Erik Jönsson

Benevolent technotopias and hitherto unimaginable meats: Tracing the promises of in vitro meat

Today, in vitro (Latin: in glass) meat researchers strive to overhaul meat production technologies by producing meat outside animal bodies, primarily by culturing cells. In the process, meat should become healthier, more environmentally friendly and kinder to animals. In this article, I scrutinize (and problematize) this promissory discourse by examining the world that proponents envision alongside the world from which promises emerge. First, I trace the increasing number of publications striving to pinpoint the nature of in vitro meat to unveil the creation of an in vitro meat canon wherein perceived possibilities become taken for granted. Second, I investigate how the promissory discourse is often relatively silent on key aspects of how this technology could remake the world. Wet laboratories, animals and end products become foregrounded at the expense of political economy and the biophysical properties of cultured cells. Thus, questions concerning how funding requirements shape representations of this new technology, together with in vitro meat’s particular socio-spatial and socio-ecological implications, become problematically de-emphasized.

“Because I am who I am and my mother is Scottish”: neoliberal planning and entrepreneurial instincts at Trump International Golf Links Scotland

Focusing on the establishment of the first European Trump Golf development – on the Menie Estate along the Scottish North Sea coast – the paper contends that neoliberal planning, understood as state interventions to allow individual entrepreneurs to realise their visions, reshapes both planning practice and the socio-ecologies governed by planning in problematic ways. Neoliberal mindsets here cause politicians to depart from previously established practices. The paper analyses how governance becomes tied up in questions of entrepreneurial freedom and with beliefs in the capacity of an individual entrepreneur to steer the fate of the region.

Revisiting the “Subsumption of Nature”: Resource Use in Times of Environmental Change

Global material flows and resource use are increasing rapidly, with dramatic social and environmental consequences (Schandl et al. 2016). “Nature,” in all its different forms and functions, is being put to use for an expanding range of social and economic purposes, including through resource extraction and intensified cultivation. A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP 2011, 7) report, for example, notes that over the past century, “the annual extraction of construction materials grew by a factor of 34, ores and minerals by a factor of 27, fossil fuels by a factor of 12, biomass by a factor of 3.6, and total material extraction by a factor of about eight”, a trend that shows little signs of leveling off. Meanwhile, an influential Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) agricultural assessment report estimates roughly a doubling of both meat and dairy production over the first half of the 21st century, on the back of already rapid increases over the last decades (80% increase in global meat consumption and 42% increase in global milk consumption for 1980–2002) (Steinfeld et al. 2006). The unintended consequences of this expanding extraction, exploitation, and productive consumption of materials and organisms are widely known. It has triggered far-reaching changes to socionatural systems, raising widespread concerns over resource depletion, environmental degradation, pollution and—through fossil fuel combustion and livestock rearing—climate change. The depth of these concerns is powerfully illustrated by fears that humankind has now left the Holocene geological epoch, “the only global environment that we are sure is a ‘safe operating space’ for the complex, extensive civilization that Homo Sapiens has constructed” (Steffen et al. 2011, 747), to enter an uncertain Anthropocene, a thoroughly anthropogenic epoch in which “natural forces and human forces become intertwined, so that the fate of one determines the fate of the other” (Zalasiewicz et al. 2010, 2231). The recent intensification of the Anthropocene debate, in all its controversies (see, e.g., Malm and Hornborg 2014; Moore 2016), and the importance attributed to questions of environmental sustainability raise pertinent questions about the exact character of the relationship between “society” and “nature,” a question that has been of interest to scholars for ages but that, as a consequence of environmental concerns, is receiving increased attention (see, e.g., Goldman and Schurman 2000; Beck 2010; Castree 2010; Clark 2011; Moore 2015). This special issue aims to contribute to these debates by revisiting one particular thesis on socioecological relations, namely, the idea that resource use and environmental change are characterized by the subsumption of nature to industrial production processes (Boyd, Prudham, and Schurman 2001). While the origins of this idea come from a specific theoretical (Marxist) perspective, it is our contention that it raises larger questions that should be of interest not just to eco-Marxists and scholars of socioecological relations, but also to organizations grappling with environmental issues in a more hands-on way, none defined

Trump in Scotland: A Study of Power-Topologies and Golf Topographies.

