founded in 1893, the discipline approach, taking a lead from the inaugural meeting was undergoing the development of Mackinder’s of the Association, is to ask a series of rhetorical ‘New Geography’ (following his appointment at questions: What kind of history do we need to Oxford in 1887) and absorbing William Morris review the past and prepare for the future? What Davis’s account of the geographical cycle of Cover of W.G.V. Balchin’s The principles of inclusion or exclusion should be erosion. Mackinder was a political geographer who Geographical Association: used? What would be its scope, both in narrow saw geography as an aid to statecraft (Parker, The first hundred years, disciplinary terms and in terms of the wider social 1982). He wrote about the ‘geographical pivot’ of published by the context? This is still a near-impossible task, but Geographical Association in history, famously declaring that ‘Who rules East one that is slightly more tractable than aiming for 1993. Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the an all-inclusive historical survey. Thus, the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules approach I have adopted is loosely chronological, the World-Island commands the world’ (Mackinder, identifying some key moments and episodes in the 1919, p. 150). He was also an influential development of the discipline including the role of educationalist, writing on the scope and methods the GA as an institutional force in shaping this of geography (Mackinder, 1887) and, later, on history, while noting significant continuities and geography as a pivotal subject of education discontinuities between the discipline’s past and (Mackinder, 1921). present.

Davis’s cycle of erosion (also known simply as ‘the Resources geographical cycle’) was published in 1899. Its Some excellent resources are available to help significance is discussed at length in Chorleyet trace our disciplinary history. They include David al.’s History of the Study of Landforms (1973), the Sir Halford Mackinder, Livingstone’s landmark study of The Geographical second volume of which is subtitled ‘the life and 1861–1947. Tradition (1992), which is organised around a work of William Morris Davis’. Davis’s argument series of key ‘episodes’. Livingstone describes our about landscape dynamics and the cyclical stages disciplinary history as ‘a contested enterprise’ of youth, maturity and old age provides an rather than a unitary project. While his work goes opportunity to reflect on the wider context of back to the Renaissance, in our 125-year period, evolutionary thinking. Darwinian thinking has, Livingstone’s episodes include the founding of the however, had a contested place in geographical discipline; the relationship between geography, history. Richard Hartshorne’s The Nature of race and empire; the rise and fall of regional Geography (1939) all-but ignores Darwin, while geography; and the debate over quantification. David Stoddart argues that ‘much of the geographical work of the past hundred years has Other valuable resources include The Dictionary of … taken its inspiration from biology and in Human Geography (now in its fifth edition) (Gregory particular from Darwin’ (Stoddart, 1996, p. 683). et al., 2011), and its twin volume, The Dictionary of Clearly, Charles Darwin’s place in our discipline is Physical Geography (now in its fourth edition) contentious and open to debate. (Thomas, 2016). Neither is a ‘dictionary’ in the conventional sense. Rather than attempting to Mackinder’s protégé, A.J. Herbertson, was provide concise definitions of key terms, each appointed as the first Professor of Geography at 117 volume is organised as a series of open-ended Oxford in 1905 (Mackinder having only attained the Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 rank of Reader). Herbertson (1902) wrote on the The 1920s also provide a good example of how 125 years of the importance of geographical knowledge, ignorance some ideas do not travel well (or how they are Geographical of which, he warned: ‘produces frequent friction taken up differently in different places). Carl and occasional wars, stupidity in commercial Sauer’s ‘The morphology of landscape’ was Association enterprise, hasty and reckless counsels … and published in 1925 and had a huge influence on loss of life’ (p. 127). He also wrote about ‘the American geography (where cultural geography is scope and educational applications of geography’ often used as a synonym for human geography). (Herbertson, 1904) noting how university geography Sauer’s work includes the memorable lines: ‘The and geographical teaching in schools had become cultural landscape is fashioned out of a natural increasingly disconnected – later referred to as the landscape by a culture group. Culture is the agent, ‘Great Divide’ (Goudie, 1993). the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape the result’ (1925, p. 46. It was much At this point, we might pause to comment on how less influential in the UK than in Sauer’s native US, our account has already become a history of ‘great becoming a target of criticism during the develop - white men’ (Mackinder and Herbertson, Darwin and ment of the so-called ‘new’ cultural geography in Davis), reflecting what has been called the the 1980s – a debate that brought British and ‘masculinist’ knowledge that characterises our American geographers into conflict (Cosgrove and disciplinary history. This was parodied by Denis Jackson, 1987; Price and Lewis, 1993). Cosgrove (1993) as involving ‘hairy-chested feats of scholarly endurance [showing] a muscular The 1930s and 1940s might be characterised as a disdain for the fey and metropolitan’ (p. 516). In period of geography in the service of the state, attempting to redress this masculinist bias, one most notably through L. Dudley Stamp’s work on might note the influential role of ‘formidable’ the Land Utilisation Survey of Britain, initiated in women such as Alice Garnett (1903–89) who 1930 and involving collaboration with the Ordnance served as President of the GA and Vice-President Survey and the then Ministry of Agriculture. The of the RGS, occupying her desk in the Department context was the need to increase food production of Geography at Sheffield University for more than during the Second World War where geography 40 years. However, we might prefer to mention the forged strong links with government and policy, a way that gender shapes all forms of geographical move that has revived in the current era with its knowledge, as noted by Gillian Rose’s influential emphasis on demonstrating the wider (social, book on Feminism and Geography (1993). economic and political) impact of academic research. Professor Alice Garnett, To return to our chronological account, we should 1903–89. Photo: University note the appearance of this journal, The In 1933, the foundation of Institute of British of Sheffield. Geographical Teacher (founded in 1905 and boldly Geographers (IBG) heralded the self-conscious The cover of the first issue of renamed Geography in 1927). In 1917, H.J. Fleure ‘professionalisation’ of academic geography and Geography, published in became Professor of Geography and Anthropology posed a potential threat to the GA. The existence spring 1927. at Aberystwyth and moved the GA Library (including of multiple geographical societies (the RGS, IBG its collection of books and lantern and GA) could be considered a strength or a slides) to Wales. Unlike the RGS, weakness of the subject’s institutional the GA has moved around the UK, organisation. There were moves to maintain never settling in London. In 1918, dialogue between these bodies through the the GA’s Standing Committees establishment of the Council on British Geography were established, so 2018 marks (CoBRIG) and later through the merger of the RGS another anniversary that we are with the IBG – a move that was not uncontroversial probably less likely to celebrate: at the time. 100 years of GA committees. By 1959, the GA had 56 local Branches including In the early 1920s, international teacher associations from Kenya, Sierra Leone and branches of the GA were founded Jamaica (who joined the GA in 1955). The Second in Canada, West Africa and Ceylon Land Utilisation Survey was launched in the early (now Sri Lanka); and the GA co- 1960s, led by Alice Coleman, and the Madingley operated with the BBC (1924) on Lectures were held, leading to the publication of the third attempt to climb Everest Frontiers in Geographical Teaching (Chorley and and other programmes, Haggett, 1965) and Models in Geography (Chorley inaugurating what might now be and Haggett, 1967). This was a high point in the referred to as ‘public links between schools and universities, with Peter 118 engagement’. Haggett and Richard Chorley spearheading the © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 development of a more scientific, quantitative and ‘Year of Fieldwork’ (2015–16), the ‘Global Learning theoretical approach. Programme’, funded by DfID (2012–17), which 125 years of the sought to challenge conventional thinking about Geographical The 1960s and 1970s was a period of disciplinary ‘development’ geography, and the new GCSE and ferment, symbolised by the publication of David A-level syllabus, introduced in 2015–16 following Association Harvey’s rigorously theoretical Explanation in advice from the A-level Content Advisory Board. Human Geography (1969), followed just four years later by his passionately Marxist Social Justice and To avoid too much triumphalism, we should mention the City (1973). These debates followed the current concerns about the supply of well-qualified discipline’s so-called quantitative revolution that geography teachers, signalled by the GA’s (recently sought to reposition ‘Geography as Spatial updated) report on Geography Initial Teacher Science’ (Billinge et al., 1983). Education and Teacher Supply in England (GA, 2015). Universities are also struggling to recruit students In the UK, the 1980s was dominated by the debate following demographic shifts in the student-age over geography’s potential exclusion as a core population and a rise in the number of degree- subject in the school curriculum. The then awarding institutions offering to teach geography. Education Secretary, Sir Keith Joseph, addressed an invited GA audience in 1985 on the place of geography in the curriculum when the subject’s fate seemed to hang in the balance. Two years later, a meeting with Sir Keith’s successor, Kenneth Baker, led to the inclusion of geography as a foundation subject. In 1989 the National Curriculum Working Group was formed to inaugurate a major period of educational reform, with key inputs from Eleanor Rawling, Rex Walford and others. Their significance in securing the subject’s place in the curriculum should be duly acknowledged. The National Curriculum was introduced in England and Wales in 1991 and was subject to vigorous debate, as captured in Eleanor Rawling’s account of Changing the Subject (2001), which discusses the impact of national policy on school geography over the period from 1980 to 2000.

It gets harder to write the subject’s history as we approach the present-day, but I will single out several notable contributions. They include the publication of landmark texts such as Margaret Roberts’ Learning through Enquiry (2003) with its powerful advocacy of student-centred learning; the ‘Valuing Places’ project, funded by the Department for International Development (DfID) and led by Extract from A Different Diane Swift (2003–06), and the ‘Action Plan for Continuities and View, the GA’s manifesto for Geography’, on which the GA worked in geography, highlighting the collaboration with the RGS-IBG (2006–11). We discontinuities importance of helping young should also note the GA’s ‘Manifesto for Reflecting on this sketch of our disciplinary history people to think about Geography’, masterminded by David Lambert, which and the role of the GA within it, it is worth noting geography’s ‘vocabulary’ and set out A Different View (GA, 2009) of the subject some continuities and discontinuities between past ‘grammar’. including the useful distinction between and present (acknowledging the inevitable geography’s vocabulary (an almost endless list of selectivity of this process). How, for example, have place-names and geographical features) and its we got from ‘social geography and its place in grammar (the concepts and theories through which colonial studies’ (Gilbert and Steel, 1945) to we aim to make sense of all that detail). contemporary concerns about post-colonialism (Jazeel, 2012) and debates about decolonising Coming up to the present, recent highlights include geographical knowledge (Radcliffe, 2017)? Historical accounts, such as Felix Driver’s the GA’s partnership with the Field Studies Council, 119 the Ordnance Survey and ESRI in promoting the Geography Militant (2001) (a phrase borrowed from Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 Joseph Conrad), are helpful in tracing the contours between the universal and the particular (and how 125 years of the of our geographical history, as are ‘external’ views is this reflected in the choice of case studies Geographical of the discipline such as Edward Said’s (2012) demanded by the National Curriculum)? What assessment that: topics should be compulsory for all of our students Association ‘Just as none of us is outside or beyond to study and what branches of knowledge should geography, none of us is completely free from be optional? What is (or should be) the balance the struggle over geography … That struggle is between human and physical geography? What is complex and interesting because it is not only the role of fieldwork in contemporary geography? about soldiers and cannons but also about What is our current ‘mission’ as geography ideas, about forms, about images and teachers (beyond exam success, teaching to the imaginings’ (p. 7). test and meeting our assessment targets)? How should we respond to the marketisation of Yet, much remains to be done to acknowledge, let education (in schools and universities)? What other alone to counter, the problematic and enduring objectives would we set ourselves and how might connections between geography, race and Empire – the GA help us take them forward? as Mona Domosh sought to demonstrate during her recent term as President of the (recently re- Conclusion named) American Association of Geographers This account of the last 125 years has been partial (AAG), when she asked the provocative question: in both senses of the word (incomplete and, ‘Why is our geography curriculum so white?’ inevitably, selective). It has been a somewhat (Domosh, 2015). The question is not so much ‘internalist’ history, despite my attempt to about the ‘under-representation’ of black and acknowledge the impact of wider intellectual trends minority ethnic groups in UK geography (vitally and social forces in shaping our disciplinary important though that is), as it is about the way our history. I have not given much attention to the disciplinary knowledge is shaped by our racialised, political context or to the role of changing gendered and socially exclusionary history. technologies (such as the shift from lantern slides Debating these and other (dis)continuities in and school atlases to remote sensing and geography’s history would be a productive geographic information sytems). One way of alternative to heroic accounts of the ‘progress’ of addressing these issues would be to ask what geographical thinking with its inherent tendency similarities and differences might exist between the towards uncritical celebration and selective GA’s history and the histories of other disciplines amnesia. and subject associations. However, any historical account will always be provisional, its emphases Future challenges reflecting the period from which the past is viewed.

Lecture at the 2018 GA Returning to the Geographical Association’s Rather than attempting to write a comprehensive Annual Conference, a key foundation in 1893, we might ask ourselves what overview of our subject’s history, I have chosen to gathering of the GA’s are the key questions for the discipline today and ask a series of rhetorical questions about the past ‘community of practice’. what objectives should we set ourselves for the Photo: Bryan Ledgard and present state of the discipline, including the next few decades? What is the relationship role of what Alan Kinder likes to call our ‘community of practice’ (Kinder, 2017). The concept was originally deployed in 1991 by Lave and Wenger to describe a group of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. The idea applies extremely well to subject associations such as the GA, enabling its members to see the ‘bigger picture’ through formal and informal social interaction, moving beyond the classroom to define themselves as part of a wider profession, concerned not only with delivering the curriculum but also with developing it. That is a process to which we can all subscribe, drawing on our institutional history and collective practice in order to move forward, confidently but critically, to 120 face the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 Acknowledgements Herbertson, A.J. (1904) ‘Recent discussions on the scope and educational applications of geography’, The Thanks to Alan Kinder for encouraging me to write Geographical Journal, 24, pp. 417–27. 125 years of the this article and for commenting on a previous draft. Jazeel, T. (2012) ‘Postcolonialism: Orientalism and the Geographical geographical imagination’, Geography, 97, 1, pp. 4–11. It was originally delivered as an invited presentation Association to the GA Annual Conference in Sheffield in April Johnston, R.J. and Sidaway, J.D. (2015) Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American human geography since 2018. 1945. London: Routledge. Kinder, A. (2017) ‘Belonging to a subject community’ in Jones, M. (ed) The Handbook of Secondary Geography. References Sheffield: Geographical Association, pp. 330–42. Balchin, W.G.V. (1993) The Geographical Association: The Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning. first hundred years 1893–1993. Sheffield: Geographical Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Association. Livingstone, D. (1992) The Geographical Tradition: Episodes BBC (1924) The Epic of Everest (documentary film). London: in the history of a contested enterprise. Oxford: Wiley- BBC. Blackwell. Billinge, M., Gregory, D. and Martin, R. (eds) (1983) Mackinder, H.J. (1887) ‘On the scope and methods of Recollections of a Revolution: Geography as spatial geography’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical science. London: Macmillan. Society and Monthly Record of Geography, 9, pp. 141– Chorley, R.J., Beckinsale, R.P. and Dunn, A.J. (1973) The 74. History of the Study of Landforms or The Development of Mackinder, H.J. (1919) Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Geomorphology: The life and work of William Morris Davis study in the politics of reconstruction. New York, NY: (Volume 2). London: Methuen. Henry Holt and Co. Chorley, R.J. and Haggett, P. (eds) (1965) Frontiers in Mackinder, H.J. (1921) ‘Geography as a pivotal subject in Geographical Teaching. London: Methuen. education’, The Geographical Journal, 57, pp. 376–84. Chorley, R.J. and Haggett, P. (eds) (1967) Models in Parker, W.H. (1982) Mackinder: Geography as an aid to Geography. London: Methuen. statecraft. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Cosgrove, D. (1993) ‘On “The Reinvention of Cultural Price, M. and Lewis, M. (1993) ‘The reinvention of cultural Geography” by Price and Lewis’, Annals of the Association geography’, Annals of the Association of American of American Geographers, 83, 3, pp. 515–17. Geographers, 83, pp. 1–17. Cosgrove, D. and Jackson, P. (1987) ‘New directions in Radcliffe, S.A. (2017) ‘Decolonising geographical cultural geography’, Area, 19, 2, pp. 95–101. knowledges’, Transactions of the Institute of British Davis, W.M. (1899) ‘The geographical cycle’, The Geographers, 42, pp. 329–33. Geographical Journal, 14, pp. 481–504. Rawling, E. (2001) Changing the Subject: The impact of Domosh, M. (2015) ‘Why is our geography curriculum so national policy on school geography 1980–2000. white?’, Association of American Geographers Newsletter, Sheffield: Geographical Association. 1 June. Available at http://news.aag.org/2015/06/why- Roberts, M. (2003) Learning through Enquiry: Making sense is-our-geography-curriculum-so-white/ (last accessed of geography in the key stage 3 classroom. Sheffield: 11/5/2018). Geographical Association. Driver, F. (2001) Geography Militant: Cultures of exploration Rose, G. (1993) Feminism and Geography. Cambridge: and empire. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Polity Press. GA (2009) A Different View: A manifesto from The Said, E.W. (2012) Culture and Imperialism. New York, NY: Geographical Association. Available at Vintage. https://www.geography.org.uk/GA-Manifesto-for- Sauer, C.O. (1925) ‘The morphology of landscape’, geography (last accessed 11/5/2018). University of California Publications in Geography, 2, pp. GA (2015) Geography Initial Teacher Education and Teacher 19–53. Supply in England: A national research report by the Stoddart, D.R. (1996) ‘Darwin’s impact on geography’, Geographical Association. Sheffield: Geographical Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 56, Association. Available at pp. 683–98. https://www.geography.org.uk/download/ga%20ite%20r Thomas, D.S.G. (ed) (2016) The Dictionary of Physical eport-final_web.pdf (last accessed 11/5/2018). Geography (fourth edition). Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. GA (2018) The Geographical Association Chronology: Key people, achievements, places and events. Available at https://www.geography.org.uk/download/ga%20chronolo gy.pdf (last accessed 14/5/2018). Gilbert, E.W. and Steel, R.W. (1945) ‘Social geography and its place in colonial studies’, The Geographical Journal, 106, pp. 118–31. Goudie, A.S. (1993) ‘Guest editorial: schools and universities – the great divide’, Geography, 78, 4, p. 338. Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M. and Whatmore, S. (eds) (2011) The Dictionary of Human Geography. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. Hartshorne, R. (1939) ‘The nature of geography: a critical survey of current thought in the light of the past’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 29, pp. 173– 412. Harvey, D. (1969) Explanation in Human Geography. London: Edward Arnold. Harvey, D. (1973) Social Justice and the City. London: Peter Jackson is Professor of Human Geography Edward Arnold. at the University of Sheffield, UK (email: Herbertson, A.J. (1902) ‘Geography in the university’, [email protected]). 121 Scottish Geographical Magazine, 18, pp. 124–32. Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

Twenty-five years of progress in physical geography: a personal view of its antecedents and trajectory professionalisation; and (iii) increasing engagement Twenty-five in ‘citizen science’ by developing and applying methods that involve volunteers in monitoring, analysing and interpreting vast geographical data years of sets.

