Turnbull, Thomas. (2014) ‘Review of Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil’, Area, Vol. 46, Iss.1, pp. 115-117. (original) (raw)

AI-generated Abstract

The review critically assesses Timothy Mitchell's ‘Carbon Democracy,’ which articulates the intricate relationship between political power and the geopolitics of oil. By tracing oil's role through extraction processes, technological transformations, and geopolitical narratives, Mitchell argues that a closer examination reveals how the material properties of energy influence political structures and democratic practices. The review highlights the implications for geographical studies, urging a reevaluation of how energy resource dynamics shape socio-political realities.

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‘Our Land’: An Introduction

Nature and Space in Contemporary Scottish Writing and Art, 2019

, ahead of the debate on the new Land Reform Bill, a group of Our Land campaigners gathered on the steps of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Their message to the Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) was clear and concise: 'Be Brave'. Over the past few years, members of the Our Land campaign and of more formal organisations such as Community Land Scotland, which, since its inception in 2010, has been committed to promoting community land purchase and supporting land reform, have repeatedly urged the Scottish government to take strong action and break with the land ownership system that has barely been reformed since the mid-sixteenth century and that has 432 landowners (comprising Scottish lairds, 'sheikhs, oligarchs and mining magnates') account for half of all Scotland's privately owned land. 1 There are few issues as fundamental and volatile as that of land ownership and open access, particularly when set against the backdrop of Scotland's recent political and cultural re-examination, be it before or after the Scottish independence referendum. An exercise in participatory democracy, the issue has been on the agenda for over two decades. Scotland has seen increasingly pressing demands for a fairer redistribution of land, a remarkable increase in community buyouts since the 2003 Land Reform Act, and the commercial success and widespread media coverage of publications such as Andy Wightman's

Spatial Politics in Practice: The Style and Substance of Environmental Direct Action

Antipode, 2004

According to many commentators, Environmental Direct Action (EDA) has become a growing political force in recent years. This paper explores the style and substance of EDA by focusing on one indicative example of EDA activity, the anti-quarry campaign at Ashton Court, Bristol, UK. The paper will argue that EDA is a political practice constituted by an imbroglio of premises, practices, identities, and modes of organisation that in a variety of ways asserts its difference to those of the liberal democratic system. The paper will go on to show that EDA is politically and geographically significant as it has been successful in taking and making space in line with its own cultural values. Through being successful in this way, EDA has entered into a dialogic relationship with the political practices of the State that can offer a useful tracing of how power struggles are played out in material and symbolic space.

The discursive politics of 'fracking': Frames, storylines, and the anticipatory contestation of shale gas development in the United Kingdom

How contested sources of energy such as shale gas are perceived in frontier countries considering their development is incredibly important to national and international climate policies. The UK shale development case is of particular interest currently as the Government attempts to position the UK as a pioneer of European, safe, sustainable shale gas development. We conduct a mixed-methods analysis of the UK policy debate on shale gas development involving 30 stakeholder interviews and 1557 political documents. This empirical focus extends the existing literature by identifying the use of frames in and through the institutions and practices of formal UK politics. We identify nine key frames and their associated storylines, analyse their use over time, and compare these findings with other national case studies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given most UK Governments within our timeframe have supported shale development, pro-shale development frames dominate in the policy debate; however, we also find a high level of anti-shale development frame use, suggesting a deep and ongoing framing contest in national formal political sites. We find in particular a more prominent focus on land-use issues and impacts on the landscape than other UK studies or other national contexts. Conceptually, the study puts forward an integrative approach to the related concepts of frames and storylines, as well as arguments concerning the impotence of storylines in anticipatory political debate and the polyvalence of framing strategies. Questions about governance are raised by the general lack of consensus over the framing of shale development within formal political sites, let alone amongst the broader public; and by the lack of a coherent response from the Government to criticisms of its approach. Finally, we reflect on the apparent lack of evidence for Hajer’s ‘communicative miracle’ in our case, and speculate as to whether the lack of broad-based resonance of the ‘bridge’ storyline signals trouble for the positive-sum thinking of ecological modernisation.

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