During the last decade Trump International Golf Links Scotland (TIGLS) has built on land where no development was previously outlined and, appropriating parts of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, has come to occupy an important place in debates on Scottish planning policy. Though plans were initially rejected in 2007 by the Aberdeenshire planning body responsible, the Scottish Government subsequently rescaled the decision—instead approving the proposed high-end, large-scale golf resort. Besides numerous clashes with those living close to TIGLS, this has since led to highly visible protests. In this article I scrutinize TIGLSs establishment to explore the entanglements of topological and topographic understandings of space, and to illuminate power exerted through various modalities by various private and public actors. Based on interviews with politicians, activists, planners, residents and business representatives and an analysis of planning documents, developer–state communications, and marketing material, I argue that work on power-topologies and relational geographies has much to offer. But, crucially, this work simultaneously risks underplaying the role material landscapes play in conflicts over planning policy and the power exerted to dominate such landscapes. Thus, emphasizing topology proves insufficient unless coupled with a focus on the power involved in appropriating and reshaping material topographies.

The nature of an upscale nature: Bro Hof Slott Golf Club and the political ecology of high-end golf

Political ecology, as a perspective for exploring power-permeated socio-ecological transformations, has to date rarely engaged with tourism. Neither has tourism theory, with some notable exceptions, engaged much with political ecology. In this article, I argue that the resultant lack of dialogue between these signifies a loss for political ecology and tourism theory alike, but also that current conceptualisations of tourism have much to offer for instigating a dialogue. Combining social-constructivist, political economy–oriented and Actor–Network-Theory conceptualisations of tourism with political ecology work, I account for the establishment of Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Upplands-Bro, northwest of Sweden’s capital. Here, immense investments have transformed shorelines into a meticulously maintained upscale golf landscape. But the development simultaneously sparked new future visions for what Upplands-Bro could become and conflicts concerning whether the development breached local plans, thereby illuminating the political nature of tourist-oriented environmental transformation.

Economy of Fascination: Dubai and Las Vegas as Themed Urban Landscapes

Economy of Fascination: Dubai and Las Vegas as Themed Urban Landscapes is certainly an interesting introduction to two rather extreme cases of leisure-oriented urban landscapes. On the one hand, the book strives to provide a comprehensive account of the development and contemporary character of the two cities. On the other hand, the book aims to situate these two case studies within a broader “Economy of fascination” as a research perspective. According to Schmid, a focus on “attention” “can serve as a point of departure for analyzing and explaining the increasing aesthicization and theming of everyday life, and of postmodern urban landscapes in particular” (p. 24). “Fascination”, then, is the next step, distinguishing itself from “attention” “through the enchanting and spellbinding attraction that it holds, practically drawing the recipient into a dependency relationship, and also appealing to the consumer’s inner desire to be seduced and gratified” (p. 64). In this, there is in other words a clear power relation, a “dependency relationship”. In this lie some very interesting aspects, which Schmid unfortunately only broaches in passing throughout the book. The literature review and theoretical framework that Schmid draws up is quite stunning. But the analysis might hide as much as it reveals about the workings of Dubai and Las Vegas for two reasons. First, it takes both cities’ future status as given. Hence, Schmid’s book ties into a peculiarity in the literature on Dubai which becomes very evident in light of the 2008 financial crisis. Davis (2006) started his influential account of Dubai with a description of a hypothetical businessman’s descent and first day in Dubai. Technological endeavours, as well as luxurious shopping opportunities and expensive cuisine, flash before the readers eyes in a couple of introductionary paragraphs which vividly places the reader in Dubai. Yet what is presented is not Dubai as it actually existed at the time. It is the Persian Gulf city-state in 2010 (Davis, 2006, p. 49). This will to engage with, and often naturalizing, all of the spectacular future developments in Dubai is symptomatic of much of the literature on the emirate. Even Elsheshtawy (2010, p. 15) in his comprehensive biography of Dubai since the early nineteenth century states that “the city of the future, for better or worse, lies here [in Dubai]”. The sheer scale and spectacle of Dubai as vision becomes part of accounts of the emirate even before these projects have been created. The dream becomes integral to how Dubai is perceived. On page 89 of Schimd’s (2009) account of this image of Dubai is beautifully illustrated in a full-page illustration depicting the various investment projects and urban developments in Dubai, built on how the situation looked in 2008. The illustration provides a view of the Dubai coastline which entails three palm shaped islands as well as the islands shaped like European Planning Studies Vol. 19, No. 3, March 2011