Context progress in My career in physical geography dates back to 1966 when I started my undergraduate training at the University of Exeter. Since then I have remained physical firmly based as an academic within the British

USGS hydrologic technicians university system. This article is a very personal take flow measurements geography: a and far from comprehensive view of how the under ice using acoustic discipline of physical geography has changed, Doppler technology. This emphasising the last 25 years or so. However, technology increases given the 50 year span of my experience, I start measurement quality, while personal view with a longer-term perspective because many decreasing time, effort, and recent developments have their foundation in risk to the individuals earlier decades. making the measurements. of its

Photo: USGS (Public My personal perspective comes from my early Domain). antecedents career as a geographical hydrologist and the subsequent gradual expansion of my interests to encompass fluvial geomorphology, its physical and and trajectory plant ecological context, and, most recently, the application of this science to the restoration and sustainable management of rivers. This means that Angela Gurnell mine is a British perspective, founded on freshwater, how it flows across and within the ABSTRACT: This article presents a very personal view Earth’s surface, interacts with sediments and of developments in physical geography up to the plants, and drives the form and dynamics of river early 1990s and then in the last 25 years. In the basins, valleys, floodplains and channels. While latter period, four sub-areas (biogeography, this article inevitably reflects this perspective, I climatology, geomorphology, and hydrology) have have tried to consider the broader nature of the dominated the discipline, with glaciology and discipline, the themes that it encompasses and pedology also receiving significant attention. The that give it a coherent character. Furthermore, advent of remotely sensed data sets, new sensors although I refer predominantly to work by physical for proximate monitoring and analytical software geographers, I have scanned the environmental have enabled research across many space scales sciences more generally in order to maintain a with improving spatial and temporal resolution. robust commentary. Increasingly, new modelling approaches have been supported by field and laboratory experiments. At the beginning of this century, I contributed to a Furthermore, investigations have become more review of the discipline (Gregory et al., 2002). In it applied and human-oriented. Three aspects of the we suggested that physical geography had been last 25 years bear witness to the health, relevance divided traditionally into three science areas: and impact of the discipline: (i) increasingly biogeography, climatology and geomorphology (with 122 collaborative, international and multi-disciplinary hydrology), which we considered to be becoming research; (ii) a trend towards application and more integrated, building on central interests in a © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 spatial-temporal and scientific analytical approach; unbalanced list in relation to the seven areas of on how natural environmental systems and forms the discipline defined in the previous section. EditorialTwenty-five years of evolve; and on how they are being increasingly Therefore, the 60 references listed in Figure 1 are progress in physical influenced by human-environmental interactions. selected to provide an historical vision of the The trend of increasing integration of physical nature and development of physical geography. I geography: a geography has been noted more recently by other am sure that most readers will argue that I have personal view of its authors (e.g Malanson et al., 2014; Day, 2017). omitted one or more fundamentally important antecedents and Day (2017) came to this conclusion after reviewing contributions, but I hope that the main trajectory the content of textbooks relevant to the physical developmental trajectories in the discipline to geography undergraduate curriculum in universities 1990 are apparent from Figure 1, and that at least in North America and the UK. However, Day (2017) some omissions are incorporated in the following also concluded that there are currently six main text. To link to discussion in the text, Figure 1 physical geography science sub-areas: divides the 60 publications into groups represent- biogeography, climatology, geomorphology, ing: the nineteenth century, 1900 to 1959, the glaciology, hydrology and pedology. Therefore, I 1960s and 1970s, and, finally, the 1980s to 1990. have framed my exploration of the discipline around these six areas and have added a seventh, I feel incredibly fortunate that I started my which emphasises human-dominated processes geographical training during the 1960s, because and environments. this decade saw the beginning of truly transformative changes in the discipline of physical To provide insights into the development of the geography. Thus, it marks a natural boundary in discipline prior to the last 25 years: Figure 1. Prior to the 1960s, much of the focus of • First, I present a very selective list of physical geographers (and scientists in cognate contributions that extend back into the disciplines) was on observing and describing the nineteenth century and cover the period up to form and structure of landscapes and the organisms 1990. I also attempt to summarise, briefly, they supported at a range of spatial scales in order developments during: (a) the nineteenth to conceptualise how these had developed and the century; (b) from 1900 to 1959; (c) during the key controlling processes, usually over long periods 1960s and 1970s and; (d) during the 1980s to of time. Despite a number of previous examples, 1990, in part emphasising my particular areas the 1960s saw the widespread uptake of formal of interest. frameworks and methods for quantifying processes • Second, I consider the period from 1990 to the as well as forms and their linkages, providing the present in greater detail. In order to provide an foundation of ‘modern’ physical geography in the overview of broad developments in the ensuing decades. discipline, and as the journal provides reviews of developments across the discipline, I Nineteenth century: foundations present a content analysis of papers published Several fundamental works were published during in Progress in Physical Geography for the 25- the nineteenth century that provided a firm year period 1993 to 2017. I then highlight foundation for the development of the several themes, which have emerged strongly environmental sciences including physical over the last quarter century and illustrate geography. Most notable were the many these mainly from my own areas of research contributions of Charles Darwin. In Figure 1, in interest. addition to On the Origin of Species (Darwin, 1859), I list his work on earthworms (Darwin, 1881) that Physical geography prior provided an important foundation for Figure 1 (page 124): biogeographical, pedological and geomorphological Sixty publications, mainly by to 1990 research. Stoddart (1966) provides an informative geographers with highly Sixty publications review of Darwin’s enormous impact on geography. influential contributions from My original intention was to compile a maximum In addition to Darwin’s contributions are the works other disciplines, that list of 50 influential research papers or books of Lyell (1830–33), Agassiz (1840), Wallace (1876) illustrate the historical written mainly by geographers but also and Davis (1899), which it can be argued provide trajectory of development of seven sub-areas (see text) of representing other contributions that track the the bases for the development of geomorphology the discipline. An expanded development of the discipline to 1990. However, in general, and glacial geomorphology, fluvial version of theis figure, having assembled a much longer list and geomorphology and zoogeography in particular. including journal titles and attempted to prune it, I concluded that it was not Further, Marsh’s (1864) early warnings about the publishers, is available from possible to reach 50 without losing some very ability of humans to severely impact their the journal’s online extras 123 important contributions and producing an environment provides a precursor to research on section. Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

Period Author and book/article title Physical geography science sub-areas Biogeography Biogeography Climatology Geomorphology Hydrology Glaciology Pedology Human Nineteenth Lyell, C. (1830–33) Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the century Earth’s Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation ✓ ✓ ✓ Agassiz, L. (1840) Études sur les glaciers ✓ ✓ Darwin, C. (1859) On the Origin of Species ✓ Marsh, G.P. (1864) Man and Nature or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action ✓ Wallace, A.R. (1876) The Geographical Distribution of Animals ✓ Huxley, T.H. (1877) Physiography: An introduction to the study of nature ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Darwin, C. (1881) The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits ✓ ✓ ✓ Davis, W.M. (1899) ‘The geographical cycle’ ✓

1900–1959 Clements, F.E. (1916) ‘Plant succession: an analysis of the development of vegetation’ ✓ Milne, G. (1936) ‘Normal erosion as a factor in soil profile development’ ✓ ✓ Bagnold, R.A. (1941) The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes ✓ Hursh, C.R. and Brater, E.F. (1941) ‘Separating storm-hydrographs from small drainage-areas into surface- and subsurface-flow’ ✓ Lindeman, R.L. (1942) ‘The trophic-dynamic aspect of ecology’ ✓ Horton, R.E. (1945) ‘Erosional development of streams and their drainage basins: hydrophysical approach to quantitative morphology’ ✓ White, G.F. (1945) ‘Human adjustment to floods’ ✓ ✓ Woolridge, S.W. (1949) ‘Geomorphology and soil science’ ✓ ✓ Lamb, H.H. (1950) ‘Types and spells of weather around the year in the British Isles’ ✓ Sundborg, Å. (1951) ‘Climatological studies in Uppsala with special regard to the temperature conditions in the urban area’ ✓ ✓ Carson, R.L. (1952) Silent Spring ✓ ✓ King, L.C. (1953) ‘Canons of landscape evolution’ ✓ Leopold, L.B. and Maddock, T.M. (1953) ‘The hydraulic geometry of stream channels and some physiographic implications’ ✓ Emiliani, C. (1955) ‘Pleistocene temperatures’ ✓ Linton, D.L. (1955) ‘The problem of tors’ ✓ Thomas, W.L. (ed) (1956) Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Washburn, A.L. (1956) ‘Classification of patterned ground and review of suggested origins’ ✓ Elton, C.S. (1958) The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants ✓ Corbel, J. (1959) ‘Erosion en terrain calcaire (vitesse d’érosion et morphologie)’ ✓

1960s and Rapp, A. (1960) ‘Recent development of mountain slopes in Karkevagge and surroundings, 1970s northern Scandinavia’ ✓ Chorley, R.J. (1962) ‘Geomorphology and general systems theory’ ✓ Yatsu, E. (1962) Rock Control in Geomorphology ✓ Kamb, B. and LaChapelle, E. (1964) ‘Direct observation of the mechanism of glacier sliding over bedrock’ ✓ ✓ Leopold, L.B., Wolman, M.G. and Miller, J.P. (1964) Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology ✓ Chandler, T.J. (1965) The Climate of London ✓ Schumm, S.A. and Lichty, R.W. (1965) ‘Time, space and causality in geomorphology’ ✓ Hewlett, J.D. and Hibbert, A.R. (1967) ‘Factors affecting the response of small watersheds to precipitation in humid areas’ ✓ Wolman, M.G. (1967) ‘A cycle of sedimentation and erosion in urban river channels’ ✓ ✓ Vita-Finzi, C. (1969) The Mediterranean Valleys: Geological changes in historical times ✓ Chorley, R.J. and Kennedy, B.A. (1971) Physical Geography: A systems approach ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Wilson, I.G. (1971) ‘Desert sandflow basins and a model for the development of ergs’ ✓ Rothlisberger, H. (1972) ‘Water pressure in intra- and subglacial channels’ ✓ ✓ Gregory, K.J. and Walling, D.E. (1973) Drainage Basin, Form and Process: A geomorphological approach ✓ ✓ Manley, G. (1974) ‘Central England temperatures: monthly means 1659–1973’ ✓ Manabe, S. and Wetherald, R.T. (1975) ‘The effects of doubling CO2 concentration on the climate of a general circulation model’ ✓ Shroder, J.F. (1975) ‘Dendrogeomorphological analysis of mass movement’ ✓ ✓ Dury, G.H. (1976) ‘Discharge prediction, present and former, from channel dimensions’ ✓ ✓ Sugden, D.E. and John, B.S. (1976) Glaciers and Landscape: A geomorphological approach ✓ ✓ Knox, J.C. (1977) ‘Human impacts on Wisconsin stream channels’ ✓ ✓ ✓ Kirkby, M.J. (ed) (1978) Hillslope Hydrology ✓ Brunsden, D. and Thornes, J.B. (1979) ‘Landscape sensitivity and change’ ✓ Schumm, S.A. (1979) ‘Geomorphic thresholds: the concept and its applications’ ✓

1980s–1990 Vannote, R.L., Minshall, G.W., Cummins, K.W., Sedell, J.R. and Cushing, C.E. (1980) ‘The river continuum concept’ ✓ ✓ Büdel, J. (1982) Climatic Geomorphology ✓ ✓ Trimble, S.W. (1983) ‘A sediment budget for Coon Creek basin in the driftless area, Wisconsin, 1983–1977’ ✓ ✓ Walling, D.E. (1983) ‘The sediment delivery problem’ ✓ ✓ Wasson, R.J. and Hyde, R. (1983) ‘Factors determining desert dune type’ ✓ Osterkamp, W.R. and Hupp, C.R. (1984) ‘Geomorphic and vegetative characteristics along three northern Virginia streams’ ✓ ✓ Petts, G.E. (1984) Impounded Rivers: Perspectives for ecological management ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Thornes, J.B. (1985) ‘The ecology of erosion’ ✓ ✓ ✓ 124 Grove, J.M. (1988) The Little Ice Age ✓ ✓ McFadden, L.D. and Knuepfer, P.L.K. (1990) ‘Soil geomorphology – the linkage of pedology and surficial processes’ ✓ ✓ © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 humans as environmental agents. However, from ‘General Systems Theory’ (Chorley, 1962; Chorley my perspective, Huxley’s (1877) book entitled and Haggett, 1967), laying the foundation for the Twenty-five years of Physiography (his interpretation of ‘physical discipline to contribute to ‘Earth System Science’. progress in physical geography’) was perhaps the most important for Over the next 20 years the study of physical the discipline as it conceptualised its multi-scale processes emerged as a central focus in physical geography: a nature. Using the case study of the Thames basin, geography. This occurred not only through the personal view of its Huxley: conceptualisation of how processes and forms antecedents and ‘endeavoured to show that the application of the were linked within open systems (Chorley and trajectory plainest and simplest processes of reasoning (to Kennedy, 1971), but also (increasingly) through the an observed phenomenon) show, lying beneath development and application of techniques to it, a cause, which again suggests another; until measure and model phenomena (e.g. Wilson and step by step, the conviction dawns on the Kirkby, 1975; Mosely and Zimpfer, 1978; Beven learner that, to attain even an elementary and Kirkby, 1979). The presence of these trends conception of what goes on in his parish, he across the sub-areas of physical geography are must know something about the universe; that witnessed by integrative texts (e.g. Watts, 1971; the pebble he kicks aside would not be what it is Gregory and Walling, 1973; Sugden and John, and where it is, unless a particular chapter of 1976). the earth’s history … had been exactly what it was’ (1877, p. vii). During the 1960s and 1970s, changes in climate were being demonstrated quantitatively through the This concept of the way in which processes analysis of climatological records (e.g. Manley, interact across time and space to drive landscape 1974) and distinct human impacts on climate were development is truly integrative. It underpins stressed (e.g. Chandler, 1965; Manabe and subsequent investigations aimed at understanding Wetherald, 1975). Other studies of environmental how landscape development varies across the change increasingly depended upon field and Earth’s surface and through time. laboratory methods that established environmental chronologies. Palynology was rapidly adopted by physical geographers to support interpretation of 1900–59: from landform to long-term changes in vegetation attributable to process climate and human impacts (e.g. Oldfield, 1963), During the first 60 years of the twentieth century, and other ‘dating’ techniques were starting to geography became increasingly recognised as a emerge based on the analysis of sediment discrete discipline, and major advances were properties (e.g. Molyneux et al., 1972; Appleby and achieved in all branches of physical geography Oldfield, 1978). Furthermore, the launch in 1972 (Figure 1). Concepts of landscape and landform of the first Earth Resources Technology Satellite evolution continued to evolve (e.g. Horton, 1945; (subsequently renamed LandSat) marked the King, 1953; Linton, 1955), but there was an beginning of an era where vast data sets provided increasing emphasis on causal processes (e.g. repeated spatial monitoring to complement point Clements, 1916; Milne, 1936; Hursh and Brater, measurements at a higher temporal resolution 1941; Lindeman, 1942; Elton, 1958; Corbel, than was previously available from map and air 1959) with attempts to understand the mechanics photograph archives. of processes and to link them to forms through measurement and quantitative analysis (e.g. In my area of interest, an increasing emphasis on Bagnold, 1941; Lamb, 1950; Leopold and water-related processes was reflected in the Maddock, 1953; Strahler, 1954). At the same publication of Leopold et al.’s (1964) Fluvial time, the impacts of humans on their environment Processes in Geomorphology, and the concurrent and vice versa attracted concern and investigation emergence of hydrology as a new science area (e.g. White, 1945; Sundborg, 1951; Carson, within physical geography. The first hydrology 1952). Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the textbook aimed at physical geographers was Earth, edited by Thomas (1956), was a landmark in published (Principles of Hydrology, Ward, 1967), as summarising the range and complexity of the was the first text that integrated concepts with impacts of humans on their environment. measurement techniques and modelling approaches for the study of hydrology and fluvial geomorphology (Drainage Basin Form and Process: The 1960s and 1970s: a period A geomorphological approach, Gregory and Walling, of rapid change 1973). As time progressed, geographical hydrology During the 1960s, physical geographers started to and fluvial geomorphology became increasingly 125 consider landscapes within the framework of closely integrated, with the term Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 ‘hydrogeomorphology’ proposed (Scheidegger, hydrological research encompassing field Twenty-five years of 1973; Gregory, 1979). Integrating research measurements, experiments and modelling (e.g. progress in physical considered process-form linkages and feedbacks, Kirkby, 1978), and for a focus on the impact of encompassing both threshold and equilibrium humans on hydrological systems (Gregory and geography: a behaviour across widely varying space and Walling, 1979; Hollis, 1979). At the same time, personal view of its timescales (from seconds to millennia, and from there was a growing interest in the application of antecedents and particles to regions). The work of Stanley A. all areas of physical geography to resolving trajectory Schumm was fundamental to these developments environmental management issues (e.g. Cooke and (e.g. Schumm and Lichty, 1965), and his book on Doornkamp, 1974). The Fluvial System (Schumm, 1977) provides an excellent, integrated overview of his contribution as The 1980s to 1990: well as illustrating the way in which the discipline was changing at this time. In addition, physical consolidation and technological geographers were researching process-landform advance linkages in different water environments, from The 1980s saw consolidation and progress in those where water is mainly frozen (e.g. Sugden aspects of the discipline that had emerged in the and John, 1976; French, 1976) to those where it is 1960s and 1970s, building on an increasing scarce (e.g. Cooke and Warren, 1973). recognition of the multidisciplinary, multi- dimensional nature of environmental systems (e.g. Contemporary hydrogeomorphological research was Vannote et al., 1980), but several additional and complemented by analyses of environmental distinct themes can be recognised. change specifically directed towards river systems and catchments. For example, Wolman (1967), Although previous decades saw the beginnings of Hammer (1972) and Knox (1977) published research on the impacts of human activities, important contributions on the focusing mainly on physical processes and forms, hydrogeomorphological responses of stream research in this area intensified in the 1980s. It channels to human actions. While in situ embraced a wider range of human-environment measurements of sediment processes (erosion interactions and feedbacks, taking advantage of pins and plots) had started to be widely applied, the outputs from monitoring programmes set up in particularly in relation to estimating the impacts of the preceding decades, and, following Brunsden human activities on soil erosion (e.g. the Universal and Thornes (1979), it highlighted the sensitivity of Soil Loss Equation, Wischmeier and Smith, 1960), particular landscapes to change, whether driven by methods to ‘fingerprint’ sediment sources to river natural or human-induced phenomena (Thomas and systems were rapidly developing, based upon their Allison, 1993). In my area of interest, there were geochemical, mineralogical, and mineral magnetic key developments in the quantification and signatures. The identification of the source of characterisation of how humans had both directly sediments found in rivers from laboratory analyses and indirectly affected hydrogeomorphological of their ‘fingerprints’ allowed researchers to processes. Building on Knox’s (1977) work, case estimate the relative quantitative contribution of studies of river morphological change emerged that different catchment sediment sources to river synthesised and analysed historical information sediment loads (e.g. Walling et al., 1979). sources (e.g. Petts et al., 1989). Trimble’s (1983) investigation of sediments and human artifacts Within water-related areas of physical geography, provided the first detailed catchment-scale analysis international influences beyond the discipline gave of the effects of agriculture on the sediment impetus to disciplinary developments. UNESCO’s budget. Trimble (1983) illustrated in a single international hydrological programmes were crucial, catchment how sediment, released from fields, with the first of these commencing during the followed a sequence of deposition, storage and 1960s. The International Hydrological Decade remobilisation as it passed through the catchment (1965–75) encouraged education and training, system, altering the stratigraphy and morphology of standardisation of measurement techniques and valley bottoms and floodplains. Developing units, and basic data collection across the techniques of sediment fingerprinting allowed hydrological sciences. Importantly, ‘basic data quantification of such sediment movements collection’ involved the establishment of through drainage basins in a series of erosion- representative and experimental drainage basins transfer-storage steps, allowing sediment budgets instrumented to study the impact of catchment to be defined across multiple time and space characteristics and land use changes on the scales even where changes were morphologically 126 hydrological cycle. The establishment of these quite subtle (Walling, 1983). basins was a springboard for geographical © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 Research in different environmental settings, (Campbell, 1996). The need to assimilate, analyse subject to different climates and human pressures, and integrate data from these sources as well as Twenty-five years of revealed the crucial importance of plants and other more traditional ones (notably maps) resulted in progress in physical living organisms (e.g. Osterkamp and Hupp, 1984; probably the most important technological advance Viles, 1988) as well as their management (Graf, for geography as a whole in the 1990s. This was geography: a 1978) for water and sediment delivery and transfer the availability of geographical information systems personal view of its through river systems and associated landform (GIS) software that could store, integrate and antecedents and development (Thornes, 1990). This gave rise to a analyse disparate spatial data sets and present trajectory new area for research: ‘Biogeomorphology’. the results in an accessible format (Maguire et al., 1991; Burrough and McDonnell, 1998). As physical The far-reaching hydrological, geomorphological and geographers developed more sophisticated models, ecological consequences of human interventions in these were often linked to a GIS, which managed river systems were also recognised. These include the input data and displayed the analytical outputs the impacts of river channelisation (Brookes, 1988) as well as delivering some of the data and the installation and management of river manipulations. impoundments (Petts, 1984). Petts (1984) volume is particularly notable, because it conceptualises Finally, a crucial external factor in the development complex sequences of both spatial and temporal of physical geography research during the 1980s changes induced by dams and river flow regulation was significant funding for interdisciplinary encompassing interactions and feedbacks among international environmental research projects hydrological, geomorphological and ecological within (and beyond) Europe. The Framework processes. Programmes for Research and Technological Development of the European Union/European The impacts of physical processes on humans also Commission (FP1 commenced in 1984) provided became a major focus of research, particularly in an important new funding source. At the same relation to environmental hazards (e.g. landslides – time, and associated with a trend towards Brunsden and Prior, 1984; floods – Baker et al., increasing application of research results and 1988). One emerging topic within fluvial methods, was the beginning of the geomorphology, initiated in part by flood hazard professionalisation of physical geography. For research, was the presence of wood in river example, Richards et al. (1987) make the case for systems. Sedell and Frogatt (1984) illustrated the the application of fluvial geomorphology to the dramatic geomorphological and ecological appraisal of engineering projects; while in 1979, a consequences of wood removal from the group of UK academic geomorphologists set up Willamette River, USA, to reduce flood risks and Geomorphological Services Limited to provide support human activities such as agriculture, consultancy services. navigation and timber exploitation. At the same time, pioneering research on the environmental role Thus, the 1980s saw physical geography as an of wood by a multi-disciplinary team, including emerging scientific discipline that contributed vital physical geographers, in the Pacific north-west of knowledge and research methods to the the USA (Harmon et al., 1986) initiated an investigation of multi-disciplinary environmental important debate about large wood. The entire set issues and to the provision of professional of biogeochemical, hydrogeomorphological, services capable of supporting the resolution and ecological, conservation and management issues management of environmental problems. related to floodplain forests and wood soon attracted research attention. Furthermore, work on this topic in the UK, broadened the consideration of The last 25 years: 1993 wood and trees to include other living vegetation as a crucial element of catchment and river to the present hydrogeomorphology (e.g. Gurnell and Gregory, An overview 1987, 1988). The last 25 years are too close for me to give a confident, spontaneous and broad overview of the The 1980s saw major advances in process-form development of physical geography. Therefore, as a monitoring at the Earth’s surface (e.g. Goudie et starting point, I have undertaken a content analysis al., 1990) with new proximate monitoring of papers published in a journal that aims to review technologies leading to increasingly sophisticated the discipline: Progress in Physical Geography process-form understanding (e.g. Clifford, 1993). (hereafter, ‘Progress’). My analysis focuses on 833 There was also an enormous influx of data from papers published in the years 1993 to 2017, 127 sensors mounted on aircraft and satellite platforms inclusive, excluding editorials and book reviews. It Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 represents my personal judgements and Therefore, I present the rest of my content analysis Twenty-fiveEditorial years of interpretations of the content of these papers. If in aggregate across the 25-year period, starting progress in physical someone else were to undertake the analysis, with the sub-areas already considered in Figure 2 these interpretations are unlikely to be perfectly to confirm the already-summarised balance among geography: a replicated. However, I believe that the broad them (Figure 3a), and thus the apparent dominance personal view of its outcomes from such an analysis would be similar; of biogeography, climatology, geomorphology and antecedents and therefore, it provides a useful perspective on the hydrology within the discipline. trajectory contemporary state of the discipline. Given the importance of time, space and By considering the titles, abstracts, and in some environmental setting to any geographical analysis, cases the body text of the papers, I first allocated Figure 3 provides summary information on these them to one or two of the sub-areas considered in aspects, where they are clearly emphasised in the Figure 1 (i.e. biogeography, climatology, papers. Since Progress publishes review papers, geomorphology, glaciology, hydrology and pedology). many are very broad, cutting across time and space I excluded the ‘human’ sub-area at this stage scales and referring to a range of environmental because human impacts could relate to any of the settings. However, the content analysis identified six sub-areas. Furthermore, in relation to those papers that highlighted specific scales and ‘glaciology’, I occasionally allowed allocation to a settings, allowing up to two timescales, one space third sub-area. This was because papers with a scale and one environmental setting to be central focus on frozen water often involve a strong identified for each paper. emphasis on hydrology, climatology and/or geomorphology (and recently biogeography). Most of the papers referring to timescales (Figure Therefore, where glaciology papers had a strong 3b) emphasise Contemporary to Decadal scales, emphasis on several of these other sub-areas, I reflecting time periods over which detailed scientific allowed up to two to be added to that of glaciology. monitoring of processes has occurred as well as the emergence of data sets captured from Figure 2 illustrates the percentage of papers airplanes and satellites. Investigations over longer addressing the six sub-areas as well as those that timescales are less numerous and usually depend encompass multiple sub-areas (i.e. more than two, on dating and interpreting historical artefacts and apart from where glaciology is the third) and those records, such as maps, photographs, paintings and (mainly methods papers) that are not explicitly documents (Centuries) or bedrock, sediments and related to any specific sub-area(s). Figure 2 preserved biological materials (Centuries and illustrates that the largest proportion of papers Millennia+). focus on geomorphology, with biogeography, climatology and hydrology showing similar, quite As with timescales, many review papers high, proportions and the remaining categories encompass a wide range of space scales. However, representing similar, small, proportions. where space scales are clearly indicated the most frequently considered (Figure 3c) are the Importantly, although there are high fluctuations in Landscape (including river catchments) to Regional the relative importance of the sub-areas between scales. However, a good proportion of papers focus years, no clear temporal trends are apparent. on smaller (Local) areas. Some papers consider

