| Hacer visibles los lugares sombra del hormigón: los problemas ambientales y las desigualdades sociales se mezclan para formar materiales de construcción En este trabajo examinamos de manera crítica el papel dominante del hormigón en la modernización de las ciudades asiáticas desde mediados del siglo XX. Ya hace tiempo que constructores, arquitectos, urbanistas y ciudadanos destacan las ventajas del hormigón. Sin embargo, sostenemos que, en el Antropoceno, ya no es posible pensar el hormigón como un material neutro en términos sociales y medioambientales. Las fisuras del hormigón son tanto físicas como metafóricas; no solo se manifiestan en el material, sino también como problemas socioecológicos. Exploramos el lado oculto de la producción de hormigón, donde emergen esas fisuras, por medio del concepto de "lugares sombra". Se analizan estudios de caso en las afueras de Gran Manila, Filipinas, que echan luz sobre la precariedad de los medios de vida de los trabajadores de una cantera de agregados no regulada y sobre la contaminación por polvo que afecta a los barrios cercanos a algunas plantas de cemento. Estos casos ofrecen nuevas perspectivas sobre cuestiones socioecológicas específicas y sobre las maneras en que las comunidades negocian en torno a ellas. Ponemos de manifiesto los entrelazamientos del hormigón y sus implicancias para el desarrollo urbano. |
| The strengths, gender, and place framework: a new tool for assessing community engagement This paper introduces the Strengths, Gender, and Place (SGP) framework, a novel evaluative tool designed to assess community engagement in development programmes. Developed in response to calls for decolonized and locally-led development in the Pacific and beyond, the SGP framework comprises fifteen indicators across three dimensions. These dimensions evaluate the extent to which programmes leverage local strengths, address gender inequities, and implement place-based approaches that respect local knowledge and practices. The framework was applied to thirty project reports from four major development organisations in Papua New Guinea's Western Province. The study also incorporated insights from twenty semi-structured interviews with key informants, which further enriched the findings. The results revealed significant shortcomings in current community engagement practices in the region, with a heavy reliance on external resources and expertise, failure to achieve gender equity targets, and a lack of meaningful co-design with communities. The SGP framework offers a practical tool for donor agencies and practitioners, providing a robust measure to evaluate and improve community engagement in line with contemporary demands for strengths-based, gender-sensitive, and place-based approaches to development. |
| Mapping Community Economies as a Living Heritage Practice Community economy scholars are interested in performing and activating more-than-capitalist visions of economy. One of the ways they do this is through mapping. This chapter begins with an exploration of the use and value of maps and mapping in community economies research with links to heritage practice. It then examines two specific examples of community economies mapping across the Australia-Asia region. The first example reveals how inventory-based mapping across Australia and Asia can act as a performative strategy for opening up ‘the economy’ to diverse trajectories for economic development. The second example demonstrates how mapping can serve as a grassroots participatory process of community economies activation, and for this we draw on research undertaken in Mindanao, the Philippines. As community economies scholars contributing to this edited collection, which connects economies and heritage, we are curious about how mapping community economies acts as a kind of ‘living heritage practice’ whereby community economies in and across time are sites for performing and activating diversified understandings of economy. We are also interested in how human beings within those economies collectively negotiate their survival and well-being as they grapple with contemporary planetary challenges. This chapter goes some way to exploring these questions. |
| Making visible concrete’s shadow places: Mixing environmental concerns and social inequalities into building materials This paper critically examines the dominant role of concrete in the modernization of Asian cities since the mid twentieth century. While builders, architects, planners and citizens have long praised the advantages of concrete, we argue that concrete can no longer be seen as socially and environmentally neutral in the Anthropocene. When concrete cracks, it does so literally and metaphorically. The cracks manifest not only in the actual material but as socioecological concerns. We employ the concept of “shadow places” to explore the underside of concrete production where those cracks emerge. Using case studies at the edges of Metro Manila, Philippines, we shed light on the precarious livelihoods of workers in an unregulated aggregate quarry and the dust pollution affecting neighbourhoods near cement plants. These two cases offer insights not only into specific socioecological issues but also into how communities negotiate them. We expose concrete’s entanglements and their implications for urban development. |
| Strengthening Agricultural Resilience in Western Province: Scoping Study Executive Summary Our research responds to the need for a different approach to improving agricultural livelihoods in Western Province, Papua New Guinea, and is intended to guide an alternative approach to development – one that emphasises assets rather than needs. This report synthesises key findings and recommendations from the scoping study ‘Strengthening Agricultural Resilience in Western Province’ and is intended to inform future research and development investments in the region. The overall study encompasses two projects: FIS/2021/122 ‘Mapping place-based strengths and assets’, and FIS/2021/113 ‘Developing methods for strengths-based livelihoods’. FIS/2021/122 set out to map (conceptually and geographically) the place-based strengths and assets of Western Province, thus producing a knowledge base to inform agricultural development programming strategies. The project aimed to better understand what people in the Western Province currently do in relation to economic activity and market engagement and to contribute to widening the understanding of what PNG communities have to offer the process of locally-led development, including, for example, women’s leadership abilities, Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge and the untapped potential of young people. FIS/2021/113 aimed to identify locally appropriate livelihood development practices for the agricultural development sector working across the diverse regions of Western Province. The study aimed to identify suitable tools and methods for participatory livelihood development activities that are tailored to the different geographic, ecological and social contexts across Western Province. The tools and methods identified in the study are important resources (‘tools of the trade’) to enable practitioners to improve their practice. These projects were commissioned by ACIAR and DFAT to inform future programming in Western Province of Papua New Guinea. Commencing during the travel restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, the projects were designed as desktop studies. The findings rest upon a comprehensive literature review of the last decade's research and development programs in Western Province, discussions within our Stakeholder Reference Group, and 41 interviews with 37 expert informants. Respondents provided valuable reflections on their programmatic experiences, sharing success and failure stories along with insights into Western Province's various assets and strengths. Download the whole document to read more about the project findings and recommendations. Read associated final reports here: FIS/2021/122 https://www.aciar.gov.au/project/fis-2021-122 FIS/2021/113 https://www.aciar.gov.au/project/fis-2021-113 |
