Geographers have shown how mobile phones are transforming urban economies in Africa by altering the temporal and spatial nature of commercial transactions. Less well‐documented is how young people in Africa are using mobile phones to navigate the interplay between personal hopes, social expectations and financial uncertainty associated with urban life. Drawing on qualitative data from youth in two

Recently, much scholarship has been dedicated to exploring China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A majority of this work has focused on global dimensions of the BRI, typically considering notions of a changing geopolitical landscape or South–South cooperation. However, these grand narratives often displace local realities, especially in the arenas of local political conflict and environmental degradation

While water networks were built at the same time as modern cities to avoid epidemics, today urban water studies seldom take into account the criterion of quality, which, however, remains essential in characterising drinking waterscapes. Papers defining drinking waterscapes focus on the importance of certain factors – topography, socio‐economic levels, cultural or political aspects, among others – to

As a geographical tool, epidemiology represents a distinct way of seeing and knowing disease. Used as a governmental rationality to control animal disease, changes in epidemiological practice have been understood as technological evolutions. In doing so, however, this view disguises the “messy realities” of epidemiology, the relationship between different epidemiological practices, and the work required

This paper examines the multiple temporalities of lifestyle migration through the study of the Houniao (“snowbirds”), mostly retirees from northern China. It attends to their seasonal migration to Sanya and Haikou, and explores the reconstruction of everyday practices, experience, and identities in association with their perceptions of past, present, and future. Personal biographies and national socio‐economic

Inspired by Japanese faith groups, organic food production has witnessed surprising growth in East Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, over the past two decades. The rapid expansion of East Asian trans‐national organic food production networks is closely linked with religious practices and beliefs, such as ahimsa (non‐killing). The complexities of transnational organic production

The economic crisis which has affected the southern EU countries since 2008 set in motion new migration trends. In the case of Portugal, post‐crisis migrations have been in two main directions: northwards to more prosperous European countries, and southwards to former colonies in Africa, notably the oil‐producing state of Angola. Focusing on this latter migration, the paper is structured around two

This paper focuses on the interplay between environmental narratives, identity politics and the management of forest resources in Madagascar. While efforts to conserve the island's biological diversity have centred primarily on the designation of protected areas, policies have increasingly focused on local communities. The experiences of the last 20 years have shown that community-based approaches

This paper investigates the extent to which entrenched interests of stakeholder groups both maintain water use practice, and may be confronted. The focus is on the agricultural sectors of Yemen and Jordan, where water resource policymakers face resistance in their attempts to reduce water use to environmentally sustainable levels through implementation of water demand management (WDM) activities. Some

The peri-urban area is the region where there is a more dynamic interaction between the urban and rural. The peri-urban area supplies natural resources, such as land for urban expansion and agricultural products to feed the urban population. In arid and semi-arid lands, such as northern Mexico, these areas may also be the source of water for the city's domestic demand. In addition, scholars argue that

In the wake of the report of the World Health Organisation's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, Closing the gap in a generation (Marmot 2008), this invited commentary considers the scope for geographical research on global health. We reflect on current work and note future possibilities, particularly those that take a critical perspective on the interplay of globalisation, security and

Geographers play important roles in public health research, particularly in understanding healthcare accessibility, utilisation, and individual healthcare experiences. Most accessibility studies have benefited from the increased sophistication of geographic information systems (GIS). Some studies have been enhanced with semi-structured in-depth interviews to understand individual experiences of people

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is an activity intimately associated with social deprivation and environmental degradation, including deforestation. This paper examines ASM and deforestation using a broadly poststructural political ecology framework. Hegemonic discourses are shown to consistently influence policy direction, particularly in emerging approaches such as Corporate Social Responsibility

The global food system is coming under increasing strain in the face of urban population growth. The recent spike in global food prices (2007–08) provoked consumer protests, and raised questions about food sovereignty and how and where food will be produced. Concurrently, for the first time in history the majority of the global population is urban, with the bulk of urban growth occurring in smaller-tiered

This paper is about the geopolitics of animal health governance. Through a biosecurity event in South Africa's pig sector we examine changes in the way the governance of disease risk is configuring intra-national spaces. Our case suggests an emerging geopolitics of animal health, one that is defined not by differences between nations but by a more complex patchwork of ‘secure’ and ‘unruly spaces’.

This paper argues that participation in natural resource management, which is often coupled with moves for more local ownership of decision making, is based on three sets of assumptions: about the role of the state, the universality of application of such approaches and the transformatory potential of institutional reform. The validity of these assumptions requires investigation in view of the rapid

As demand and competition for water resources increase, the river basin has become the primary unit for water management and planning. While appealing in principle, practical implementation of river basin management and allocation has often been problematic. This paper examines the case of the Krishna basin in South India. It highlights that conflicts over basin water are embedded in a broad reality

This paper uses a mixed methods approach to characterise the experience of food insecurity among Inuit community members in Igloolik, Nunavut, and examine the conditions and processes that constrain access, availability, and quality of food. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n= 66) and focus groups (n= 10) with community members, and key informant interviews with local and territorial health

This article uses the concepts of "human stewardship" and "ruined landscape" as a theoretical framework for analysing the community's perception of landscape change in the ancient tula well system of Borana in southern Ethiopia. The ancient tula well system, the main permanent water source, has been in operation for more than five centuries and it closely links human activity and the environment. The

Various land management strategies are used to prevent land degradation and keep land productive. Often land management strategies applied in certain areas focus on the context of the physical environment but are incompatible with the social environment where they are applied. As a result, such strategies are ignored by land users and land degradation becomes difficult to control. This study observes

In January 2010 we learnt that within London the best-off 10th of the population each had recourse to 273 times the wealth of the worse-off 10th of that population (Hills et al. 2010, An anatomy of economic inequality in the UK Report of the National Equality Panel, Government Equalities Office, London). It is hard to find any city in an affluent country that is more unequal. This wealth gap did not

Current governance configurations have been signalled as a key driver for, but also a potential solution to, food insecurity and sustainability challenges. In this context, cities are becoming key transition spaces where new food governance systems are being fashioned, creating “spaces of deliberation” that bring together civil society, private actors, and local governments. To date, food governance

The Nagoya Protocol encourages academics, government bureaucrats, and traditional owners to look at how customary law might be utilised within state law frameworks to improve and resolve “access and benefit‐sharing” processes. This paper examines and reviews legal, anthropological, and historical texts relating to biodiversity and associated knowledge to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island

In fewer than four months in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread from China to 25 countries and Taiwan, becoming the first new, easily transmissible infectious disease of the twenty-first century. The role of air transport in the diffusion of the disease became obvious early in the crisis; to assess that role more carefully, this study relates the spatial-temporal pattern of the SARS