Figure 2: The percentage of 100 Key papers concerned with Biogeography different sub-areas of 90 Climatology physical geography from 80 Geomorphology Progress in Physical Glaciology 70 Geography, 1993–2017. Hydrology Pedology Notes: n=833. In each year 60 Multiple (>2 sub-areas) papers were allocated to up 50 None to two (occasionally three) sub-areas or to the 40 categories multiple or none. 30 The percentages relate to 20

the occurrence of these of papers concernedPercentage with different sub-areas of physical geography different sub-areas of physical categories, which total to 10 more than the number of individual papers. 0 128 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 processes at a Global scale (particularly in to other (non-biological) processes; whereas climatology), and a few (Other) consider other Ecological processes represented an integration of EditorialTwenty-five years of planets. the biota and related processes with other progress in physical environmental processes to support understanding In relation to environmental setting (Figure 3d), a of different aspects of ecology. Biogeochemical geography: a long list of different settings was aggregated into refers to complex local investigations of chemical, personal view of its the classes depicted in the bar graph; the majority biological and geophysical processes and their antecedents and (65%) of the reviewed papers encompassed a interactions (and usually demanding a high level trajectory variety of settings or were not specific on this and quantity of laboratory analysis). Furthermore, issue. Three properties of the remaining 35% the bars depicting process groups are concerned (Figure 3d) are noteworthy: with either a narrow group of related processes • the many different settings that provide the (e.g. Aeolian) or the processes operating in a very Figure 3: The proportion of focus for individual papers specific environment (e.g. Marine). The bars for all surveyed papers from the relatively small number of papers that refer process context refer to process linkages between Progress in Physical • Geography, 1993–2017: (a) specifically to the humid temperate setting environments (e.g. Atmosphere-surface exchange falling into different sub- (probably because this is the home of many of of water or energy); specific environmental settings areas of physical geography, the contributors to Progress, therefore, it is an (e.g. Human-dominated such as urban, transport and those that address implicit rather than explicit context of their infrastructure) or specific process settings (e.g. different: (b) timescales, (c) writing), and Soil development, Sediment dynamics-stratigraphy; space scales, and (d) • the emergence of the human-dominated urban Climate/environment change, Natural hazards). In environmental settings. environment as a setting for physical geography relation to process groups, the most frequent are Notes n=833. Percentages in research. papers concerned with Ecological processes that (a) and (b) sum to more than provide links between the biota and their 100% because each paper To explore the nature of the research in greater environment. In relation to process context, the may relate to more than one depth, papers were allocated to up to two process Human context is the most frequent, indicative of sub-area/timescale. Percentages shown at the themes and up to two methods groups when these expanding research relevant to the Anthropocene. top of (b), (c) and (d) refer to were specifically relevant to a paper’s theme the proportion of all papers (Figure 4). As with Figure 3d, a long list of key Figure 4b summarises the types of methods that clearly indicate words were aggregated into the bars shown in explicitly emphasised and developed in 43% of the time/space scales/ Figure 4. Sub-groups of bars are presented in papers analysed, including those that were entirely environmental setting, and Figures 4a and 4b to aid visual interpretation of concerned with methods. In terms of these graphs specify the what was a single aggregate analysis. measurements, the dominance of Remote proportion of papers within In relation to Figure 4a, Biological processes were measurements (from ground, air and satellite those groups that refer to identified where there was limited or no reference platforms) is clearly apparent, although direct individual scales/settings.

(a) Physical geography (b) Time scale (c) Space scale (d) Environmental setting sub-area (40%) (43%) (35%) 40 40 40 20

35 35 35

30 30 30 15

25 25 25

20 20 20 10

15 15 15

10 10 10 5 specific environmental setting specific environmental Percentage of all reviewed papers of all reviewed Percentage Percentage of papers referringPercentage to a

5 5 5 Percentage of papers referringPercentage to a specific time scale

0 0 of papers referringPercentage to a specific space scale 0 0 None Local Other Urban Global Ocean Region Coastal Hot arid Multiple Savanna Decades Pedology Millenia+ Mountain Centuries Hydrology Glaciology Landscape Climatology Atmosphere Biogeography Contemporary Mediterranean Humid Tropical 129 Geomorphology Cold (not glacial) Glacial/ice sheet Humid Temperate Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 (a) Processes (b) Methods (77%) (43%) Twenty-five years of 30 40 progress in physical geography: a 35 25

personal view of its Experiments Process group

30 Social Science Measurements antecedents and Process context 20 trajectory 25 Analysis and Modelling

15 20

15 10

10 specific process group or context Percentage of papers referringPercentage to a 5 of papers referringPercentage to a

specific measurement or analysis method 5

0 0 Marine Human Aeolian Biological Ecological Periglacial Geological Hydrological Ice and snow Classification Biogeochemical Natural hazards Soil development Field experiments Historical sources Conceptual model Dating techniques Mechanistic model Participatory methods

Figure 4: For all surveyed Remote measurements Data synthesis and GIS Laboratory experiments Proximate measurements Fluvial/lacustrine/wetland Statistical analysis/model Laboratory measurements papers from Progress in geography Critical physical Climate/environment change Climate/environment Physical Geography, 1993– Atmosphere-surface exchange Sediment dynamics/stratigraphy 2017: (a) Process (Proximate) measurements and Dating methods The last group of bars in Figure 4b refers to explicit groups/contexts considered, (including absolute and relative dating as well as links with social science. This small group of and (b) methods reviewed by the use of proxies) are also widely reviewed. Field papers with a social science content identifies a the analysed papers. Notes: and Laboratory experiments (i.e. measurements of second emergent group of methods, which will be n=833. Percentages noted manipulated conditions compared with controlled increasingly relevant as physical geography at the top of each of graph refer to the overall conditions) are a small component of the methods becomes more applied and human-focused. proportion of papers that reviewed, but are probably an indication of an clearly indicate process important tool for future research. Data synthesis Finally, while undertaking the content analysis, I groups/contexts or methods. and GIS, whereby different spatial (and multi- encountered papers on topics that have only The graphs analyse only temporal) data sets are integrated to identify emerged as a contributor to physical geography those papers, providing emergent patterns, provides an important focus in research in the last 25 years. Genetic and overall proportions, although a significant number of the papers. Here, I include molecular methods are emerging tools; species bars are grouped to aid papers on digital elevation models, but confine invasions, extinctions and the spread of diseases visual interpretation. papers concerning basic ‘image processing’ to the are emerging processes; and war is an emerging Percentages in the graphs Remote measurement category. In addition to such environmental setting for physical geographical sum to more than 100% data synthesis, papers that set out to categorise study. because each paper may relate to up to (Classification) or model (Conceptual, Statistical, two categories. Mechanistic) are also considered. While all of the In summary, the content analysis of papers from three modelling approaches identify relationships Progress reveals important aspects of among processes and sometimes with forms, I contemporary research that distinguish the last 25 identify Statistical models as those that estimate years from preceding decades: relationships from empirical observations using (i) Biogeography, climatology, geomorphology and statistical analysis; Mechanistic models as those hydrology continue to dominate the discipline, that start with a proposed (usually physically- but many papers focus on two or more of these based) relationship or set of relationships between areas – as witnessed by the importance of variables, even if these relationships are then fine- ecological process investigations. tuned using statistical methods. Finally, my (ii) Glaciology and pedology have received less restricted definition of a Conceptual model is one attention. In addition to its strong links with that conceptualises how a set of processes and hydrology and geomorphology, glaciology is forms may be related, usually based on empirical becoming increasingly linked to climatology in field observations, but does not quantify them. It is the context of global climate change, often interesting to note the quite widespread use of making it a multidisciplinary application of Data synthesis and GIS and the three types of these three sub-areas with recent inclusion of 130 modelling in the analysed papers. the fourth: biogeogeography. In a similar way, © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 much of the work in pedology is linked to other resolution information on processes, forms and sub-areas, in particular forming part of the morphological changes (e.g. Lane et al., 2003; Twenty-five years of human-oriented body of work that is being Brasington et al., 2012). All of these new data sets progress in physical undertaken in relation to the main four sub- have fuelled a revolution in the exploration of the areas of physical geography. physical geography of the Earth’s surface since geography: a (iii) With the advent of enormous quantities of 1990, with remote sensing techniques allowing personal view of its remotely sensed data and methods devised to research to extend to other planets. In relation to antecedents and analyse and synthesise such data sets, my research interests concerning hydrological, trajectory including GIS, physical geographers are working fluvial geomorphological and plant ecological at increasing spatial scales (particularly processes, Carbonneau and Piégay (2012) and Landscape and Regional) as well as Bizzi et al. (2016) provide recent revues of the incorporating data from new sensors and types of remotely-sensed data that are available instruments. Nevertheless, proximate ground and their potential for extracting measurements remain important, not least hydrogeomorphological characteristics of because they serve to calibrate remotely catchments, floodplains and rivers. By combining sensed data. Furthermore, methods to analyse these data sets with information from more historical and longer-term changes remain traditional sources (such as aerial photography and crucial to documenting trajectories of proximate ground measurements), it is becoming environmental changes. possible to investigate physical forms and (iv) Different modelling approaches are being processes across global to patch scales and to adopted, and physical geographers are starting generate new (often interdisciplinary) perspectives to conduct truly experimental work to support on their interactions (e.g. Bertoldi et al., 2011a,b). modelling. Experimental work is beginning to This raises the potential to extract signatures of emerge as a focus in field and laboratory work, processes at multiple spatial scales to support including large experiments in laboratory understanding of the penetration of processes flumes. across landscapes (e.g. Gurnell et al., 2016a). (v) Not only are physical geographers investigating Nevertheless, fieldwork remains an essential a wide variety of natural environments, but also, element in developing understanding of processes over the last 25 years, investigations have and their relationship with forms, not only because become more applied and human-oriented. of the requirement for proximate measurements to Indeed, the urban environment and agricultural calibrate remotely-sensed data sets, but also landscapes have become central to much because fieldwork allows direct observation of research. The early emergence of papers that phenomena and the potential to develop explicitly include aspects of social science understanding from field measurements and further indicates an increasing human-oriented observations through inductive reasoning. As noted focus. by Church: ‘Recent technological developments have Illustrations of the trends enhanced our ability to comprehend the landscape system, but the effort will surely identified from content require comprehensive field experience if we are analysis to regain the whole landscape view of the early To underpin and illustrate the trends (iii), (iv) and (v) field workers’ (2013, p. 184). identified through the content analysis, this section considers them in relation to my areas of research For simplicity, I illustrate trend (iv) in relation to one interest: the hydrology, geomorphology and plant area of hydrogeomorphology that has attracted ecology of river systems. enormous recent attention: the importance of vegetation as a third control with water and In relation to trend (iii), and following the arrival of sediment on the morphodynamics of river and satellite remote sensing in the 1980s, data sets of floodplain environments. This area of research has increasing temporal, spatial and spectral resolution benefitted greatly from the new data sources have become available over the last 25 years. described in the previous paragraph and builds on Complementing data sets captured mainly from research in the 1980s on large (mainly dead) wood aircraft and satellites have been major advances in within fluvial systems. In the last 25 years, mutual the precision and temporal resolution of proximate interactions and feedbacks among living vegetation process measurements (Kondolf and Piégay, and fluvial processes have been recognised, 2016). Indeed, ‘remote’ and ‘proximate’ revealing the key, active role of vegetation in measurements have converged at fine to controlling and stabilising landform development. 131 intermediate scales to produce extremely high This work is part of a wider, emerging focus within Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 geomorphology: ‘the search for a topographic 2005; Rinaldi et al., 2015). This work is Twenty-five years of signature of life’ (Dietrich and Perron, 2006), which complemented by applied research establishing the progress in physical requires multi-method, multi-scale research, impacts of changing climate, land cover and incorporating expertise from cognate disciplines. management on water resources (e.g. Huntington, geography: a Over the last 25 years, both conceptual 2006; Kundzewicz et al., 2007); on river flow personal view of its understanding and modelling have advanced regimes and extremes (e.g. Vörösmarty et al., antecedents and dramatically, building on important early work by, for 2010; Wilby and Keenan, 2012); on river trajectory example, Gregory et al. (1991) and Kirkby (1995). morphodynamics and ecology (e.g. Rood et al., Advances in this area have been extremely rapid 2005; Poff et al., 2006; Monk et al., 2008); on the and have been directed at all spatial scales from nature and maintenance of river ecosystem patch to landscape (for a recent review see Solari services (Costanza et al., 2017); and on the overall et al., 2016). Perhaps the most exciting dimension health and resilience of rivers in an increasingly of this research is that scientists are combining human-modified world (Meyer, 1997; Naimanet al., conceptual and mechanistic models, laboratory and 2002; Chapin et al., 2009). field experiments, and empirical field observations in their investigations. This multi-pronged approach has resulted in the development of models International applicable to entire landscapes (e.g. Stewart et al., diversification, professional 2014), river corridors (e.g. Camporeale and Ridolfi, 2010; Bertoldi et al., 2015; Gurnell et al., 2016b; physical geographers and van Oorshot et al., 2016), river channels (e.g. citizen science Murray and Paola, 2003; Braudrick et al., 2009; To conclude my evaluation of the last 25 years, I Eaton and Giles, 2009; Parker et al., 2011), river will highlight three further themes that I believe banks (Pollen and Simon, 2005; Polvi et al., 2014) have come to characterise physical geography. and soil patches (De Baets et al., 2008). While Many of the papers cited in the previous section much of this research is concerned with timescales bear witness to the fact that international groups of from days to decades, there is a fascinating scientists are increasingly tackling research emerging focus on longer timescales, recognising problems in physical geography and related the fact that vegetation has probably been a disciplines. The emergence over recent decades of significant river geomorphological control factor major international research collaborations is since the Late Silurian (Corenblit et al., 2015). strengthening the profile of physical geography and is supporting the participation of physical Building on early work in the 1990s, applied geographers within multidisciplinary endeavours. physical geography research is another strongly Although this appears to be a global phenomenon, emerging theme (trend (v)). Recent reviews within Europe since the 1980s the trend has been consider the physical geography (Ellis, 2017), amplified by the availability of significant biogeography (Young, 2016) and geomorphology international funds. These funds have enabled (Brown et al., 2017) of the ‘Anthropocene’: the physical geography researchers to participate in not recent and current period during which human only multidisciplinary, but also multicultural influence on the Earth dominates over natural research investigations of both fundamental and processes. Applied physical geography research applied issues at a continental scale. Furthermore, seeks to understand direct and indirect human the increasing ease of international travel allows impacts and feedbacks within environmental teams of scientists to address issues that are systems, enabling this knowledge to be particularly pressing in certain biogeographical incorporated into improved management and regions regardless of their geographical proximity to restoration activities. In my area of interest, the the researchers’ home laboratories. physical and ecological functioning of particular human-dominated landscapes, such as urban As previously discussed, there has been a marked (Gurnell et al., 2007) and cultivated (Morgan et al., trend towards applied research that dates back to 1998; Poesen et al., 2003) areas, and the the 1970s. However, demonstrable environmental impacts of both alien (e.g. Corenblit ‘professionalisation’ of physical geography is a et al., 2014; Perkins et al., 2016) and reintroduced more recent phenomenon. The Royal Geographical species (Puttock et al., 2016) are just some of the Society has responded to this with the many applied topics receiving the attention of development of a ‘Chartered Geographer’ physical geographers. Fluvial geomorphological accreditation, which is awarded to those ‘with approaches are being developed across the world competence, experience and professionalism in the for the characterisation, assessment and use of geographical knowledge, understanding and 132 management of rivers (e.g. Brierley and Fryirs, skills in the workplace’ (RGS, 2016). For physical © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 geographers, it is possible to seek accreditation as a C. Geog (Geomorph) indicating that the Concluding remarks The last 25 years have seen the discipline of Twenty-five years of qualification specifically applies to the field of physical geography emerge not only as an progress in physical geomorphology. In my area of expertise, much of important framework for fundamental scientific this professionalisation can be linked to geography: a research, but also as central to environmental environmental directives of the European Union, personal view of its assessment, management and rehabilitation. While particularly its Water Framework (2000) and Floods many of the elements of current activity can be antecedents and (2004) Directives. Prior to 1990, few physical traced back to earlier decades, the pace of trajectory geographers were working in environmental expansion, diversification, integration and consultancy, government environmental agencies or application is remarkable. environmental non-governmental organisations, but the opportunities to work in ‘hydromorphology’ The discipline is increasingly strong and integrated (hydrology and fluvial geomorphology) are now and is contributing to major multidisciplinary outstripping the supply of suitably-qualified people. research programmes. We have moved from This is generating a prominent profile for the speculating on how landscapes function, to discipline and the satisfaction that physical measuring and monitoring how they function with geographers are really ‘making a difference’. increasing accuracy and resolution. Now as we

couple these measurements with models based on A final, fascinating trend is the very recent increasingly sophisticated multidisciplinary emergence of ‘citizen science’. The enormous data understanding, we enter an era of major potential sets that can be generated by volunteers (Walker et breakthroughs. The most pressing research al., 2016) provide a potentially revolutionary challenge is to develop enhanced ways of contribution to understanding environmental incorporating longer timescales to truly grasp how issues, problems and processes (Roberts, 2016), landscapes develop in all four dimensions. although the quality of such data needs to be Furthermore, the discipline is becoming more carefully evaluated and managed (Gollan et al., applied, professional and ‘relevant’. It is spawning 2012; Hadj-Hammou et al., 2017). In my area of a new generation of professional physical interest, enthusiastic, active, volunteer scientists geographers tackling mounting real-world are participating in data gathering, assimilation and challenges and, at the same time, it is engaging interpretation to contribute to the assessment, with citizen scientists to gain more comprehensive conservation and management of rivers (Smith et spatial and temporal monitoring of environmental al., 2014; Huddart et al., 2016). Litter, including systems and to provide early warnings of where microplastics, is the focus of numerous citizen problems are arising. science surveys (e.g. Rech et al., 2015; Bosker et al., 2017; Vincent et al., 2017). Freshwater Based on these foundations, the future looks bright environment survey techniques have been for the discipline of physical geography, but developed specifically for volunteers to assess arguably equally exciting are the strong pointers water quality, through either direct (e.g. Loiselle, towards links with human geographers and other 2016; Bannatyne et al., 2017) or indirect, social and economic scientists (Richards and biologically-based (Di Fiore and Fitch, 2016; Kelly Clifford, 2008; Goudie, 2017). Perhaps the et al., 2016) assessment methods. A variety of upcoming decades will see the emergence of species data are being collected including applied geography as an important integrating information on problem species and issues, such theme for geography as a whole? as phytoplankton blooms (Castilla et al., 2015). Citizen science data sets contribute to both catchment (Starkey et al., 2017) and reach scale Acknowledgements characterisation and physical assessment (e.g. This paper is dedicated to the memory of my good Shuker et al., 2017). Physical geographers are friend and research colleague of many decades, widely involved in driving these activities, but Geoffrey Petts, who died on 11 August 2018. perhaps the most exciting area for future research Despite his declining health, Geoff generously and innovation is in the analysis of these inherently contributed his time and wisdom in long geographical data sets. Creative analysis of vast discussions that have significantly enhanced this volunteer data sets, integrated with the more article. Although the opinions expressed are my spatially limited data sets captured by professional own, I should also like to acknowledge many other river managers, presents a significant challenge, invaluable discussions with so many colleagues but the rewards include enhanced monitoring, during its preparation. characterisation, modelling and understanding of 133 environmental systems. Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 References river meandering, discharge stochasticity and riparian vegetation’, Journal of Hydrology, 382, pp. 138–44. Twenty-five years of (excluding those listed in Figure 1) Carbonneau, P.E. and Piégay, H. (2012) Fluvial Remote progress in physical Appleby, P.G. and Oldfield, F. (1978) ‘The calculation of Sensing for Science and Management. 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Geographies of mobility: a brief introduction

