Detlef Müller-Mahn

Urban Riskscapes—Social and Spatial Dimensions of Risk in Urban Infrastructure Settings

A central challenge of urban risk governance lies in the complexity of the overlapping of multiple risks. This problem is particularly relevant and obvious in urban infrastructure settings. The concept of riskscapes addresses and integrates various aspects of risks: the overlapping of different risks, the multiplicity of perspectives on the same spatial area and spatially different meanings and consequences. An important aspect of the riskscapes concept lies in the range of perspectives regarding the risks. This article takes a closer look at aspects of multiplicity and overlaps of different riskscapes as well as the spatial and temporal dynamics of risks and riskscapes while turning to empirical findings on the transportation of hazardous goods. This is discussed with a specific focus on stationary and mobile forms of risk in the context of urban infrastructures. Based on a comparison of risk management in the Netherlands and in Germany, an aligned risk management strategy in regard to spatial planning and hazardous incidents regulation is recommendable. A context-sensitive, practice-oriented, and socio-spatial understanding of risks is necessary to grasp the context of specific urban situations and to get an in-depth understanding of risk situations—including the aspects stationary and mobile risks.

“We Are Part of Zanzibar” – Translocal Practices and Imaginative Geographies in Contemporary Oman-Zanzibar Relations

Particularly since the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, relations between Oman and Zanzibar have been marked by contested political views and conflicting versions. While from the perspective of Oman the relation to Zanzibar meanwhile often seems to be of only minor significance, in Zanzibar it has been of high ideological and imaginative value and is a dominant argument in political controversies until today. However, instead of engaging in the wider and more macro-level political and economic debates about the relationship between Oman and Zanzibar, the aim of this paper is to ground these in the everyday practices and imaginative geographies of those actually constituting the translocal connections. Focusing on emotional, material and individual business ties between the two places, we illustrate how contemporary connections are lived and experienced by Zanzibari Omani. Only this, we argue, can provide a deeper understanding of the ambiguity and complexity of these personal relations, thus adding an important but often ignored dimension to the current discussions of Oman’s translocal relations.

DISSOLUÇÕES DA "DICOTOMIA NORTE-SUL": aspectos geográfi cos do debate sobre o desenvolvimento*

The author searches for explanations why it no longer makes sense to conceive the world in a dichotomized form as “North” and “South”. He argues that globalization has contradictory effects on development, predominantly by making reference to theories of contemporary German geographers such as Fred Scholz and his theory of fragmenting development. Adverse effects are observable both in the so-called “South” and in the so-called “North”; the latter has to deal with its own dissolution which manifests itself for example through new patterns of migration. RESUMEN El autor busca explicar por que no hace mas sentido pensar el mundo en una forma dicotomizada como “Norte” y “Sur”. El argumenta, principalmente a traves de teorias de geografos alemanes contemporaneos, entre cuales se destaca Fred Scholz y su teoria del desarrollo fragmentador, que la globalizacion tiene efectos contradictorios sobre el desarrollo. Esos efectos adversos son observables tanto en el llamado “Sur” cuanto en el llamado “Norte”; el ultimo debe lidiar con su propia disolucion, lo que se maniÞ esta principalmente a traves de nuevos patrones de migracion. Mots-cles: Globalizacion, dicotomia “Norte-Sur”; desarrollo fragmentador; cooperacion para el desarrollo; migracion..