| From absences to emergences: Foregrounding traditional and Indigenous climate change adaptation knowledges and practices from Fiji, Vietnam and the Philippines The differential impacts of climate change have highlighted the need to implement fit-for-purpose interventions that are reflective of the needs of vulnerable communities. However, adaptation projects tend to favour technocratic, market-driven, and Eurocentric approaches that inadvertently disregard the place-based and contextual adaptation strategies of many communities in the Global South. The paper aims to decolonise climate change adaptation guided by the critical tenets of ‘Decolonising Climate Adaptation Scholarship’ (DCAS). It presents empirical case studies from Fiji, Vietnam, and the Philippines and reveals the different ways that Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) and strategies are devalued and suppressed by modernist and developmentalist approaches to climate adaptation. The paper then foregrounds some of the adaptive techniques that resist and remain, or have been re-worked in hybrid ways with ILK. Ultimately, this paper combats the delegitimisation of ILK by mainstream climate change adaptation scholarship and highlights the need for awareness and openness to other forms of knowing and being. |
| Review of "Concrete Cities: Why We Need to Build Differently" Read our book review here. |
| Accomodate diverse livelihoods This short essay is part of the last volume in the Future Cities Laboratory Indicia Series. It contributes to the principle of 'Stimulating Diverse Economies' in designing sustainable future cities. The paper is an invitation for various social and institutional actors to accommodate diverse livelihoods. It suggests that for cities to become genuinely resilient, their design and development need to pay attention to the plural and entangled forms of work that are crucial in creating a sustainable condition for both human and earth others to flourish. |
| Making a living in the diverse economy of concrete: Commoning in a contested quarry Abstract: The rapid expansion of urban development in Asia over the last 50 years has seen a rise in demand for building materials. From large construction companies to squatter settlers seeking to improve their housing, concrete is the building material of choice. In the Philippines there is plentiful supply of the limestone and aggregate (sand and gravel) required for concrete production. Alongside the large quarries owned by major corporations are small, often illegal quarries, supplying aggregate to the construction industry. In these shadow places informal miners scratch out a precarious livelihood. They are members of a vast artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) workforce that is global in extent. This paper situates informal aggregate mining in the diverse economy of concrete in the Philippines and within the context of global ASM studies. With a detailed study of one quarry on the edges of Metro Manila, it reveals how mining contributes to the survival portfolio of poor households. Without romanticising the lives of quarry labourers, we identify a range of negotiations by which informal miners create a community of commoners in a contested quarry site. This research provides insight into the capacities that informal miners could bring to designing more sustainable development pathways within and beyond the extractive industry. |
| Informal mining labour: economic plurality and household survival strategies Modern-day mining is now highly mechanized and provides regular employment to highly paid workers in many parts of the world. However, there also exist millions of individuals who gain a livelihood from informal, artisanal and small-scale mining. From a diverse economies point of view, mining is as much non-capitalist as it is capitalist. The chapter aims to depart from the binary framing of informality and formality which situates informal mining labour only as ‘other’ to formal work in the capitalist mining industry. The author positions informal mining labour as part of the survival portfolio of poor and landless households to argue for a more dynamic view that opens up different possibilities for livelihood-making. The chapter draws on research with informal miners in the Philippines who quarry mundane materials including construction aggregates to underscore that informal miners are not only involved in the extraction of valuable minerals such as gold, diamonds or coal. |
| Informal mining labour: economic plurality and household survival strategies Modern-day mining is now highly mechanized and provides regular employment to highly paid workers in many parts of the world. However, there also exist millions of individuals who gain a livelihood from informal, artisanal and small-scale mining. From a diverse economies point of view, mining is as much non-capitalist as it is capitalist. The chapter aims to depart from the binary framing of informality and formality which situates informal mining labour only as ‘other’ to formal work in the capitalist mining industry. The author positions informal mining labour as part of the survival portfolio of poor and landless households to argue for a more dynamic view that opens up different possibilities for livelihood-making. The chapter draws on research with informal miners in the Philippines who quarry mundane materials including construction aggregates to underscore that informal miners are not only involved in the extraction of valuable minerals such as gold, diamonds or coal. |
| Community economies in Monsoon Asia: Keywords and key reflections The paper has been collaboratively written with co‐researchers across Southeast Asia and represents an experimental mode of scholarship that aims to advance a post‐development agenda.This paper introduces the project of documenting keywords of place‐based community economies in Monsoon Asia. It extends Raymond William’s cultural analysis of keywords into a non‐western context and situates this discursive approach within a material semiotic framing. For Open Access, click here. |