established mobility as a key idea in human Geographies of geography. Mobility is now considered a fundamental concept of the discipline, alongside those that may more readily come to mind, such as mobility: a brief space and place (Cresswell, 2008a). Consequently, it is now more vital than ever for students of geography to understand and engage with mobility. introduction All corners of human geography have been animated by issues of movement and mobility, and studying geography without being confronted with Simon Cook issues of mobility would be very difficult, if not impossible. It is the intention of this article, therefore, to introduce readers to some of the ways in which mobility has been approached, researched and understood within geography. In doing so, I ABSTRACT: This article introduces readers to the hope to provide a solid grounding in one of the concept of mobility and some recent ways in which it discipline’s key concepts. The article begins by has been approached in geography. In doing so, it demonstrating the centrality of movement to how aims to encourage a meaningful engagement with we live our lives, and the ways it both underpins the ideas and issues of mobility as well as an and intertwines with some of the geographical appreciation of the breadth of mobilities research. processes that make up life on Earth. This is Although movement has long been a concern of followed by a discussion of how mobility as a geographers, in studies of transport, tourism and geographical concept has evolved and the migration for example, the conceptual emphasis on mobilities turn that has accompanied it. I then mobility is a more recent and important development highlight the crucial relational nature of mobility to within the discipline. As such, this article further demonstrate the significance of ideas and demonstrates the centrality of movement and issues of mobility for contemporary geography and mobility not only to geography, but also to some of contemporary life. society’s most pressing challenges and to the mundane happenings of everyday life. The article begins by demonstrating this centrality of movement Movement everywhere to contemporary life, before charting the conceptual Movement is an inescapable and fundamental fact development of the mobilities turn, and the need to of life – it underpins the extraordinary and the understand mobility as relational. Relatable everyday. Its intricate and never-ending links with examples are used throughout to show mobilities in geography are something we take for granted each action and highlight the significance of ideas and day. Often, only when mobility is disrupted do we issues of mobility for contemporary geography. stop to consider our perpetual motion. Spending just a minute, trying to peel away that taken-for- grantedness can reveal some of the complex, Introduction remarkable and challenging ways in which our lives Geography is moving. In fact, ‘the entire world are entangled with mobility. seems to be on the move’ (Sheller and Urry, 2006, p. 207) and over the last two decades, an Think about what has happened so far today to get influential body of work has developed within you here. What forms of movement have you geography interested in understanding this experienced and encountered that have enabled movement, the importance of mobility and in you to be reading this article right now? Make a list extending our understanding of mobility. The impact or write it as prose, whichever you prefer. Here is of this work has been significant enough that it has my attempt: 137 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

‘I am currently writing this on a train, travelling the slightly ahead of time so take the opportunity to Geographies of 112 miles from Birmingham Snow Hill Station to nip to the toilet. Doing so, requires even more mobility: a brief London Marylebone Station. My movements have movement. There are internal bodily movements (I been shaped by the scheduling of train timetables will let you use your imagination), the movement introduction and enabled by the complex, constant of clean water into the building, which ultimately maintenance, monitoring and repair work required helps to move the waste out. Movements of water to keeping the system moving over the 100+ and air follow as I wash and dry my hands. years of this line. As these words are being typed, I am somewhere in the north Oxfordshire I am taking this train at the end of my first week countryside, sharing the carriage with long- at Birmingham City University. For the time being distance commuters, weekend-away travellers, however, I still live in London where I have been and shoppers heading to Bicester Village – a based for the last four years. This journey is a shopping outlet centre stocking products migration, an internal economic migration that I resourced, made and marketed all over the world, will make at either end of the week. This is and distributed by ships, planes and other complicated a little, however, as this journey is vehicles. We are not just sitting waiting to be also a homecoming. While living in London, I am delivered to our destinations however. We are from Solihull, a town bordering Birmingham on its filling the space of the carriage – the seats, the south-east edge. During the week, I am living with tables, the racks, the aisles – with stuff and my mum and this makes me part of the so-called activities. I can see book-readers, film-watchers, ‘Boomerang Generation’. I am a millennial who phone-call-makers, dinner-eaters, music-listeners, left home for educational and economic reasons, Photo: Bryan Ledgard window-gazers and nap-takers. I am one of many moved to a different place and experienced living utilising the time to get some work done. I independently, only to return to my family home connect to the train’s Wi-fi in order to send an once again. I have been away for seven years and email, an act that transmits data from my laptop soon will be living full-time back with my parents. via my email provider’s server in Blueridge, The current high cost of renting and poor Virginia, USA, to my recipient’s email provider’s prospects of home-owning in London has made it server, and finally to my recipient’s laptop, back in financially impossible to stay in London long-term. Birmingham. These are conditions created by the coming together of a huge array of factors: foreign The email is a reply to my colleague, who asked if investment in the London housing market and the I made the train. Public transport connections distribution of graduate-level jobs in the UK are between my university and the train station are just two examples. These flows of people and not great so I opted to use my scooter (an adult- capital into London are consequently fuelling the sized one) to cover the distance quickly. Unlike a high demand for housing and the subsequent bike, my scooter can fold up and be stored easily inflation of prices. on the train. My scooter is of Swiss design but powered by me. The blood, oxygen and electric My Friday night train journey from Birmingham to signals that course around my body allow my London is part of these multiple mobilities.’ limbs to move and propel me forward. I arrive

As you can see, analysing one seemingly simple This example demonstrates the centrality of journey from Birmingham to London reveals a vast movement to contemporary life. Simply, mobility is array of movements and mobilities with which it is everywhere and is an essential component of life. It entangled. These are mobilities close by and far is, however, only recently that geographers have away; present day, historic and of the future; thought more conceptually about mobility and the spanning the smallest and largest scales; of following section explores some of this thinking. different durations, of different frequencies and differing rhythms. They are concerned with the The mobilities turn movements of people, things, data, ideas; and Despite the above statement, it would not be fair or movements relating to a whole host of different correct to claim that geography has only just processes, from education, employment, leisure discovered mobility. In fact, geography has a very and health to international trade, long history of researching all forms of movement, telecommunications, sanitation and bodily some of which I am sure you have already studied functioning. Go back and look at the list you made. over the course of your geography education. What different scales, processes and types of Consider the work you may have already done 138 movement have you encountered? around migration, rivers, tourism, transport, coasts, © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 urban settlements, glaciers and trade. Movement is constellations of power, the creation of identities at the heart of all these topics and they have all and the microgeographies of everyday life’ Geographies of been long studied within geography. (Cresswell, 2011, p. 551). The growing recognition of mobility has also challenged geographers to mobility: a brief This said, it would be fair to claim that the nature think about the nature of mobility itself and to introduction and intensity of more recent engagements with attempt to theorise it (more on that below). mobility in geography are indeed different from these more longstanding interests in movement. The second key attribute that distinguishes current The past two decades have witnessed mobility geographical work on mobility is an expanding and studies expand considerably as a scholarly field, intensifying engagement with it. This is, in part, a with academics from disciplines across the social response to these newer conceptual approaches to sciences, arts and humanities becoming enthused mobility, as well as a response to the changing by issues of movement and orientating their work mobility of the contemporary world. For example, in to attend to the questions posed by the developing the 54 years from 1952 to 2016 the UK has understandings of mobility. This growing orientation witnessed a ~1000% increase in passenger has been termed the mobilities turn (Cresswell, kilometres travelled by car, van and taxi. In 2016, 2011). these totalled 668,000,000,000km (Department for Transport, 2017). Similarly, the number of While it is easy to overstate the differences with people arriving and departing the UK by air has earlier work, there are perhaps three key attributes almost tripled since 1991, standing at 268 million that set more recent mobility work apart from passengers in 2016 (Department for Transport, previous geographical work on movement. First, is 2017). There is a danger here, however, in seeing the perception that movement is a centrally all mobile flows as increasing. While these important geographical agent in its own right – statistics do represent an increase in some mobile something that is productive of places, social flows, they also mask the decreasing and changing relations and phenomena. Prior to this, the nature of others. For example, the sight of people dominant thought within geography considered travelling around cities on horses, or using boats mobility as somehow in-between places, as merely for transport is much less common than it once producing geographies elsewhere, devoid of its own was. Neither does the increasing use of effects (Crang, 2002). The growing recognition of mechanised transport necessarily result in the the importance of mobility, however, altered this speeding up of mobile flows. Urban commuting, for perception and ushered in a more conceptual example, has not sped up since the advent of approach to the study of mobility within geography. mass car use. Rather, the congestion this has Mobility is now seen as a vital component in introduced to cities has meant that journey speeds theories about space, place and the human world have remained about the same (Pooley et al., (Massey, 2005), and lies ‘at the center of 2005). Mobilities are concerned with the movements of people, things, data, ideas; and movements relating to a whole host of different processes, from education, employment, leisure and health to international trade, telecommunications, sanitation and bodily functioning. Photo: Bryan Ledgard

139 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 Responding to these changes, geographers are to variously trace, track, keep-up and move-along Geographies of studying the practices, spaces and subjects of with the phenomena being researched. This mobility more broadly and intensely than ever development is based on the argument that spatial mobility: a brief before. There are now studies exploring all sorts of and temporal proximity brings methodological value introduction mobilities. These include the human powered, such to a study (Cook et al., 2016b) and that traditional as walking (Middleton, 2010), running (Cook et al., methods somehow deal poorly with the nature of 2016a) and cycling (Spinney, 2009); the mobile phenomena. Although the necessity of mechanically powered, such as trains (Bissell, these method is still being debated (Merriman, 2009), cars (Merriman, 2009) and aeroplanes (Lin, 2014), it has not stalled their expansion. Mobile 2015); as well as the mobilities of data (Kitchin video ethnography (Spinney, 2011; Simpson, and Dodge, 2011), animals (Law, 2006), warfare 2014), go-along interviews (Anderson, 2004; Finlay (Merriman et al., 2017), disease (Lavau, 2014), and Bowman, 2017), mobile ethnography products (Cook, 2004), ideas (Temenos and (Kusenbach, 2003; Novoa, 2015), GPS tracking McCann, 2013) and more (see Adey et al., 2014). (Bell et al., 2015; Merchant, 2017), photo- John Urry (2007) developed a notable typology to elicitation (Middleton, 2010), phone-tracking (Taylor, make sense of the wide variety of mobilities being 2016) and autoethnography (Larsen, 2014) among studied. He argued that five different types of others have all become tools more frequently mobilities underpin the processes of contemporary incorporated into the geographer’s toolkit over societies and, to some extent, all mobility studies recent years. Such methods represent a big relate to one of the following: difference in how mobilities had previously been • the movement of people (corporeal mobility) researched and an innovation in how we might • the physical movement of objects understand mobility. (For more on mobile methods • imaginative travel (such as via the television) see Ricketts Hein et al., 2008; Watts and Urry, • virtual travel (such as through the internet) 2008; Büscher and Urry, 2009; Büscher et al., • communicative travel (such as telephone 2010; D’Andrea et al., 2011; Fincham et al., 2010; conversations). Harada and Waitt, 2013; Merriman, 2014; Murray and Upstone, 2014; Spinney, 2015.) The third key attribute that distinguishes current geographical work on mobility is a methodological The mobilities turn is now well-established and has one. The increased attention to mobility has been spawned at least three academic journals met by a similar proliferation in methods that seek dedicated to mobilities research (Mobilities, Applied to move with the subjects they are studying. These Mobilities and Transfers), one interdisciplinary have become known as mobile methods – aiming handbook (Adey et al., 2014), two geographical

The increasing use of mechanised transport does not necessarily result in the speeding up of mobile flows, as traffic congestion in New York City demonstrates. Photo: Bryan Ledgard

140 © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 textbooks (Adey, 2017; Cresswell and Merriman, revealing the textures and contexts of that journey. 2011), multiple research organisations/centres all It asks how movement is lived, is felt, is Geographies of over the world and a wealth of review articles meaningful, is political, is powerful; what affects it (these are great for grasping the breadth and depth and what its effects are. As an analytical concept, mobility: a brief of mobilities research – see Cresswell, 2011, mobility is anything but abstract, it is a meaningful introduction 2012, 2014; Falconbridge and Hui, 2016; Hannam and power-laden phenomenon full of social, cultural et al., 2006; Kwan and Schwanen, 2016; Merriman, and political context. 2015, 2016, 2017; Sheller, 2011, 2017; Sheller and Urry, 2006, 2016; Vannini, 2010). However, An example might be useful to illustrate this alongside this institutional imprint, the mobilities difference. Imagine you are in a car on the way to turn has had a marked impact beyond academia, college or university with friends. If we were to as the understandings of mobilities research are analyse this through the lens of movement, we may being adopted and implemented by governments, want to consider the push-pull factors involved in policy makers, planners and other this journey. Here, education is motivating the stakeholders/practitioners. Mobilities research is journey to take place. We may also analyse the being applied to and helping to improve things in departure and arrival locations (your house and the ‘real world’ too. college/university), the route taken, the people undertaking the journey, the distance, the speed at which it was done, and the time of day the journey Movement and mobility took place. We may then want to compare these to Thus far, I have used ‘mobility’ interchangeably with other movement patterns to understand how this the term ‘movement’, whereas the key conceptual journey fits in with the wider transport flows. This is distinction between these two terms marks an understanding movement abstractly. important foundation of mobilities research.

The geographer Tim Cresswell (2001, 2006, 2010) While these attributes would still be of interest if sought to explain this analytical distinction we were to analyse this journey through the lens of throughout a series of influential works. He asks us mobility, we would also seek to understand the to imagine a line, connecting Point A with Point B. wider context of the journey and the ways in which This line represents a journey from one place to it was meaningful. For example, we may understand another – perhaps the trajectory of a passenger, for automobility (the practice of car-driving) as example. Understanding this line with an interest in freedom. A freedom to go where we want to, when movement is explained by trying to understand the we want to. A freedom to be in control of our own motivations for this journey, accounts of the relative movement, no longer reliant on parents or public merits of departure and arrival points, the push-pull transport. In this journey, the car itself doubles-up factors (Spinney, 2009), and, perhaps, some basic as a space for socialisation, providing an information about that connecting line (such as alternative space for hanging out (Merriman, distance, duration, route, speed, etc.). In this way, 2009). These beyond-abstract functions of driving movement is seen as a function in abstract space. often lead us to developing strong attachment to It seeks to tell us about the simple getting from our cars. They become our spaces; places where Point A to Point B of that passenger and little about we feel safe, where we belong, and that represent the actual movement itself: little about how that us to the wider world (Lumsden, 2013). They are line was experienced by the passenger, about what also spaces of experience and emotion. For some, politics produced that line, about what power driving is a thrilling and exhilarating experience. The relations shaped that experience, and about the sense of speed, the vibrations of the engine and ways in which that journey was meaningful. As an the noise of the machinery all combine to produce analytical concept, movement is devoid of meaning, an intoxicating experience. For others, driving can history, ideology or social, cultural and political be anxiety-producing event – an experience riddled context associated with the line connecting Point A with nerves, fear and stress. and Point B. Movement is simply an act of displacement that allows things to get from one The insights that ‘movement’ and ‘mobility’ location to another – a measurable and mappable perspectives offer into understanding this journey phenomenon. are both important and interesting, they simply tell

us different things about it. Proponents of mobility Mobility, on the other hand, understands that argue the insights into the meanings and moving between Point A and Point B is rarely ever experiences of mobility are essential for just movement. Rather it is something viewed as understanding any mobility – automobility in our being deeply imbued with meaning. Mobility is case. They help us understand why and how we interested in bringing that line to life and in 141 drive our cars, how we become attached to them, Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 and how we may be able to intervene to create previously unknown insights, connections and Geographies of more sustainable transport systems. It is not the understandings about mobility. Indeed, as Shaw case that any of these approaches are better in and Docherty (2014) argue, the getting: mobility: a brief understanding the mobile world, they simply ask ‘from anywhere to anywhere in any introduction different questions of it and approach it from circumstances is likely to be most insightful and different perspectives. Indeed, many mobility accomplished if it is grounded in a good scholars recognise a continuum between the understanding of all three of Cresswell’s movement and mobility perspectives and seek to triumvirate of movement, experience and work across this (Shaw and Hesse, 2010; Shaw representation’ (p. 32). and Sidaway, 2011). This is possibly best conceptualised in Tim Cresswell’s theorisation of human mobility, which we will look at now. Relational mobility Finally, in our brief tour of mobility geographies, we

turn to considering how movement is political, Holistic mobility – a powerful and meaningful as a geographical agent by considering it as relational. The increasing geographical approach to engagement with mobility over recent decades human mobility could lead to seeing everything as mobile. To some Tim Cresswell (2001, 2006, 2010) developed an extent, everything is moving. Even something that analytical framework that brings various traditions seems static, like a building, is teeming with of studying mobility together in a more holistic movement. Flows of people, objects, water, approach. This has become influential within electricity and data continually move in and out of geography and applied to a huge range of human it, and the building itself is designed to give and mobilities, from the mundane movement of daily sway with the elements, as well as being constantly joggers (Cook et al., 2016c) to the life-affecting eroded, albeit on a very slow timescale. Yet, evacuation mobilities following Hurricane Katrina understanding everything as mobile in this way, (Cresswell, 2008b). This approach rests on thinking ultimately diminishes the analytical power of about mobilities as produced. mobility. As Peter Adey (2006) argues, if mobility is everything then it is nothing. Therefore, we must Cresswell proposes that the production of holistic understand how mobility is relational and this idea mobility consists of the interweaving of three has emerged at the heart of mobility research. aspects of mobility — movement, representation By relational, we mean that mobility is a relation. It and experience. Each aspect represents a different connects things together in ways that serve to unite way of approaching mobility, the combination of and link as well as differentiate and discriminate. which results in deeper connected understandings Mobility can bring places closer together as well as of mobile practices. Here, movement concerns the make others seem further apart. It can bring some brute facts of getting from one place to another and people together while separating others, as well as are the raw material for the production of helping to communicate meanings, significance, mobilities. It is interested in who moved, how they power and ideas. Consider a trip by aeroplane from moved, where they moved, how quickly they moved Johannesburg in South Africa to London in the UK. and so on. Representation is concerned with the Two places, 9080km (5642 miles) apart, brought meanings given to mobility and how they become closer together through flight. What was once a meaningful. These meanings can be individually 10+ days’ journey by boat, is now only 11 hours 20 held or shared and are found in sources ranging minutes by aeroplane (for those who can afford it). from policy, television, radio, adverts, books, art Meanwhile, despite being spatially closer to and more. They demonstrate that mobility is (at Johannesburg than London (7252km/4506 miles least partially) produced by the way we talk about closer in fact), Orupembe in Namibia is temporally them. Finally, experience attends to the fact that further away, taking longer to travel to from human mobility is a practiced mobility – it is Johannesburg than it does to fly from Johannesburg something enacted, embodied and lived. to London. The flight itself may function to connect Experience is interested in how mobility actually families and friends, both during the flight and on happens, what it feels like to do it, what emotions it arrival, yet it also serves to separate. Communities conjures up, how it involves our bodies and the surrounding the airports in London and interactions we have with others. Johannesburg find themselves cleaved apart by an impenetrable airport city: passengers on the flight This framework works across the movement- are segregated by class and ability to pay; they are mobility continuum by entwining various also separated from those for whom the aeroplane 142 approaches to the study of movement and can offer is a site of work; and from any stowaways in the © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 hold, risking death in the hopes of a better life. differentiates people’s mobility and mobile This demonstrates that, along with passengers experiences. These are ideas developed further in Geographies of and cargo, this flight also transports meanings, Doreen Massey’s notion of power geometries ideas and power too. (1993) and Tim Cresswell’s politics of mobility mobility: a brief (2010). Ultimately, it is crucial to consider mobility introduction Though important in creating relations between as in-relation and linked to everything else. Any people and places, it is important to remember movement, or lack of it, has wide-ranging effects that mobility is also a relation itself. Mobility is a and is affected by a huge variety of things. valuable resource in society, but one that is Therefore, we should always consider mobility, not accessed and experienced differently. A thing’s in isolation, but in relation to someone or ability to move, how it moves, the speed at which it something else (Adey, 2017). moves, the ease of that movement and the experience of that movement all provide insights into that thing’s status in society. As a simple Conclusion This short article has offered a concise yet critical example, consider the different connotations introduction to a major concept within geography, attached to travel by bus and private jet. One is that of mobility. Throughout your geographical often nicknamed the ‘loser cruiser’ (Fitt, 2018)and studies, it is inevitable that you will come across is associated with slow, uncomfortable but cheap issues of mobility and this article has travel over relatively shorter distances, for which demonstrated the centrality of that movement to you must frequently wait. The other offers almost geography, to social and spatial theories, and to seamless global travel with luxurious comfort, the processes of contemporary life. This unparalleled speed, ultimate flexibility and is recognition has led, over the last two decades, to associated with the rich and famous (Spence, an increasing theorisation of and attention to 2014). These modes of mobility highlight the mobility, grounded upon the notion of mobility as a varying access to, ease of and experience of meaningful, lived and contextualised phenomenon, mobility that make it function as social relation and productive of places, people and politics. Along work to differentiate in society. with the emergence of mobile methods, these

aspects of mobility studies demarcate it from In these ways (and many more) mobility is an longer traditions of studying movement within important geographical relation and agent, one geography, but this difference is also easy to productive of power, places, peoples, justices, overstate. Therefore, the idea of a movement- injustices and connections. Mobility is much more mobility continuum was introduced, along with Tim than an abstract functioning, it is inherently Cresswell’s (2006) production of mobilities, as one political in the ways it permits, restricts and Luxurious comfort, unparalleled speed and ultimate flexibility for those who can afford to use the Emirates’ Airbus 319 Luxury Private Jet. Photo: Roderick Eime (reproduced under licence CC BY 2.0).