On Resurrected Nuggets and Sphincter Windows: Cultured Meat, Art, and the Discursive Subsumption of Nature

ABSTRACT In this article, I scrutinize three art, design, and architecture projects engaging with “cultured,” or “in vitro,” meat (primarily muscle cells cultured outside of bodies) to illuminate the entanglements of academic and extra-academic environments that have characterized cultured meat’s history to date, and the conversations that this technology has spurred. In envisioning new ways of eating, and living, these projects (a book of hypothetical recipes, The In Vitro Meat Cookbook, Catts and Zurr’s bioartistic engagements with tissue engineering, and Terreform1’s tissue-house prototype “The In Vitro Meat Habitat”) illustrate cultural practices thought to be enabled by cell culturing’s new applications. Emphasizing such visions and conversations allows me to highlight an inattention to discursive dynamics within research on natures subsumed to industrial production processes (Boyd, Prudham, and Schurman 2001). But engaging with the “subsumption of nature” framework simultaneously allows me to problematize artistic visions presenting nature as fully malleable.

Spectacular, realisable and ‘everyday’ : Exploring the particularities of sustainable planning in Malmö

‘Sustainability’, often presented through an ecological–economic–social triad, is today one of spatial planning’s absolute key concepts (and key priorities). But it is also a highly contested concept, whose meaning is often considered evasive or vague. In this paper, we try to counterweigh such evasiveness by putting emphasis on the material landscape produced within a project that is frequently depicted as a pinnacle of sustainable planning: the Western Harbour in Malmö, Sweden. Regardless of how vague discursive definitions of sustainability are, we argue that there is a sense in which planning projects such as this one help stabilise the meaning of the concept. They become material manifestations of particular takes on sustainability. Through examining what has emerged as former shipyards and factory grounds have since 2001 been transformed within the Western Harbour, we develop a heuristic triad that highlights what is presented as sustainability therein. We argue that through the Western Harbour’s development, sustainable planning becomes ‘spectacular’ through a focus on building sustainably in a way that also attracts public attention. It becomes regarded as ‘realisable’ in that it should be achievable within current political and political–economic structures. And sustainable planning becomes about the ‘everyday’ in that technological solutions for greening inhabitants’ everyday lives are developed in a way that emphasises the local scale.

BROGÅRD BACKWARDS: THE HIGH-END GOLF LANDSCAPE AND THE MORPHOLOGY OF MANORIAL SPACE

Abstract When Bro Hof Slott Golf Club – a high‐end, highprofile golf development in Upplands‐Bro, northwest of Stockholm – opened, the Brogård manor house became its clubhouse. Here a recent history of Bro Hof Slott as leisure space intermingles with a much longer history of Brogård as a landscape shaped through 400 years of nobility ownership. In place‐marketing and in short accounts, the estates history is frequently reduced to merely a succession of names, sometimes combined with an appraisal of the scenic setting manorial ownership produced. The many hands, hooves and struggles historically shaping this landscape thus go missing, necessitating a more sustained focus on landscape morphology. How the estate landscape could be turned into an upmarket golf development is unintelligible without scrutinizing the nobility as a structuring force and the manorial landscapes current place in planning politics. Nobility power translated into extensive control of what could take place in the countryside. Brogård waschaped by crofters, tenant farmers and statare (labourers paid predominantly in kind) subordinate to the will of the estate owner, but also by all those processes resituating the nobility as class. Shaping the countryside, the nobility was in turn shaped by social movements, macro‐economic shifts and political decisions, together resulting in the particularities of the space now handled by municipal planning and appropriated to become Bro Hof Slott Golf Club. Through telling this story, I reconnect to a plea for acknowledging politics and political economy in analysing tourism and its spaces, while focus simultaneously lies on the dialectical entanglement of material landscape and its present‐day valuation.

Urban outcasts: A comparative sociology of advanced marginality

Books reviewed in this issue. Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research and Method. Schram, Sanford F. and Caterino, Brian (eds). From Public Pipes to Private Hands: Water Access and Distribution in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Kjellen, Marianne. Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality. Wacquant, Loïc. The Vertigo of Late Modernity. Young, Jock.