143 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 approach that seeks to work across this subjectivities’ in Koch, N. (ed) Critical Geographies of continuum. Finally, the idea of mobility as relational Sport: Space, power and sport in global perspective. Geographies of Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 157–72. was proposed, which seeks to understand mobility Cook, S., Davidson, A., Stratford, E., Middleton, J., mobility: a brief as always in relation to someone or something Plyushteva, A., Fitt, H., Cranston, S., Simpson, P., introduction else, and in doing so, helping to connect/ Delaney, H., Evans, K., Jones, A., Kershaw, J., Williams, differentiate people and places and ultimately N., Bissell, D., Duncan, T., Sengers, F., Elvy, J. and Wilmott, C. (2016b) ‘Co-producing mobilities: negotiating leads to an appreciation of the power and politics geographical knowledge in a conference session on the bound up in mobility and immobility. move’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 40, 3, pp. 340–74. This all demonstrates the importance of mobility Cook, S., Shaw, J. and Simpson, P. (2016c) ‘Jography: exploring meanings, experiences and spatialities of for the contemporary world, and for geographers. recreational road-running’, Mobilities, 11, 5, pp. 744–69. The development of mobility geographies has been Crang, M. (2002) ‘Between places: producing hubs, flows, sustained and wide-ranging with mobility now and networks’, Environment and Planning A, 3, 4, pp. considered as one of the fundamental concepts of 4569–74. Cresswell, T. (2001) ‘The production of mobilities’, New the discipline. This article has introduced readers Formations, 43, pp. 11–25. to the underlying ideas of mobility studies, the key Cresswell, T. (2006) On the Move: Mobility in the modern questions it seeks to ask, and the nature of the Western world. Abingdon: Routledge. Cresswell, T. (2008a) ‘Place: encountering geography as mobilities research. It is only intended as a brief philosophy’, Geography, 93, 3, pp. 132–9. introduction however and is far from detailed. Cresswell, T. (2008b) ‘Understanding mobility holistically: Rather the article serves as a signpost to some of the case of Hurricane Katrina’ in Bergmann, S. and the big ideas and thinkers involved with mobilities Sager, T. (eds) The Ethics of Mobilities: Rethinking place, exclusion, freedom and environment. Aldershot: Ashgate, and should be used a springboard to explore pp. 129–40. further and to follow your curiosity. The references Cresswell, T. (2010) ‘Towards a politics of mobility’, listed below are a very good place to start. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28, 1, pp. 17–31. Cresswell, T. (2011) ‘Mobilities I: catching up’, Progress in Acknowledgements Human Geography, 35, 4, pp. 550–8. I am very grateful to Benjamin Newman and an Cresswell, T. (2012)’Mobilities II: still’, Progress in Human Geography, 36, 5, pp. 645–53. anonymous reviewer whose comments upon earlier Cresswell, T. (2014) ‘Mobilities III: moving on’, Progress in versions of this article have been invaluable in Human Geography, 38, 5, pp. 712–21. helping to sharpen and deepen its arguments. Cresswell, T. and Merriman, P. (eds) (2011) Geographies of Thanks also to Richard Yarwood for the invitation Mobilities: Practices, spaces, subjects. Aldershot: Ashgate. to submit this to Geography and for his patient D’Andrea, A., Ciolfi, L. and Gray, B. (2011) ‘Methodological editorship. Any errors, as always, remain my challenges and innovations in mobilities research’, responsibility. Mobilities, 6, 2, pp. 149–60. Department for Transport (2017) Transport Statistics Great Britain 2017. Available at References www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/atta Adey, P. (2006) ‘If mobility is everything then it is nothing: chment_data/file/664323/tsgb-2017-print-ready- towards a relational politics of (im)mobilities’, Mobilities, version.pdf (last accessed 26/3/2018). 1, 1, pp. 75–94. Faulconbridge, J. and Hui, A. (2016) ‘Traces of a mobile Adey, P. (2017) Mobility (second edition). Abingdon: field: ten years of mobilities research’, Mobilities, 11, 1, Routledge. pp. 1–14. Adey, P., Bissell, D., Hannam, K., Merriman, P. and Sheller, Fincham, B., McGuinness, M. and Murray, L. (eds) (2010) M. (eds) (2014) The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities. Mobile Methodologies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Abingdon: Routledge. Finlay, J.M. and Bowman, J.A. (2017) ‘Geographies on the Anderson, J. (2004) ‘Talking whilst walking: a geographical move: a practical and theoretical approach to the mobile archaeology of knowledge’, Area, 36, 3, pp. 254–61. interview’, The Professional Geographer, 69, 2, pp. 263– Bell, S.L., Phoenix, C., Lovell, R. and Wheeler, B.W. (2015) 74. ‘Using GPS and geo-narratives: a methodological Fitt, H. (2018) ‘Habitus and the loser cruiser: how low approach for understanding and situating everyday status deters bus use in a geographically limited field’, green space encounters’, Area, 47, 1, pp. 88–96. Journal of Transport Geography, 70, pp. 228–33. Bissell, D. (2009) ‘Conceptualising differently-mobile Hannam, K., Sheller, M. and Urry, J. (2006) ‘Editorial: passengers: geographies of everyday encumbrance in Mobilities, immobilities and moorings’, Mobilities, 1, 1, the railway station’, Social and Cultural Geography, 10, pp. 1–22. 2, pp. 173–95. Harada, T. and Waitt, G. (2013) ‘Researching transport Büscher, M. and Urry, J. (2009) ‘Mobile methods and the choices: the possibilities of “mobile methodologies” to empirical’, European Journal of Social Theory, 12, 1, pp. study life-on-the-move’, Geographical Research, 51, 2, 99–116. pp. 145–52. Büscher, M., Urry, J. and Witchger, K. (eds) (2010) Mobile Kitchin, R. and Dodge, M. (2011) Code/Space: Software Methods. Abingdon: Routledge. and everyday life. London: The MIT Press. Cook, I. (2004) ‘Follow the thing: papaya’, Antipode, 36, 4, Kusenbach, M. (2003) ‘Street phenomenology: the go- pp. 642–64. along as ethnographic research tool’, Ethnography, 4, 144 Cook, S., Shaw, J. and Simpson, P. (2016a) ‘Running order: pp. 455–85. urban public space, everyday citizenship and sporting Kwan, M.P. and Schwanen, T. (2016) ‘Geographies of © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 mobility’, Annals of the American Association of Sheller, M. and Urry, J. (2016) ‘Mobilizing the new Geographers, 106, 2, pp. 243–56. mobilities paradigm’, Applied Mobilities, 1, 1, pp. 10–25. Larsen, J. (2014) ‘(Auto)ethnography and cycling’, Simpson, P. (2014) ‘Video’ in Adey, P., Bissell, D., Hannam, GeographiesEditorial of International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 17, K., Merriman, P. and Sheller, M. (eds) The Routledge 1, pp. 59–71. Handbook of Mobilities. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 542– mobility: a brief Lavau, S. (2014) ‘Viruses’ in Adey, P., Bissell, D., Hannam, 52. introduction K., Merriman, P. and Sheller, M. (eds) The Routledge Spence, E. (2014) ‘Unraveling the politics of super-rich Handbook of Mobilities. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 298– mobility: a study of crew and guest on board luxury 305. yachts’, Mobilities, 9, 3, pp. 401–13. Law, J. (2006) ‘Disaster in agriculture: or foot and mouth Spinney, J. (2009) ‘Cycling the city: movement, meaning mobilities’, Environment and Planning A, 38, 2, pp. 227– and method’, Geography Compass, 3, 2, pp. 817–35. 39. Spinney, J. (2011) ‘A chance to catch a breath: using Lin, W. (2015) ‘“Cabin pressure”: designing affective mobile video ethnography in cycling research’, Mobilities, atmospheres in airline travel’, Transactions of the 6, 2, pp. 161–82. Institute of British Geographers, 40, 2, pp. 287–99. Spinney, J. (2015) ‘Close encounters? Mobile methods, Lumsden, K. (2013) Boy Racer Culture: Youth, masculinity (post)phenomenology and affect’, Cultural Geographies, and deviance. Abingdon: Routledge. 22, 2, pp. 231–46. Massey, D. (1993) ‘Power-geometry and a progressive Temenos, C. and McCann, E. (2013) ‘Geographies of policy sense of place’ in Bird, J., Curtis, B., Putnam, T., mobilities’, Geography Compass, 7, 5, pp. 344–57. Robertson, G. and Tickner, L. (eds) Mapping the Futures: Taylor, L. (2016) ‘No place to hide? 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Everyday justice? Local practices in Fairtrade’s global system Introduction Everyday Wine production is global in its scale. In 2016, the world produced nearly 26 billion litres of wine from around 8 million hectares of cultivated vineyards justice? Local (Karlsson, 2016; Oberheu, 2017). In the same year 24 billion litres of wine were consumed globally, with people from Andorra drinking the practices in most per capita (56.9 litres/year) and those from Pakistan the least (0.0 litres/year) (Smith, 2017; Statista, 2018). The global wine production system Fairtrade’s is composed of multiple actors from grape growers through winemakers to distributors, retailers and finally consumers. It involves diverse places, global system relations and practices that ensure that trade keeps on flowing; indeed, the per capita consumption statistics highlight that global Agatha Herman engagements with wine are not homogenous. Where you are from as well as your role in the wine system helps to determine your experience. For a

producer, this is not necessarily the romanticised

vision we are often presented with in the media.

The global wine market is highly competitive, which

places numerous socio-economic and

environmental pressures on producers that are

mediated through local contexts. In South Africa – ABSTRACT: Fairtrade is a global system that aims to the focus of this article – particular challenges challenge trade injustice through establishing arise from the apartheid legacy, including issues of transparent, democratic and sustainable commodity labour rights and abuses (Human Rights Watch, networks. However, being so international in scope 2011; van der Waal, 2014), social development poses its own challenges because Fairtrade has to (Kleinbooi, 2013; Visser and Ferrer, 2015) and negotiate the needs and ideals of different complex racialised identity politics (Du Toit et al., stakeholders across diverse product categories and 2008; Herman, 2018). These combine with multiple countries. As such, while Fairtrade is a international competition, domestic legislation, globalised system, it always ‘touches down’ global environmental change, pressure from somewhere and so the local places of Fairtrade retailers and industry restructuring (Ewert and Du remain important. Using Fraser’s (2008) three- Toit, 2005) to create a dynamic and challenging dimensional framework, this article explores environment. Fairtrade’s promotion of justice in the South African wine industry. The case study highlights that there Recognising the interconnections between the has been progress across the interconnected arenas and scales of injustice for producers dimensions of redistribution, recognition and outlined above, the global system of Fairtrade was representation, but obstacles remain. Fairtrade developed. Fairtrade’s aim is to challenge these needs to establish, and work towards, a holistic through a focus on trade, rebalancing unequal understanding of justice to improve internal power relations through transparent, democractic procedures as well as support the changes in and sustainable supply networks.1 Despite this broader social practices that will help to challenge global vision, it always ‘touches down’ somewhere 146 the structural constraints currently beyond its (Neilson et al., 2014) and thus brings ideals and control. practices of justice into both consumers’ and © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 producers’ everyday lives and local places. While that, historically, practices of justice focused on the Fairtrade aims for transparency and connection national scale but in a globalised world this must Everyday (Prevezer, 2013; Goodman and Herman, 2015), the change because the processes affecting our lives reductive nature of standardised marketing and a ‘routinely overflow territorial borders’ (Fraser, 2008, justice? Local recognisable logo arguably serve to hide what p. 13). Fairtrade has operated since the early practices in actually happens in production spaces (Hudson 1990s as an ‘alternative model of trade … based Fairtrade’s and Hudson, 2003; Herman, 2010). This article on ensuring market access for producers who are focuses on exploring the local impacts that the marginalised by conventional trade’ (Fairtrade global system global system of Fairtrade has in its production Foundation, 2006) and, as such, recognises and spaces through analysing its achievement of foregrounds the interconnected nature of global justice. First, it introduces the concept of justice, systems, and the transnational scale of their considering it through Fraser’s (2008) three- injustices. For Fraser there are three key and dimensional framework of redistribution, intersecting dimensions of justice, which she recognition and representation, placing it in the understands as ‘parity of participation’ (2008, p. context of Fairtrade’s efforts to engage with such 16). These are socio-economic redistribution, concerns through its global practices and cultural recognition and political representation governance structures. After briefly introducing the (Figure 1). I will briefly reflect on each in turn by South African context, the article focuses on the considering what Fairtrade is doing in its global experiences in this case study to analyse practices and structures. Fairtrade’s material, relational and market impacts and challenges before concluding with some Redistribution recognises that socio-economic reflections on Fairtrade’s multi-scalar and sited structures can act to deny certain individuals, nature. communities or organisations the resources that would enable all to participate equitably (Fraser, 2008). Although Fairtrade emphasises ‘fairness’, this is centred on markets and competition rather Justice and Fairtrade than necessarily equity or justice for those ‘Thinking about justice seems inescapably to marginalised in global systems (Trauger, 2014). engage us in thinking about the best way to live’ Nonetheless, certified Fairtrade engages with this (Sandel, 2010, p. 10); is it about maximising dimension of justice through its well-publicised welfare? Respecting freedom? Is it about adhering emphasis on ‘fair trading relations including to certain moral ideals? While it is beyond the minimum prices, additional social premiums and scope of this article to fully develop these lines of improved terms of trade’ (Fairtrade Foundation, argument, it is clear that thinking about justice is 2006). In this way it aims to maximise equity highly complex and poses some tricky questions for across global supply chains (McDermott, 2013), moral and political philosophers. However, issues addressing issues of injustice in the global of (in)justice often start in the real-world, as in the economy (Naylor, 2014) in terms of value capture, case of Fairtrade. As Fraser (2008) notes, today where costs are borne and asymmetries of market there are many, heterogenous justice claims so information. These practices are governed through what counts as a matter of justice? She argues the Fairtrade standards – a global, yet commodity-

Figure 1: The axes of (in)justice: an interconnected Redistribution three-dimensional justice Economic dimension: the framework. After: Fraser, economic structures that 2008. prevent access to resources

Injustice = maldistribution Issue = class

Recognition Representation Cultural dimension: the Political dimension: establishes institutionalised hierarchies who is included and excluded, of cultural value that deny as well as how justice claims the required standing are proposed and judged Injustice = misrecognition Injustice = misrepresentation Issue = status Issue = membership and procedure 147 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 specific, set of requirements established by justice. Politics within Fairtrade is messy (Besky, 2 Everyday Fairtrade International (FTI). For small producers 2015) and it clearly faces challenges in terms of and ‘hired labour’ plantation-style agriculture, the what and who counts, is included and excluded, in justice? Local FTI’s standards engage with the ‘recognition decision-making at the global governance scale. practices in dimension’ of justice by attempting to address Nevertheless, ideas of justice continue to ground Fairtrade’s status inequalities. They do so through including Fairtrade’s broader aims for democratic decision- marginalised producers in the global Fairtrade making, transparency, capacity-building and global system community (Besky, 2015). However, standards tend sustainable network relations (Prevezer, 2013). To to favour larger and more well-established what extent then is Fairtrade able to promote producers and co-operatives (Lockie, 2008). As justice in its local places of production? Bacon (2010) notes, persistent north-south power inequalities remain in Fairtrade governance and, although FTI’s constitution changed in 2013, with The South African case producer networks becoming joint owners of the study system (for details see Bennett, 2015), critics This article draws on qualitative fieldwork question whether this is merely symbolic. conducted in the Western Cape, South Africa Fairtrade’s ‘mainstreaming’, which saw large (2015–16). The aim of the original research was to multinationals, such as Starbucks and Nestlé, investigate the impacts of Fairtrade within and entering the system, has arguably led to more beyond its producer communities, as well as the conventional supply-chain relations (Jaffee, 2012), capacity of Fairtrade to promote resilient and with an influx of mainstream global ‘elites’ ethical development: Fraser’s (2008) dimensions Vineyard in South Africa. increasingly influencing the system (Blowfield and of justice present an interesting lens through which Photo: HelenSTB Dolan, 2010), thus making Fairtrade’s engagement to reflect on this work. Here, I draw on semi- (reproduced under licence with recognition more problematic. Moreover, as structured interviews and focus groups that were CC BY 2.0) Besky (2015) notes: conducted with wine grape producers, wine ‘Fair trade interventions mobilize around two industry and government stakeholders and visions of justice … a “market”, in which justice farmworkers (see Figure 2). These are means equitable distribution, or it can be a supplemented by interviews conducted with “movement” in which justice means recognition, representatives of FTI in 2015 (some of which I the inclusion of marginalized people and their have quoted from above).3 Together, these ways of life in a global community of solidarity methods offer insights into the diversity of and interdependence … Fair trade advocates experiences and impacts of Fairtrade in the South have tended to downplay the crucial role that African wine industry. representation plays’ (pp. 1144–5). Before going on to discuss Fairtrade’s local The political dimension of representation impacts in terms of its capacity to practice establishes the criteria of who counts as well as ‘justice’, it is important to understand the context the basis for decision-making, and thus grounds in which these are grounded. While a detailed ‘the stage on which struggles over distribution and history is beyond the scope of this article, even a recognition are played out’ (Fraser, 2008, p. 17). concise background offers insights into the socio- For Fairtrade, this refers to the extent to which all economic, structural and political challenges faced stakeholders are included in decision-making at all in the South African wine industry. levels. Even before the 2013 constitution change, FTI was a ‘very consultative movement’ Although the apartheid system ended more than (International Development Director, FTI, interview, 20 years ago, South Africa continues to face 2015), with standards and pricing reviews significant and enduring socio-economic and embedded in extensive worldwide consultations political challenges. Social unrest, political (Head of Standards, FTI, interview, 2015). However, corruption, high crime rates, HIV/AIDS and critics argue that standard-setting processes are continuing racialised inequalities are just some of opaque and that there is a lack of information on the issues shaping the national experience. For the how Fairtrade prices are calculated and revised wine industry, this situation is nuanced by the (Bacon, 2010; Bassett, 2010), meaning that some sector’s particular history of marginalisation and stakeholders remain excluded and their voices white power; for the black and coloured compromised (Besky, 2015). Fairtrade standards farmworkers, ongoing legacies of apartheid can therefore act to exclude as much as to include continue to shape power and social relations on (Dolan, 2010) at local, regional and global scales, farms. In addition, structural constraints in their which highlights issues in terms of both the ability to access education, healthcare, housing 148 recognition and representation dimensions of and social welfare (among other needs) remain, © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018

Everyday justice? Local practices in Fairtrade’s global system

Figure 2: The location of wine producer research participants in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2015. and apartheid-era thinking continues to shape how better-paid workers and the seasonal, casual and both farmers and farmworkers identify themselves contract workers who form a large part of the rural and relate to each other. While South Africa’s poor’ (2007, p. 9). In an industry under pressure democratic transition in 1994 brought about from global forces of competition and national unprecedented political rights and social protection politics of post-apartheid transformation, wine for farmworkers, actually putting these into practice producers – of which around one-third are already remains challenging in the wine industry, which operating at a loss (PwC, 2015) – are acting continues to be controlled by a ‘white elite, conservatively to maintain their economic viability, renowned for circumnavigating legislative and often at the expense of farmworker welfare. As Bek voluntary initiatives in order to maintain the status et al. (2007) reflect, this has resulted in a rather quo’ (McEwan and Bek, 2009, p. 735). ambiguous situation for farmworkers who have simultaneously experienced progress and This already complex domestic situation was stagnation in their quality of life. Their experiences further complicated by South Africa’s re-emergence could be seen as representative of the relations, into global markets. While this move resulted in structures and challenges faced by marginalised increased exports, improved quality and expansion communities across South Africa more broadly. in the wine industry, it also decreased profit margins and increased financial volatility, which led After it was approached by a group of South African to industry restructuring towards more casual and wine producers (who wanted to facilitate contract labourers. As the South African Wine international market access), Fairtrade entered this Industry Council noted, this increased rural challenging and dynamic national context inequality through worsening ‘the divide between a (Barrientos and Dolan, 2006). FTI was keen to 149 shrinking core of permanent, better-skilled and support transformation in post-apartheid South Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 Africa (Lamb, 2008) and so introduced certification community libraries, minibuses, health clinics, EverydayEditorial standards for wine grapes in 2003. Over time, mental healthcare and support to end substance standards have extended to other commodities dependency have been established, as well as justice? Local including fresh fruit, dried fruit and rooibos, but social groups, sports clubs and community events. practices in wine remains the key Fairtrade product in South Finally, house repairs have been carried out and Fairtrade’s Africa (FLSA, 2012) with 27 certified wine grape solar energy provided (for details, see Herman, producers as of April 2018. 2018). Together, these are building the social global system capital and individual capacities of farmworkers to participate both in the economy and society of the Fairtrade and justice in farm and more broadly. For example, because they the South African wine have more opportunities, children are no longer constrained to be farmworkers like their parents. industry While these practices support moves towards a The racist structures of government, society and redistributive justice, it is still a work in progress. the economy under apartheid in South Africa Although farmworkers have more access to, and perpetuated numerous and chronic injustices in control over, economic resources on the farm, terms of maldistribution, misrecognition and inequities in education, skills, knowledge and misrepresentation on the majority, non-White power remain – both within farmworker population. Equitable access to socio-economic communities and with the farmer-owners that resources such as education, healthcare, housing, impact on this. Ultimately, the capacity of utilities, jobs, transport, the law and public spaces farmworkers to engage with these social was withheld. Ideas of ‘separate development’ and development opportunities depends on two White superiority denied any value in non-White potentially unstable relations: with the farmer- cultures, while revoking the citizenship of Black owner and the market. The farmer-owners in these South Africans excluded them from political examples have not devolved power (in terms of the representation. How then is Fairtrade working governance of their farms) and the decision to towards justice in this space? These issues are remain Fairtrade or not remains with them: explored using the three components of justice ‘So, they get into Fairtrade for a business case introduced above. … but at the moment when a lot of manage -

ment sit with a shrinking market, high Fairtrade Economic redistribution? certification overheads and workers that are Farmworkers were one of the most excluded empowered to a point of militancy, in the farmer groups in South Africa (Brown et al., 2003) and on perspective ... So now they are going “oh well, we certified farms, through the mechanisms of the will be decertified”… at the end of the day minimum price, social premium and higher than workers have now received a level of average wages, Fairtrade works to address the development and might lose that overnight if the continuing marginalisation caused by the legacies farmer decertifies.’ (Fairtrade Africa, interview, of slavery, colonialism and apartheid (Du Toit, 2015) 2002).4 As one worker commented: ‘there are a lot of people that’s shocked to see Fairtrade is a market-based system, reliant on the changes on our farm. They are very curious supply and demand; global commodity prices and about Fairtrade and about what is happening on trends can change rapidly. While efforts to increase our farm. I have a friend that came to visit and I transparency and connection between producers showed him the crèche and he even took and consumers within the Fairtrade system have pictures’ (Brandvlei worker, interview, 2015). helped build brand loyalty (Goodman, 2004), consumers are fluid and dynamic with priorities As Fairtrade Label South Africa (FLSA) reflected, shifting with time and context (Sassatelli, 2006). If development for Fairtrade is about better market prices or consumer demand falls, there is opportunities, and decent and dignified conditions little that farmworkers can do to regain access to ‘so its more from a strictly old school development these socio-economic resources. point of view, like education and health’ (FLSA interview, 2015). Across Fairhills, Bosman and Cultural recognition? Brandvlei (Figure 2) creches have been started and Alongside this more traditional practice of existing facilities renovated; a primary school was development, Fairtrade has fostered changes in extended; bursaries and transport for secondary relations on the farms and promoted workers’ self- education made available; and opportunities for belief, which challenges the hierarchies of cultural adult education and university scholarships value institutionalised under apartheid: 150 established. In addition, computer rooms, © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 ‘For me, Fairtrade has built my self-esteem meetings with the whole community to keep because now I have to lead the meetings. I feel people informed, an annual general meeting and EverydayEditorial that it helped me to find my voice.’ (Brandvlei information sessions. However, among the worker, interview, 2015) workers, understanding of what Fairtrade is and justice? Local the impacts it was having remained low, indicating practices in ‘Fairtrade gave me direction in life and now I a general perception – whether true or not – that Fairtrade’s know where to in life I’m going. They built my decision-making was not inclusive. self-esteem.’ (Fairhills worker, interview, 2016) ‘see if you are not part of the Fairtrade group or global system the meetings then you don’t know what to think. Alongside the material changes, these can be The things that are talked about in these understood as supporting the recognition element meetings are not shared with us. You don’t know of justice: building ‘power from within’ (Rowlands, enough to understand the things that happen 1997) and the capacities to interact with those in on the farm, so you think it must be because of positions of power: Fairtrade. We are just general workers, and we ‘I didn’t have a say that time when it comes to are aware of it but don’t know enough about my farm owner but when Fairtrade come they Fairtrade.’ (worker, interview, 2015) made it possible that we as the workers has a say. If there’s a problem and I go to my farm This could be an indication of power inequalities owner now, it will get sorted, but in the past we within the community with the same individuals were too scared to go to the boss.’ (Fairhills continually holding key roles. And, while they may worker, interview, 2016) have been elected by the community who recognise the benefits of continuity, this situation The farmer-owners have also noticed a change limits opportunities for others to participate and and, while they all stated that relations on their could worsen power imbalances and knowledge farms had always been good, considered that asymmetries (Phillips, 2014). This sense of not- workers were now more engaged and assertive. belonging extended to some of the social projects, Arguably, this is because the farmworkers are with the perception that certain events or activities more likely to have the skills, self-belief and were exclusive, although workers acknowledge that community connections to be more active and they could choose to make more effort to confident in conversations and negotiations. participate. These experiences of inclusion/ Nonetheless, this remains a work in progress with exclusion from decision-making extended to apartheid-era institutional hierarchies of cultural relations with the farmer-owners. Despite positive changes in terms of self-esteem and relations on value and social constructions of identity farms, many farmworkers felt that there had been remaining entrenched. As Ewert and Du Toit note: no real transformation in terms of how farmers ‘to be a white farmer has been, for at least three related to them or governed their farms: hundred years, to be a “master’’, while the role ‘You see the owner of the farm always wants to of black and coloured farmworkers was to have the last say in all the decisions. So, the labour on their “baas’s” [boss’s] farm’ (2005, p. final decision doesn’t lie with the Joint Body 318) . [Premium Committee] members, but with the

farm owner.’ (worker, interview, 2015) Such engrained identities take time to overcome and must come from both sides to end Interviews with the farmer-owners extended this ‘marginalising and silencing the voices of those lack of representation beyond the scale of the whose labour helped create the wealth of the farm, with many reflecting on a feeling of sector’ (Ewert and Du Toit, 2005, p. 319). In terms disconnection from FTI. Standards were considered of enduring identities, relations and cultural values, to make farming efficiently and profitably this continuity also impacts on the capacity to challenging, with ‘Eurocratic’ certifiers (McMahon, promote justice as representation within Fairtrade 2011) perceived as lacking in both responsiveness certified farms. to the South African situation and real-world

agricultural and commercial knowledges: Political representation? ‘the people that draw up Fairtrade standards Democratically elected Fairtrade premium first of all have never worked on a farm and committees meet on Fairhills, Bosman and understand how farming works; secondly, Brandvlei to discuss the needs of the wine they’ve never run a business so they don’t know producing community, reflect on suggestions and how a business operates.’ (farmer, interview, select projects on which to spend the social 2015) 151 premium. In each case, there are quarterly Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 Fairtrade standards are ‘created and revised contexts governing success. Although Fairtrade is Everyday through repeated and varied consultations with a a global system, it always touches down range of stakeholders’ (Head of Standards, FTI, somewhere; therefore, the places of Fairtrade are justice? Local interview, 2015), but these perceptions highlight important points within the relationships, practices in that more communication and engagement work is identities, ideals and practices that make up its Fairtrade’s needed to overcome continuing north-south power multiscalar system. The challenge is how to dynamics. balance the needs of, and negotiate the global system interactions between, the local and global within this. For Fairtrade, this is further complicated by Conclusions the fact that it works across many different This brief discussion of some of the experiences countries, with a diverse range of stakeholders and on South African Fairtrade wine farms presents a in multiple commodities. While there are mixed picture in terms of Fraser’s (2008) justice. crossovers between a South African wine farmer, a There has been progress in terms of redistribution, worker on a banana plantation in Ecuador, a small recognition and representation, with workers coffee grower in Ethiopia, a buyer for Starbucks finding their voice, engaging with socio-economic and a consumer of Mars Bars, needs may well resources, participating in decision-making and diverge dramatically. How can Fairtrade maintain changing on-farm relations. Indeed, the its global mandate while responding to such interconnected nature of these dimensions of different local contexts? Engaging explicitly with justice is very clear. However, challenges remain justice across Fraser’s (2008) dimensions would and, while the focus has been at the farm level, foster greater reflection and actions to address the farmer-owner experience reminds us that we these internally within the Fairtrade system. While can never consider a place in isolation because it external and structural constraints are somewhat always depends on, and is affected by, the multi- beyond its control, and acknowledging that all scalar network of which it is a part. What also changes take time, Fairtrade establishing a clear emerges is that ‘the forces that perpetuate and holistic vision of justice and continuing to work injustice belong not to “the space of places”, but towards it – alongside others – is key to extending to “the space of flows”’ (Fraser, 2008, p. 23), these more hopeful, inclusive and equitable meaning that the causes of many injustices in our attitudes and practices throughout society. globalised world are not territorial but emerge from

the relations between places. Indeed, while some of the continuing injustices experienced on Notes certified wine farms are grounded in Fairtrade’s 1. Here, I focus on certified Fairtrade – as represented by the Fairtrade Mark – rather than the broader fair trade structures or practices, the majority are bigger movement because the former is the dominant world issues beyond Fairtrade’s control. The global system. capitalist economy, market neoliberalism, racism 2. FTI is the umbrella organisation composed of national labelling initiatives (such as the UK’s Fairtrade and historical legacies, among others, emphasise Foundation) and producer networks. It determines the multiple and scalar structures and forces that standards and pricing worldwide. perpetuate injustices. Justice, therefore, must be 3. For details of the methods used, please refer to similarly multidimensional and, while it has its Herman, 2018. 4. For South African wine grapes, the current social flaws, Fairtrade offers an opportunity to support premium is 0.6 ZAR/kg (£0.03/kg) and the minimum the development of redistribution, recognition and price is 2.19 ZAR/kg (£0.12/kg). representation for its stakeholders at local, regional and global scales. References Bacon, C.M. (2010) ‘Who decides what is fair in Fair The experience of Fairtrade for South African wine Trade? The agri-environmental governance of standards, producers and farmworkers highlights the access, and price’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 37, challenges to addressing injustices both within the 1, pp. 111–47. Barrientos, S. and Dolan, C. (2006) ‘Transformation of organisation and more broadly. Fairtrade is itself a global food: opportunitites and challenges for fair and globalised system, thus, as well as advocating and ethical trade’ in Barrientos, S. and Dolan, C. (eds) practising trade justice worldwide, it has to Ethical Sourcing in the Global Food System. London: Earthscan, pp. 1–34. address the issues that being so international Bassett, T.J. (2010) ‘Slim pickings: Fairtrade cotton in presents to its internal practices of justice. In West Africa’, Geoforum, 41, 1, pp. 44–55. South Africa, it is clear that Fairtrade is promoting Bek, D., McEwan, C. and Bek, K. (2007) ‘Ethical trading justice across all three dimensions of and socioeconomic transformation: critical reflections on the South African wine industry’, Environment and redistribution, recognition and representation Planning A, 39, 2, pp. 301–19. although work remains in progress with internal Bennett, E.A. (2015) ‘Fairtrade international governance’ in 152 obstacles and ultimately bigger structures and Raynolds, L.T. and Elizabeth A.B. (eds) The Handbook of © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 Research on Fair Trade. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. across product sectors and scales’, Environmental 80–101. Science and Policy, 33, pp. 428–37. Besky, S. (2015) ‘Agricultural justice, abnormal justice? An McEwan, C. and Bek, D. (2009) ‘Placing ethical trade in Everyday analysis of Fair Trade’s plantation problem’, Antipode, 47, context: WIETA and the South African wine industry’, 5, pp. 1141–60. Third World Quarterly, 30, 4, pp. 723–42. justice? Local Blowfield, M. and Dolan, C. (2010) ‘Outsourcing McMahon, M. (2011) ‘Standard fare or fairer standards: practices in governance: Fairtrade’s message for C21 global feminist reflections on agri-food governance’, Agriculture governance’, Corporate Governance, 10, 4, pp. 484–99. and Human Values, 28, pp. 401–12. Fairtrade’s Brown, M., Du Toit, A. and Jacobs, L. (2003) Behind the Naylor, L. (2014) ‘“Some are more fair than others”: fair Label: A workers’ audit of the working and living conditions trade certification, development, and North-South global system on selected wine farms in the Western Cape. Labour subjects’, Agriculture and Human Values, 31, 2, pp. 273– Research Service, Women on Farms Project and the 84. Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of Neilson, J., Pritchard, B. and Yeung, H.W-C. (2014) ‘Global Western Cape. value chains and global production networks in the Dolan, C.S. (2010) ‘Virtual moralities: the mainstreaming of changing international political economy: an Fairtrade in Kenyan tea fields’, Geoforum, 41, 1, pp. 33– introduction’, Review of International Political Economy, 43. 21, 1, pp. 1–8. Du Toit, A. (2002) ‘Globalizing ethics: social technologies of Oberheu, C. (2017) Top Grape Growing Countries. Available private regulation and the South African wine industry’, at https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-grape- Journal of Agrarian Change, 2, 3, pp. 356–80. growing-countries.html (last accessed 13/4/2018). Du Toit, A., Kruger, S. and Ponte, S. (2008) ‘Deracializing Phillips, D.P. (2014) ‘Uneven and unequal people-centred exploitation? “Black economic empowerment” in the development: the case of Fair Trade and Malawi sugar South African wine industry’, Journal of Agrarian Change, producers’, Agriculture and Human Values, 31, 4, pp. 8, 1, pp. 6–32. 563–76. Ewert, J. and Du Toit, A. (2005) ‘A deepening divide in the Prevezer, M. (2013) ‘Fairtrade governance and its impact on countryside: restructuring and rural livelihoods in the local development: a framework’ in Granville, B. and South African wine industry’, Journal of Southern African Dine, J. (eds) The Processes and Practices of Fair Trade: Studies, 31, 2, pp. 315–32. Trust, ethics and governance. London: Routledge, pp. 19– Fairtrade Foundation (2006) What is Fairtrade? Available at 42. www.fairtrade.org.uk/about_what_is_fairtrade.htm (last PwC (2015) Can You See the Trend? The South African wine accessed 17/8/2007). industry insights survey 2015. Available at FLSA (2012) Products. Available at https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/wine-industry-to- www.fairtradelabel.org.za/product/wine.1.html (last be-uploaded.pdf (last accessed 9/7/2018). accessed 19/4/2012). Rowlands, J. (1997) Questioning Empowerment: Working Fraser, N. (2008) Scales of Justice: Reimagining political with women in Honduras. Oxford: Oxfam. space in a globalizing world. Cambridge: Polity Press. Sandel, M. (2010) Justice: What’s the right thing to do? Goodman, M.K. (2004) ‘Reading fair trade: political London: Penguin. ecological imaginary and the moral economy of fair trade Sassatelli, R. (2006) ‘Virtue, responsibility and consumer foods’, Political Geography, 23, 7, pp. 891–915. choice: framing critical consumerism’ in Brewer, J. and Goodman, M.K. and Herman, A. (2015) ‘Connections in fair Trentmann, F. (eds) Consuming Cultures, Global trade food networks’ in Raynolds, L.T. and Bennett, E.A. Perspectives: Historical trajectories, transnational (eds) Handbook of Research on Fair Trade. Cheltenham: exchanges. Oxford: Berg, pp. 219–50. Edward Elgar, pp. 139–56. SAWIC (2007) The Wine Industry Transformation Charter. Herman, A. (2010) ‘Connecting the complex lived worlds of Stellenbosch: SAWIC. Fairtrade’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Smith, O. (2017) ‘Revealed: the countries that quaff the 12, 4, pp. 405–22. most wine per capita’, The Telegraph, 17 February. Herman, A. (2018) Practising Empowerment in Post- Available at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps- Apartheid South Africa: Wine, ethics and development. and-graphics/wine-consumption-per-capita-by-country/ London: Routledge. (last accessed 9/7/2018). Hudson, I. and Hudson, M. (2003) ‘Removing the veil? Statista (2018) Wine Consumption Worldwide from 2000 to Commodity fetishism, Fair Trade, and the environment’, 2016 (in million hectoliters). Available at Organization and Environment, 16, 4, pp. 413–30. https://www.statista.com/statistics/232937/volume-of- Human Rights Watch (2011) Ripe With Abuse: Human rights global-wine-consumption (last accessed 13/4/2018). conditions in South Africa’s fruit and wine industries. New Trauger, A. (2014) ‘Is bigger better? The small farm York, NY: Human Rights Watch. imaginary and Fair Trade banana production in the Jaffee, D. (2012) ‘Weak coffee: certification and co-optation Dominican Republic’, Annals of the Association of in the Fair Trade movement’, Social Problems, 59, 1, pp. American Geographers, 104, 5, pp. 1082–100. 94–116. Van Der Waal, C.S. (ed) (2014) Winelands, Wealth and Work: Karlsson, B. (2016) ‘The world’s biggest wine producing Transformations in the Dwars River Valley, Stellenbosch. countries in 2016’, BK Wine Magazine, 20 November. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. Kleinbooi, K. (2013) Farmworkers’ Living and Working Visser, M. and Ferrer, S. (2015) Farm Workers’ Living and Conditions. Bellville: PLAAS, UWC. Working Conditions in South Africa: Key trends, emergent Lamb, H. (2008) Fighting the Banana Wars and Other issues, and underlying and structural problems. Pretoria: Fairtrade Battles: How we took on the corporate giants to The International Labour Organisation. change the world. London: Rider Books. Lockie, S. (2008) ‘Conversion or co-option? The implications of “mainstreaming” for producer and consumer agency within Fair Trade networks’ in Farnworth, C.R., Jiggins, J. and Thomas, E.V. (eds) Creating Food Futures: Trade, ethics and the environment. Agatha Herman is Lecturer in Human Geography Aldershot: Gower Publishing, pp. 215–28. at Cardiff University, UK (email: McDermott, C.L. (2013) ‘Certification and equity: applying 153 an “equity framework” to compare certification schemes [email protected]). Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

The changing world of the Arctic

world, with consequences for people, economies This Changing World and environments in countries as far away as India (see Borgerson, 2008). This is because the Arctic is a critical component in the systems that govern The changing the world’s climate and oceans. Scientists have already linked the warming Arctic to extreme weather events such as freezing winters in North world of the America and Europe, the devastating summer flood in Pakistan in 2010, and the famine in Russia that same year, which resulted in tens of thousands of Arctic deaths (Carrington, 2016). What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic (Dodds, 2018). Photo: Ian Mackenzie (reproduced under licence Duncan Depledge and Many of us still think of the Arctic as that ‘white CC BY 2.0) space’ at the top of the map. However, the region’s Caroline Kennedy-Pipe borders are difficult to define. Depending on what they are studying, scientists have produced many By 2050, climate change will have profoundly different definitions of the Arctic based on the changed the Arctic (Smith, 2011). Less than 50 northern limit of the treeline, the average July years ago, the Arctic Ocean was permanently ice- temperatures, and on where the cold Arctic waters covered, with only marginal melt around the edges. meet the warmer waters of the Atlantic and the However, in the next few decades it is likely to be Pacific. Others point to the Arctic Circle: the line of ice-free in the summer, for ever-longer periods latitude running at approximately 66° North, above (Berkman and Young, 2009). These changes will which the sun never sets in the summer or rises in not only be felt locally, but will also affect the jet the winter. What most of these definitions do have stream and alter weather patterns around the in common is that they encompass more than the Figure 1: Arctic shipping white spaces of the Arctic. There are in fact many routes: the Northwest different Arctics, which have very few Passage and the Northern characteristics in common. For example, some Sea Route. Source: areas, such as the Canadian and Greenlandic Johansson et al., Arctic, are still heavily affected by sea-ice. In these 2010. areas, communities tend to be small and remote Northwest with access to very little supporting infrastructure. Passage By contrast, the waters north of Scandinavia and Northern north-west Russia are warmer and ice-free. Here, Sea Route there is already substantial economic activity (tourism, fisheries, resource development and shipping) that supports cities of up to 300,000 people. Thus, the Arctic is far from homogenous.

Yet, with the sea-ice in retreat both in summertime and wintertime, more and more of the Arctic’s riches are within the world’s reach. Soviet ships started to ply the ice-choked waters of the Northern Sea Route (Figure 1) in the 1930s (Brubaker and Østreng, 1999), but now new highways for maritime traffic are being explored. In 154 2016, the Crystal Serenity (with more than 1000 guests on board) became the first large luxury © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 cruise ship to sail through the Northwest Passage. four times the size of the United States. Around Only three years earlier, the Nordic Orion became 500,000 belong to one of around 40 Arctic The changing the first commercial bulk carrier to navigate the indigenous people’s groups – some of whom can route (CHNL Information Office, 2017). Eventually, trace their Arctic origins back for tens of thousands world of the a Transpolar Sea Route over the top of the world is of years (Vitebsky, n.d.). However, over the last few Arctic expected to open-up for at least part of the year centuries, the imperial powers of Europe, and later (Melia et al., 2016). By 2050, these Arctic North America, have laid claim to vast areas of the highways between the world’s largest economies Arctic. Today, Russia and Canada alone occupy will offer alternatives to shippers looking to some 80% of the land above the Arctic Circle. The moderate their reliance on having to use the Nordic Arctic states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, traditional strategic chokepoints of Gibraltar, the Norway and Sweden) account for a further 16%, Suez and the Malacca Straits (McCoy, 2016). and the United States has 4% (Ikenberry, 2010) (see Figure 2 for a breakdown of the indigenous With greater access to the sea, comes the and non-indigenous populations of these areas). tantalising prospect of exploiting more of the The Inuit have been the most vocal in protesting Arctic’s resources, which include fish, oil and gas, these claims. In 2009 they issued a ‘Circumpolar and precious metals. As Arctic waters warm, Inuit Declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic’, Atlantic fish are migrating further northward, with which sought to challenge state-centric definitions the world’s fishing fleets bound to follow. Surveys of sovereignty and the divisive borders imposed on conducted a decade ago estimate that 30% of the the Arctic. world’s undiscovered gas and 13% of the undiscovered oil is likely to lie beneath the Arctic. Nevertheless, Arctic geopolitics is dominated by The Arctic is also thought to contain large troves of states, as it has been for much of the 100 years so-called ‘rare earth metals’, which may be needed or so since nation-building in the north began in earnest. Tensions between states were greatest to feed the world’s demand for laptops, tablets, Figure 2: Population smart phones, renewable energy and the during the Cold War, when the North Atlantic Treaty distribution in the Arctic in electrification of transport systems. Alongside this Organization (NATO) and the Soviet Union faced off 2008, with indigenous and demand, the advent of new technologies, growing over the North Pole. With arsenals of long-range non-indigenous expertise and greater maritime access means that strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic populations. Source: a rush for Arctic resources is only being held back missiles (IBCMs), defence planners on all sides Johansson et al., 2010. by the cheaper prices elsewhere in the world as well as moral concerns about climate change, sustainable development and the perceived vulnerability of Arctic indigenous peoples and other local inhabitants to exploitation.

In the meantime, some point to the economic Alaska (USA) opportunities that could be exploited to create a 649,000 Russia ‘Smart Arctic’, where local economies are 1,980,000 supported by the deployment of technologies beyond the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Canada Telecommunications, digitalisation and automation 130,000 – powered by renewable energy from onshore and offshore sources (Salo and Syri, 2014) – have the potential to increase connectivity between those living and working in the Arctic and the rest of the Greenland world. This, in turn, could revolutionise the (Denmark) 57,700 Norway provision of public goods (such as healthcare, 380,000 education and market access) and enable the Finland Arctic to retain, develop and attract the kinds of 201,000 human capital that will be critical to its future Iceland Sweden 288,000 development. 264,000

Faroe Islands (Denmark) Geopolitics 47,700 Just 4 million people live in the Arctic – half of them in Russia – covering an area of more than 15 155 million square miles (38,849,821 sq km), which is Indigenous population Non-indigenous population Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 quickly realised that the shortest routes for striking the security architecture of the North. Russian air, The changing major population centres in North America, Europe, surface and sub-sea patrols have been resumed Russia and China were over the top of the world. and are reaching Cold War levels. The Arctic-based world of the The development of ICBM-armed submarines, Northern Fleet, while smaller than it was during the Arctic which can hide under the Arctic ice-cap, only added Cold War, is being modernised and bases across to strategic anxieties about first- and second-strike the Russian Arctic are being (re)opened (Antrim, capabilities. 2011). Russia has further signalled its intent to keep NATO out of the Arctic, aggressively The end of the Cold War brought about a peace protesting any perceived encroachment by the dividend, especially in the Arctic, where the eight West, which plays to the Kremlin’s fears of Arctic states agreed to embark on a shared path encirclement (Laruelle, 2011; Hille, 2016). While towards promoting international scientific co- NATO and its Western partners are watching this operation, environmental protection and, later, activity, their understanding of it is inevitably sustainable economic development of the Arctic. entangled with perceptions of a Russia shaped by New institutions emerged to promote joint its annexation of Crimea, continued provocations in activities in the areas of science, higher education Syria, and the pressures it is applying to individual and regional governance. In 1996, the Arctic countries, NATO and the EU through its Council was established to further promote co- dissemination of fake news, cyber-attacks and operation in areas of consensus – any talk of political interference. Spill-over in the Arctic could military activity in the Arctic was explicitly banned take many forms – particularly as no one is certain at the Arctic Council in order to help foster an whether Russia is still prepared to uphold the atmosphere of peace and co-operation international status quo around contested matters (McCormick, 2014). such as the Svalbard Treaty, the delimitation of continental shelves and navigation rights in Commentators have argued that even with the re- Russian waters (van Efferink, 2011). emergence of geopolitical anxieties about the Arctic over the past decade, there is little need to There are also other players – some old and some be pessimistic about Arctic military/security new – jostling to access Arctic resources and stability (De Neve et al., 2015). They point to the influence. The trend for regions, provinces or fact that the Arctic states have proved themselves countries to secede from the tutelage of a great or to be committed to a ‘rules based’ approach. colonial power as witnessed across the globe is International law has, in the main, been adhered to also apparent in the growing demand for and co-operation has been the hallmark of the independence by Greenland from Denmark. region since the early 1990s. In 2008, the five Meanwhile, a circumpolar Inuit nation may seem a Arctic Ocean littoral states agreed that ‘the law of distant prospect, but it has not stopped the Inuit the sea’ provided the best framework for and others from pressing for land-claims and other understanding and securing the rights and rights to be upheld by Canada. obligations of the Arctic states and others from beyond the region. That commitment was At the same time, states that have had little reaffirmed by all eight Arctic states in 2018. It is historically or geographically to do with the Arctic in also argued that the remote nature and extreme recent centuries now proclaim themselves to be in environment of the Arctic region itself reduces the fact ‘near’ Arctic powers, polar powers, or friends risk of a direct military confrontation. As one former of the Arctic (Shelton, 2010; Jegorova, 2013). Canadian general famously put it: ‘if someone China, in particular, has made a robust claim that were to invade the Canadian Arctic, my first task the governance of at least part of the Arctic is a would be to rescue them’ (Exner-Pirot, 2015). global matter – the region as a whole has become a source of foreign policy and economic interest for However, all is not necessarily rosy in the Arctic the Chinese Government (Breum and Chemnitz, House. Just as Arctic change affects the rest of 2013). In Russia, Chinese state-owned banks have the globe, so too the region is not insulated from provided tens of billions of dollars in loans to broader political events. During the Cold War support the development of gas fields and deterrence worked and major conflict in the region infrastructure along the Northern Sea Route. was averted. The peace that followed saw a Simultaneously, in several Nordic countries, significant drawdown of military forces on all sides Chinese-backed firms have sought to purchase real and the attention of defence planners turned estate or invest in the construction of ports and inwards, or to other parts of the world. More airports. These moves are providing the 156 recently though, Russian military activity in the foundations for China’s ‘Arctic Silk Road’ and the Arctic has started to expand again, transforming realisation of a greater presence in Arctic affairs © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 as part of its broader ‘One Belt One Road’ decades. Essential to this is the development of initiative (Lulu, 2017). the Northern Sea Route as a strategic artery to The changing allow the evacuation of resources both east and Another Arctic ‘rising power’ is India. Already a west. The development of this route is also set to world of the polar power because of its research interests in give Russia a strategic advantage because the Arctic Antarctica, India also claims a long lineage in the country will be able to reposition its naval forces Arctic (Gewelt, 2016). According to some between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans much narratives, the Arctic is the historic motherland more quickly (and thus avoid the calamity that from which Aryans came to India some 3500 years befell the Russian navy during the Russo-Japanese ago. Moreover, it is not just mystical or spiritual war in 1904). claims that motivate India: New Delhi has a strong demand for raw materials. Long after China’s As a result, alongside Russia’s ‘local’ concerns, population is expected to stop growing, India’s will the Arctic now occupies a central position in the continue to rise. By 2030, India will be responsible Kremlin’s broader national security strategy. The for a 15% growth in global demand for energy and Soviet Period, although gone, is not forgotten. will be the third country in the world in terms of Russia inherited the strategic force posture of the utilities consumption. It is predicted that India will USSR. The naval bases on the Kola Peninsula consume some 6% of global energy – at least remain home to two-thirds of Russia’s nuclear double current consumption rates. In 2018, India submarines. This force is designed for global received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas nuclear deterrence, not just local security (LNG) from the Russian Arctic. This is part of a concerns. The largest parts of the Northern Fleet’s US$25 billion deal for Gazprom to ship supplies to surface vessels – including Russia’s flagship India from its Arctic LNG project for the next 20 battlecruiser, Peter the Great, and the Russian years (RT News, 2018). navy’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov – are also designated, as recently seen in Syria, for the projection of Russia’s sea power far beyond the Russia: the Arctic power Arctic (Chakraborty, 2017). Indeed, the strategic Russia’s dominance in the Arctic cannot be component of the Russian Forces in the High North understated. In addition to its sheer size and has far more to do with global politics than any resource wealth, Russia benefits from a ‘modern’ supposed geopolitical rivalry in the Arctic itself, industrial history in the Arctic that dates back and hints at Russia’s potential to engage in a new nearly 100 years. While parts of the Russian Arctic Cold War. are some of the harshest environments in the world, Russia stands to gain from the easing of ice conditions in its Arctic waters long before other Mischief-making in the maritime passageways open up for regular Arctic seasonal traffic. Despite the challenges posed by a The appearance of ‘little green men’ in the conflict falling population, a lack of infrastructure, in Ukraine alerted the West to the possibility of environmental degradation (such as melting Russian ‘mischief making’ further north among the permafrost and coastal erosion) and a weak Nordic countries (Haines, 2016). Sweden, for economy, over the next decade or so the example, blamed the Russian government for commercial returns potentially on offer in the carrying out cyber-attacks on the country’s air- Russian Arctic for resource development far traffic control infrastructure that grounded flights exceed those of the other Arctic states (Scherbinin for a day in November 2015 (England, 2016; et al., 2015). This has already proved important at Sorensen, 2017). Russia has also tested a time when sanctions imposed after the Norwegian nerves, for example, when the Russian annexation of Crimea have begun to seriously dent Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin, flew to the Russian economy. For example, the Svalbard despite being blacklisted against entering US$27 billion LNG project on the Yamal Peninsula Norwegian territory. At the same time, the was effectively ‘saved’ by loans from China. Norwegian intelligence agencies have noted that relations with Russia have now entered a ‘new The political and economic doldrums produced by normal’. This is characterised by increased the Yeltsin years in the 1990s meant that the Russian military activity in the Arctic, signalling that Arctic, along with many other Soviet regional country’s views. At the same time, Russia reacted interests, became somewhat forgotten. However, angrily to activities such as the arrival of 350 US under President Putin, the Kremlin has come to Marines in Norway (shortly to increase to up to recognise the Arctic as a critical resource for 700) (Staalesen, 2015). 157 Russia’s extractives-based economy over the next Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 There are some that argue that the ongoing simultaneously worked closely with partners (such The changing refugee crisis has been utilised by President Putin as the UK and Norway) to advance key Arctic to disrupt and stir up trouble between European capabilities. In March 2018, as part of joint world of the states, especially on the key issue of the exercises with the US and Canada, HMS Trenchant Arctic continuation of sanctions on Russia after the became the first British submarine to surface annexation of Crimea (Hønneland, 2014). This is through the Arctic ice-cap in more than a decade. designed to operate ‘leverage’ within the EU on an US, Norwegian, British and Dutch soldiers train issue that is, to put it mildly, controversial within together to enhance their Arctic warfare skills in the EU. Indeed, this issue was instrumental in the northern Norway (Kasperaviciute, 2016). The exit of the UK from the EU. Speaking to the Senate restoration of the US Navy’s Second Fleet to Armed Services Committee in Washington, DC, defend the North Atlantic and the US’s offer to General Philip Breedlove, accused Russia of host a new NATO Joint Command to oversee deliberately weaponising migration in an attempt to operations in the Atlantic, are inextricably bound up break European resolve on the sanctions issue. with the naval threat to transatlantic sea lines of communication posed by the Russian navy in the The Arctic may seem a long way from the refugee Arctic. The US, UK and Norway have also signed a crisis of Syria or Libya. However, one statement of intent to co-operate on maritime transformation of a changing world is that patrol and anti-submarine warfare in the North migration is an issue for Arctic states as well as Atlantic, which includes waters adjacent to the European ones when dealing with the Arctic. NATO took its eye off the Arctic after the consequences from the wars in the Middle East. Cold War, but those member states in closest Migrants have made the arduous journey away proximity to the region are now realising that the from war zones in Ukraine and Syria northwards Transatlantic Alliance is nothing if the North across the borders between Russia, Finland and Atlantic is not defended from Russian adventurism Norway. Those who tried to travel through Russia – and in the years ahead the source of that and on into Scandinavia were charged money for adventurism looks increasingly set to come from passage by members of the FSB (the Federal the Arctic. Security Services in Russia) before both the Finns and the Russians agreed to tighten border security. The Finns noted the traversing of the border by Saving the Arctic some 800 migrants in rusty old cars (Higgins, While politicians, businesses and defence 2016). On the Norwegian border, there were planners wring their hands about what to do about colourful reports that flows of refugees and the great array of opportunities and risks that are migrants both from Ukraine and Syria were making emerging in the Arctic, there are also several moral their way by bicycle across the border (Standish, and ethical dimensions to keep in mind for the 2016). Although this now seems to have ceased, future. the process raised questions about the manner in which the north had become (rather counter- The first is that climate change in the Arctic is not intuitively) a site for contestation over refugees an innocent phenomenon. Between 50 and 70% of and migrants. Russia has, of course, taken in Arctic warming has been attributed to human thousands of refugees from the crisis in Ukraine sources, primarily in the form of greenhouse gas and from the Middle East, ‘settling’ many of them emissions. Under the ‘Paris Commitment’, the in Arctic cities such as Murmansk (Higgins, 2016; world has committed to trying to prevent average Heleniak, 2015). global temperatures rises from exceeding 2°C, with efforts to be made to limit global warming to 1.5°C (see Sidahmed, 2016). Under these scenarios the How is the West world is already set on a pathway towards low responding? carbon economic development, which will While Western states can be accused of a weak dramatically reduce demand for oil and gas, military reaction both to the annexation of Crimea including that sourced from the Arctic. If the and indeed the use of chemical weapons in Syria, commitment to tackle climate change is serious, there is renewed interest by the US and its allies in then future Arctic economic development will be countering Russian expansionism in the Arctic. pushed in a very different direction, with a greater Although question marks remain over the longevity emphasis on the kind of ‘Smart Arctic’ economy of the US ‘deal’ with North Korea, President Trump outlined above. has said he will invest US$100 billion extra in 158 defence, emphasising missile defence in Alaska as The second dimension is that the Arctic is first and a key area (Dillow, 2017). The US has foremost a homeland for many people (National © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 Snow and Ice Data Center, n.d.). Part of the Yet the Arctic faces significant demographic challenge in this rapidly changing environment is to challenges in the decades ahead. Although the The changing protect the rights of its indigenous peoples to live global population is growing and will reach an in a traditional manner with hunting, fishing and estimated figure of 9.7 billion by 2050 (UNDES, world of the sea-going rights, but balance these against the 2015), the population of the Arctic has stabilised. Arctic imposition of an often arduous way of life, which There is a significant gender imbalance in parts of many of the younger generation reject. Whether the Arctic, which impacts on social harmony. indigenous or otherwise, local communities – just Women, particularly in indigenous communities, as in any other part of the world – do not want to have seized the opportunities provided by education see their natural wealth plundered by outsiders. and (in some instances) become formidable Tourism, shipping, fishing and resource leaders who now articulate and lead the cause of development are global industries, and there is Arctic peoples (Måwe, 2016). Many of the men, potential for the key players to dominate the brought up with traditional expectations, have economic landscape. This is already producing an struggled to find a place in the modern world and uneasy divide between those who stand to benefit have, subsequently, turned to alcohol, domestic from working in these sectors and those who are violence and even suicide for release (Kral, 2016). more reliant on traditional sources of income and Meanwhile, rural to urban migration is a feature of subsistence (which may be more vulnerable to the the Arctic as much as it is elsewhere, hollowing out harmful effects of pollution). Some indigenous local communities (Heleniak, 2015). people have stated that they do not want to ‘live in a museum or a national park’ that is protected for Sources of future growth are likely to create the benefit of tourists and environmentalists from additional pressures on those already living in the outside the Arctic (see Kujawinski, 2017). In Arctic. Parts of northern Russia can expect a Canada and Greenland, for example, it is clear that different ethnic mix by 2050 as the nation seeks to Figure 3: The small city of indigenous Arctic people want control over their arrest the declining birth rate among the Slavic Iqaluit in northern Canada own destinies; they want to be free to pursue the population through greater migration. The arrival of now has two mosques, lifestyle they choose, whether it is traditional or a different type of ‘southerner’ might also reshape suggestive of a nascent modern. They certainly do not need ‘saving’ by culture in the Arctic. Although we often imagine the ‘Polar Islam’. Photo: ‘southerners’ who, in any case, are responsible for Arctic as a secular or indigenous/animist space, Qaqqaqtunaaq many of the social, economic and environmental new sentiments are likely to appear; for example, (reproduced under licence ills that indigenous peoples now face. the opening of a second mosque in Iqaluit in CC BY 2.0). northern Canada (Figure 3) is suggestive of a nascent ‘Polar Islam’ (Nyseth, 2017).

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Available at https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic- meteorology/arctic-people.html (last accessed 16/7/2018). Nyseth, T. (2017) ‘Arctic urbanization: modernity without cities’ in Körber, L., MacKenzie, S. and Westerstahl Stenport, A. (eds) Arctic Environmental Modernities: From the age of polar exploration to the era of the Anthropocene. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 59-70. RT News (2018) Arctic to tropics: India welcomes first-ever shipment of Russian liquefied natural gas’, 4 June. Available at www.rt.com/business/428660-india- russia-first-lng/ (last accessed 16/7/2018). Salo, O. and Syri, S. (2014) ‘What economic support is needed for Arctic offshore wind power?’, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 31, pp. 343–52. Scherbinin, A., Danilova, E., Sentsova, A., Bolsunovskaya, L. and Bolsunovskaya, Y. (2015) ‘The Russian Arctic: innovative possibilities at the turn of the past and the future’, Earth and Environmental Science, 27, 1, pp. 1– 5. Shelton, R. (2010) ‘Review of The Scramble for the Arctic: Ownership, exploration and conflict in the Far North by Duncan Depledge is author of Britain and the Richard Sale and Eugene Potapov’, The Times Literary Supplement, 5585, pp. 26–7. Arctic (Palgrave, 2018), and Associate Fellow of Sidahmed, M. (2016) ‘Climate change denial in the the Royal United Services Institute, London, UK; Trump cabinet: where do his nominees stand?’, The Caroline Kennedy-Pipe is Professor of Guardian, 15 December. Available at International Relations and International www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/15/tru Security at the University of Loughborough and a mp-cabinet-climate-change-deniers (last accessed 16/7/2018). Visiting Fellow at the American Rothermere Smith, L.C. (2011) The New North: The world in 2050. Institute, University of Oxford, UK London: Profile Books. (email: [email protected]). 161 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018

Major European retailers and the circular economy

al. (2016) suggested that the circular economy This Changing World demands a ‘reappraisal of our relationship with the things we buy’ (p. 17), they devoted little or no attention to the retail sector of the economy, and Major concentrated on manufacturing and food systems to examine the challenges of moving to a circular economy. While Kalmykova et al. (2018) identified European ‘distribution and sales’ (p. 193) as one of seven elements of resource flows in the value chain within a circular economy, the role of retailing in the retailers and transition to a circular economy has received little or no attention within the geographical literature. Photo: Christoffer Horsfjord Nilsen (reproduced under the circular However, some commentators have suggested that licence CC BY 2.0) the transition to a circular economy would demand dramatic changes in the ways in which consumers approach consumption. Korhonen et al., (2018) for economy example, foresaw the emergence of a ‘new consumption culture’ with ‘user groups and communities sharing the use of the function, Peter Jones and service and value of physical products’ (p. 41). However, for the majority of consumers living in Daphne Comfort advanced capitalist economies, retail outlets are currently the major sites of consumption. Large retailers, who account for the major market share of consumer spending might thus be seen to have Introduction a vested interest in maintaining the existing Geographers have been taking an increasing patterns of consumption. That said, EuroCommerce interest in the concept of the circular economy. At and the European Retail Round Table (2015) the school and college level, for example, the claimed that: International Baccalaureate (2016) announced that ‘retailers are a large contributor to the European its new geography syllabus included a circular Union economy [and as] responsible economic economy perspective in the ‘Global Resource operators, [they] are keen to take a front seat in Consumption and Security’ unit, which forms part shaping a circular economy in Europe’ (p. 1). of the core programme theme ‘Geographical Perspectives and Global Change.’ Hobson (2016) Further, Adela Torres Calatayud, Environment explored the contribution human geography Committee Chair of EuroCommerce, suggested: scholarship can make to circular economy debates ‘retailers have a key role to play in sharing the and more specifically looked to ‘provisionally locate benefits of the circular economy as millions of generative spaces and practices that embody a European consumers buy their products in our circular economy’ (p. 99). Pollard et al. (2016) stores every single day’ (European Retail Round argued that ‘there is a central role for geography’ in Table, 2017, p. 1). exploring ‘how circular economy thinking might play out in practice’ (p. 17). Gregson et al. (2015) With these claims in mind, the aim of this article is employed two case studies of attempts ‘to to identify and illustrate how some of Europe’s transform wastes into resources within the major retailers are publicly addressing the concept boundaries of the EU’ (p. 218) and Kama (2015) of the circular economy and to offer some 162 investigated the reinvention of electrical and reflections on the application of the concept within electronic waste within the EU. Although Pollard et the retail sector of the economy. As such, the © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 article looks to complement the work, cited above, consumption to waste management, recycling and by Gregson et al. (2015) and Kama (2015), and re-use. If there is to be a transition to a more Major European more specifically by Pollard et al. (2016). circular economy, consumers have a vital role to

play – not least in that they need to be prepared to retailers and The concept of the embrace what they may see as radical new buying the circular behaviours and consumption practices. Within a economy circular economy circular economy, waste management is not seen While Murray et al. (2017) suggest that the term as a problem, rather it is an opportunity to return circular economy has ‘been linked with a range of as much waste as possible back into productive meanings and associations by different authors’ use. The focus is on the prevention, re-use and they argue that, in its most basic form, ‘a circular recycling of waste materials rather than their economy can be loosely defined as one which disposal by landfill. Where waste cannot be balances economic development with prevented, re-used or recycled then recovering its environmental and resource protection’ (p. 10). energy content is seen to be preferable to landfill, The Ellen McArthur Foundation, established in and waste-to-energy solutions are also seen to be 2010 with the aim of accelerating the transition to integral to the circular economy. a circular economy, argued that ‘a circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design, and aims to keep products, components, and materials at European retailers’ their highest utility and value at all times’ (Ellen commitments to the McArthur Foundation, 2017). As such, the concept of the circular economy is often contrasted with circular economy the traditional ‘linear economy’ that turns raw In an attempt to identify if, and how, Europe’s materials into waste in the production process and major retailers are addressing the concept of the that is seen to lead to environmental pollution and circular economy, a purposive sampling approach the removal of natural capital from the environment. was adopted. More specifically, an internet search, More critically, Gregson et al. (2015) argue that the conducted in December 2017, used the name of idea of the circular economy is ‘more often each of Europe’s leading 25 retailers as ranked by celebrated than critically interrogated’ and that ‘its revenue (Deloitte, 2017) and ‘circular economy’ as actual enactment is limited and fragile’ (p. 218). key words. This search revealed that of the top 25 European retailers, ten publicly addressed the Essentially, the concept of the circular economy circular economy on their websites – albeit in embraces all stages of a product’s life cycle from varying measures. These ten retailers, namely design and production, through marketing and Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour, Casino, H&M, IKEA,

A circular economy mascot takes part in the European Commission’s Green Week in Brussels, 3–5 June 2014. Photo: Friends of Europe (reproduced under licence CC BY 2.0)

163 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 Inditex, Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, METRO and circularity into every stage of our value chain, Major European Rewe, were selected for study. The selected including the products we make and the materials retailers have their headquarters in a number of we use in our operations’. Marks & Spencer retailers and European countries, trade within different sectors, emphasise: ‘we support the transition to a the circular from a range of formats (Figure 1) and all have a sustainable circular economy and will prioritise economy variety of international operations. While some of business model innovation and put circular ways of the UK’s largest retailers, namely Tesco, working into practice’. In 2017, the company Sainsbury’s and the rapidly growing food discount relaunched its sustainability ‘Plan A 2025’, which retailers, Lidl and Aldi, did not provide information includes the goal of ‘being a circular business on their approach to the circular economy, the ten generating zero waste’ and ‘designing our products selected retailers can be seen to be provide a fair and packaging to underpin the creation of a circular representation of emerging thinking on the circular economy in the markets we serve’. More succinctly, economy within the European retail industry. All the the retailer METRO argues it is ‘devoted to the quotations cited in this section of the article were issue of circular economy’ and has introduced taken from the ten selected retailers’ corporate ‘various goals and measures designed to websites (see Figure 1). Geographically, there was contribute to achieving a circular economy’; while little evidence of variation in approaches to the Carrefour describes itself as ‘a promoter of the circular economy within different countries. That circular economy’. said, the selected retailers’ operations are concentrated in northern and western Europe and Secondly, a focus on looking to eliminate waste retailer commitments to the circular economy may and on recycling and re-use was the most common be different in Eastern Europe. element in the selected retailers’ approach to the circular economy. Kingfisher, for example, report on The selected retailers articulate their commitment ‘seizing opportunity in a circular economy’ and to the concept of the circular economy in a variety argue that what the company describe as ‘closed of ways. However, rather than describing these loop products’ are at ‘the heart of the opportunity’. commitments, the aim here is to draw out and The company claims that ‘ultimately we want to illustrate a number of themes that characterise the see a world where creating and using products approach to the circular economy within the wastes nothing – and by 2020 we want to have European retail industry. More specifically, four 1000 products on our shelves with closed loop interlinked themes can be identified. Firstly, a credentials’. Kingfisher cites a number of specific number of the selected retailers emphasise their examples to illustrate its approach. For example, strategic corporate commitment to promoting the this retailer’s Castorama chain in France has principles of the circular economy. H&M reports its worked in partnership with Le Relais (a recycling commitment to ‘lead the change to 100% circular social enterprise) in a scheme that enables and renewable fashion’, which will involve ‘building customers to dispose of old clothes and linens in

Figure 1: The ten selected Name and website Country of origin Trading formats/retail sector European retailers, their (brands/subsidiaries) country of origin and Ahold Delhaize Netherlands Supermarket (includes Food Lion, Giant sector/trading format (and www.aholddelhaize.com Food and Stop & Shop (in USA) and Albert brands/subsidiaries). Heijn, Albert, Alfa-Beta, Mega Image and Tempo (in Europe)) Carrefour www.carrefour.com France Hypermarket/supermarket Casino www.groupe-casino.fr France Hypermarket/supermarket H&M www2.hm.com/en_gb Sweden Clothing/footwear IKEA www.ikea.com/gb/en The Netherlands Furniture Inditex www.inditex.com Spain Clothing/footwear (brands include: Bershka Massimo, Stradivarius, Zara, Zara Home and Uterqüe) Kingfisher www.kingfisher.com UK Home improvement (stores: B&Q, Brico Dépôt, Castorama, Koçta and Screwfix) Marks & Spencer UK Department store/food (subsidiaries: M&S www.marksandspencer.com Food and M&S Bank) METRO Cash & Carry www.metro-cc.com Germany Cash and carry/warehouse club (supplies independent retailers worldwide) Rewe www.rewe-group.com/en/ Germany Supermarket, Home improvement and Tourism outlets (includes Adeg, B1 Discount Baumarkt, 164 Bila, Merkur, Jahn Reisen and Toom) © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 containers outside some of the company’s stores. In a similar vein, Kingfisher reported that Screwfix Reflections Some, but not all, of Europe’s major retailers have Major European UK was extracting valuable parts, as well as publicly signalled a commitment to the circular plastics and metals from used and damaged power retailers and economy – such commitments are largely, but not tools collected in store. These are then broken exclusively, aspirational. It remains to be seen how the circular down into ten different streams and each stream is far the major European retailers will go to pursue economy sold to specific companies who repurpose the these aspirations and it may be some time before parts or materials. appropriate data is collected, and made available, IKEA claims that ‘throughout our value chain, we by the selected retailers to enable academic aim to use renewable and recycled resources as researchers to assess retailers’ achievements in efficiently as possible, to make sure that we create adopting circular economy principles. However, a value rather than waste’. Similarly, Inditex claim ‘to number of more general issues surrounding the facilitate our garments having a second life’, and it concept of the circular economy within the retail reported that ‘in 2015 we launched “Closing the sector of the economy merit attention and Loop”. The aim of this initiative is the re-use and discussion. Firstly, while many of the retailers’ recycling of textile products, footwear and access - claim a strategic commitment to the circular ories, strengthening the circular economy’. Carrefour economy, such commitments are, in many cases, report that ‘the goal is to recycle all waste’ and currently limited. They focus, specifically, on waste, Ahold Delhaize outlines its work in looking for recycling, re-use and the use of sustainably ‘innovative solutions to reduce food waste’. Casino sourced materials, across some (but not all) of the cite ‘reducing and reusing waste to promote a companies’ product ranges. As such, the majority circular economy and fight pollution’ as one of its of retailers’ commitments to the circular economy corporate social responsibility commitments and generally do not fully embrace all stages of the the company evidences this commitment with product life cycle – they do not extend to product specific examples of how the company sort and design and production, marketing and consumption recycle waste from stores in France. as well as recycling and re-use. That said, at best, many retailers may just be embarking on a long Thirdly, some of the selected retailers emphasise and complex journey to gradually transform their the importance of moving towards a life cycle businesses to a circular economy model. While the approach as part of their commitment to the major retailers can certainly influence their circular economy. IKEA, for example, argue that: suppliers, these retailers have limited control of ‘to make the world a more sustainable place we the, often complex and geographically diverse, have to begin somewhere. By planning for our sourcing of products and of the life cycles of the products’ next life at the design stage, we get a products they sell. head start. To make more from less, we also use materials that are renewable and recycled and Secondly, the transition to a circular economy from more sustainable sources. Our products within the retail sector of the economy would both must last as long as they are needed and be drive and demand major changes in consumer easy to care for, repair, better for our customers behaviour and consumption patterns. The and our planet’. transition to a circular economy could see the growth of a larger service economy with a greater Further, IKEA suggest ‘we need to rethink accent on consumers leasing products, as and everything from the materials we use, to how we when they are required, rather than on purchasing power our stores, and how we can make our and owning products, and then discarding them products live longer’. when their useful or fashionable life is seen to be

at an end. Such a move would surely be seen to Fourthly, some of the selected retailers looked to challenge the current social value that consumers explicitly include a customer focus within their ascribe to many of the products and services they commitment to the circular economy. IKEA, for buy. This may, in turn, make it difficult for large example, stress the importance it attaches to numbers of consumers to buy into second-hand or helping ‘our customers create a better life at reusable patterns of consumption. In some ways home’ and claim that ‘when you bring the products this new consumption culture would seem to run home, we want to help you make them live longer, counter to the current ethos and business model or give them a new life, when you no longer need of the leading retailers. More generally, it remains them’. METRO report ‘developing a customer to be seen how enthusiastically consumers will guidance system for products which can be embrace the realities of the circular economy; not recommended in terms of sustainability in order to least because it might be seen by many as a 165 support conscious purchase decisions’. Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 reverse of progress towards a better life, i.e. one consumption behaviour. More contentiously, there Major European that involves ‘a sacrifice of our current, tangible must be concerns that major retailers might needs and desires, in the name of a better but effectively capture the concept of the circular retailers and uncertain future’ (European Commission, 2012, p. economy to justify continuing economic growth. the circular 9). economy Thirdly, there are wider, more fundamental and References Deloitte (2017) Global Powers of Retailing 2017: The art contentious issues about the relationship between and science of customers. Available at the emergence of a circular economy and existing https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/globa economic and political structures. Gregson et al. l/Documents/consumer-industrial-products/gx-cip-2017- (2015) for example, argue that a circular economy global-powers-of-retailing.pdf (last accessed 30/5/18). Ellen McArthur Foundation (2017) Circular Economy ‘would require radical transformations to the Overview. Available at economic order, including fundamental recasting of https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular- manufacture, retail, consumption and property economy/overview/concept (last accessed 14/11/17). EuroCommerce and the European Retail Round Table rights’ (p. 235). Such radical changes would extend (2015) REAP 2016–2018: Circular economy agreement. far beyond the retail sector of the economy and, Available You were missed! given its global supply chains, well beyond Europe. europa.eu/environment/industry/retail/pdf/REAP%20Cir Concerns have been expressed that the concept of cular%20Economy%20Agreement.pdf (last accessed 10/11/17). the circular economy might be captured by European Commission (2012) Policies to Encourage corporate interests, and more specifically by Sustainable Consumption. Available at corporate capitalism. Valenzuela and Böhm (2017), http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/pdf/report_22 for example, suggested that: 082012.pdf (last accessed 8/8/17). European Retail Round Table (2017) How to Make the ‘given the all too obvious social and Circular Economy Happen – Retailers’ Approach. Available environmental crises associated with out-of- at http://www.errt.org/content/how-make-circular- bounds growth capitalism, the circular economy economy-happen-%E2%80%93-retailers%E2%80%99- has been one of the main references for approach (last accessed 31/5/18). Hobson, K. (2016) ‘Closing the loop or squaring the circle? rebuilding and reforming a political economy of Locating generative spaces for the circular economy’, sustainable growth’ (p. 23). Progress in Human Geography, 40, 1, pp. 88–104. International Baccalaureate (2016) Circular economy now However, they further argued that the terms included in IB Curriculum. Available at http://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the-ib/circular- ‘circular economy’ and ‘sustainability’ were economy-now-included-in-ib-curriculum/ (last accessed effectively being ‘captured by politic-economic 19/1/18). elites claiming that rapid economic growth can be Gregson, N., Crang, M., Fuller, S. and Holmes, H. (2015) ‘Interrogating the circular economy: the moral economy achieved in a way that manages to remain of resource efficiency in the EU’, Economy and Society, responsible to environment and society’ 42, 2, pp. 218–43. (Valenzuela and Böhm, 2017, p. 27). Kalmykova, Y., Sadagopan, M. and Rosado, L. (2018) ‘Circular economy – from review of theories and practices to implementation tools’, Resources, Conclusion Conservation and Recycling, 138, pp. 190–201. The concept of the circular economy has attracted Kama, K. (2015) ‘Circling the economy: resource-making and marketization in EU electronic waste policy’, Area, 7, attention within the European retail industry and a 1, pp. 16–23. number of the major European retailers have Korhonen, J., Honkasalo, A. and Seppälä, J. (2018) signalled their commitment to promoting the ‘Circular economy: the concept and its limitations’, Ecological Economics, 143, pp. 37–46. transition to a more circular economy. That said, Murray, A., Skene, K. and Haynes, K. (2017) ‘The circular many of these retailers’ commitments to the economy: an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept circular economy might be seen to be aspirational. and application in a global context’, Journal of Business It remains to be seen how far major retailers will Ethics, 140, 3, pp. 369–80. Pollard, S., Turney, A., Charnley, F. and Webster, K. (2016) choose to pursue these aspirations as a ‘The circular economy – a reappraisal of the “stuff” we contribution of the wider transition to a more love’, Geography, 101, 1, pp. 17–27. sustainable future and whether or not the circular Valenzuela, F. and Böhm, S. (2017) ‘Against wasted economy can become a workable and realistic politics: a critique of the circular economy’, Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 17, 1, pp. 23–60. business model within the retail sector of the European economy. If these retailers’ public commitments to a more circular economy are to become a reality then they will not only need to effect a radical change in their current business Peter Jones and Daphne Comfort work in the models, but such a change will also need to be Business School at the University of 166 accompanied by fundamental changes in Gloucestershire (email: [email protected]). © Geography 2018 Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018

Reviews Reviews edited by Hedley Knibbs

engagement with problematic uses of data (use of relative vs absolute measures of extreme poverty being one example). While it is not written as a textbook, it contains a wide range of information that could be of use to A level geography teachers and undergraduate students, for example relating to global population change, distribution of touch on one or more of these wealth and power, the geopolitics themes as key critical components. of borders and migration, and The book considers newer cultural environmental sustainability. The aspects of health and wellbeing Our Shrinking Planet multitude of statistics makes the but also manages to keep the writing slightly dense at times, biomedical aspects in. It is Massimo Livi Bacci possibly as a result of translation realistic about the ongoing Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017 Paperback, 150pp, 13.5x21.5cm from Italian, but I would suggest it significance of pharmaceutical and £15.99 is worth persevering with for a technological treatments; driven by ISBN 978-1-5095-1584-4 constructive (rather than alarmist) wider mobilities of bodies, drugs Within the timescale of one perspective on global population and policy that no longer respect generation the global population change. international boundaries. It equally will rise by 2.5 billion, yet the real Nicola Walshe identifies that public and problem we face is not so much Anglia Ruskin University population health are characterised the increase in numbers as the by complex causalities in which the fact that growth will be highly Health Geographies: interplay of compositional and uneven. This is the premise on contextual factors continue to which demographer Massimo Livi A critical introduction matter. There is a richness of Bacci writes Our Shrinking Planet, a Tim Brown, Gavin J. Andrews, method noted in the book’s call to direct attention to what he Steven Cummins, Beth relational thinking about life-course argues is the neglected issue of Greenhough, Daniel Lewis and or stage but also critical insights population within recent Andrew Porter into how health and illness emerge discussions of sustainable Hoboken, NJ, and Chichester: and are produced. development. In eight carefully John Wiley and Sons, 2018 Different places/spaces of care crafted chapters, Bacci challenges Paperback, 290pp, 17x24.5cm are also discussed, from formal to the idea that our present era is £22.99 informal, and the book is ISBN 978-1-118-73902-0 marked by the arrival of an ‘end to illustrated throughout by useful As a first new book on critical demography’ in which the world will graphics and phrases (‘from gap to health geography in almost a reach stationary population decade, this is a readable and gradient’, ‘biological citizens’) that numbers and a homogenization of affordable student text for capture and distill some of the demographic behaviours. In undergraduate geographers. It is thinking around inequalities and support of this argument, he organised into four broad sections, biopolitics. While age, income and critically examines the implications namely: Body, Health and Disease; deprivation continue to shape of disproportionate demographic Changing Spaces of (Health) Care; specific outcomes like mortality development for domestic social Producing Health; and Emerging and morbidity, health means a stability, international migration Health and Biosecurity, with 12 great deal more than that and this flows, the balance of power among chapters in total. is captured in a book that is an nations, and the natural More important are the five over- excellent introduction to the main environment, with an overall arching themes: neoliberalism; narrative of how we might create contemporary concerns of health inequality; globalisation; more effective global mechanisms geography; an under-estimated urbanisation; biopolitics; and for sustainable development. field of geographical study that has resistance/resilience/care. Each A particular strength of the book wider disciplinary relevance and of the individual chapters, ranging is Bacci’s in-depth consideration of appeal. across scales from the body to spatial variations in demographic Ronan Foley community to global health policy, 167 trends, as well as critical Maynooth University, Ireland Geography Vol 103 Part 3 Autumn 2018 © Geography 2018 Oceans: A very short introduction to the science of the vast field there are always areas oceans, a facet of the world that where the coverage is weaker. I felt Reviews introduction geography can sometimes neglect the material on physical Dorrik Stow these days. It covers the field oceanography was less Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017 comprehensively, in a readable, comprehensive and sometimes too Paperback, 184pp, 11x17.5cm attractive and well illustrated form, simple – the description of the £7.99 ISBN 978-0-19-965507-6 although the writer is a marine Ekman spiral and its consequences geologist and the book therefore missed the opportunity to link to has a strong geological focus. The ocean gyre physics, and the latter might put off a geographical explanation of the difference reader, although those with an between the meteorological term interest in palaeoenvironmental ‘easterly’ and the oceanographic change and marine sediments will term ‘eastward’ did not work. find these aspects of the book to Nevertheless, for those with little be excellent. This marine geology previous knowledge of the oceans, focus does also mean that there is and the vital role they play in a very good coverage of marine range of climate processes, this biological processes, which will be neat little volume will prove an of interest to those taking the excellent introduction. Oceans: A carbon cycle material of the new A very short introduction will be an level syllabus. I particularly liked asset as a background that the book had folding front and geographical library resource. back covers that could be used as Grant Bigg This little book (it will literally fit bookmarks or reference holds. inside a large pocket!) is a good University of Sheffield In such a short introduction to a

GA student conferences

Ensure your students are ready for their A level geography assessments with expert help from the GA. Applicable to all the 2016 specifications and covering a range of topics, including getting ready for your independent investigation, writing up your independent investigation and A level revision, the GA’s conferences will help students to focus on core topics and exam skills. Find out more at www.geography.org.uk/ CPD-courses 168

GeAutumnogr 2018 Vol 103 Part 3aph y

Contents

Editorial: 125 years of the Geographical Association David Lambert on behalf of the Geography Editorial Collective

125 years of the Geographical Association Peter Jackson

Twenty-five years of progress in physical geography: a personal view of its antecedents and trajectory Angela Gurnell

Geographies of mobility: a brief introduction Simon Cook

Everyday justice? Local practices in Fairtrade’s global system Agatha Herman

This Changing World The changing world of the Arctic Duncan Depledge and Caroline Kennedy-Pipe

Major European retailers and the circular economy Peter Jones and Daphne Comfort

Reviews Edited by Hedley Knibbs

(print) ISSN 0016-7487 (online) ISSN 2043-6564 The Geographical Association is a registered charity: no. 1135148