Julian S. Yates

Debating the ‘post-neoliberal turn’ in Latin America

In this paper, we critically engage with the notion of a ‘post-neoliberal turn’ in Latin America. The analysis interrogates the existence and characteristics of post-neoliberalism as a mode of regulation, and explores the contributions (and limits) of the concept as a means of theorizing political and economic restructuring. We critically synthesize the literature, articulating commonly cited principles and practices of post-neoliberalism according to different political, ideological, and geographical contexts. To generate productive engagement across disciplinary and geographical boundaries, we draw on perspectives from Latin America and on concepts of ‘variegated neoliberalization’ and ‘counter-neoliberalization’ (thereby abstracting from, rather than about, Latin America).

Multiple ontologies of water: Politics, conflict and implications for governance:

We ask what it would mean to take seriously the possibility of multiple water ontologies, and what the implications of this would be for water governance in theory and practice. We contribute to a growing body of literature that is reformulating understanding of human–water relations and refocusing on the fundamental question of what water ‘is’. Interrogating the political–ontological ‘problem space’ of water governance, we explore a series of ontological disjunctures that persist. Rather than seeking to characterize any individual ontology, we focus on the limitations of silencing diverse ontologies, and on the potential of embracing ontological plurality in water governance. Exploring these ideas in relation to examples from the Canadian province of British Columbia, we develop the notion of ontological conjunctures, which is based on networked dialogue among multiple water ontologies and which points to forms of water governance that begin to embrace such a dialogue. We highlight water as siwlkw and the processual concept of En’owkin as examples of this approach, emphasizing the significance of cross-pollinating scholarship across debates on water and multiple ontologies.

Reclaiming and recirculating urban natures: integrated organic waste management in Diadema, Brazil

Although developing world cities are increasingly the focus of urban political ecology perspectives, waste remains an underexplored aspect. This paper helps to fill this thematic gap by using urban political ecology as a lens for analyzing flows of food waste in the Brazilian city of Diadema. The marginal urban poor in Diadema, as in most other cities in Brazil, lack access to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables yet must cope with a disproportionate accumulation of uncollected waste. Integrated organic waste management, consisting of decentralized household-waste collection by organized recycling groups, waste processing, and the utilization of food waste for composting and urban food production, is presented as way of reclaiming and recirculating urban natures for potentially positive socioecological change. However, it is a process characterized by conflict and potential exploitation, while broader structural conditions constrain the ability of the system to offer an alternative to existing waste-management models. The paper concludes with a call for further action-oriented research within urban political ecology to reveal opportunities for new socioecological futures which should occur at multiple scales and emerge from the lived realities of marginalized actors such as catadores (recyclers) and urban gardeners.

Enhancing Livelihoods and the Urban Environment: The Local Political Framework for Integrated Organic Waste Management in Diadema, Brazil

Abstract Drawing on a participatory study of integrated organic waste management, this article explores the local political barriers and preconditions for its implementation in Diadema, Brazil. Solid waste management in Brazil is embedded in and mediated by a political framework that is characterised by uneven power geometries. This article explores how the local political context affects the potential for integrated organic waste management in Diadema, paying particular attention to relations between stakeholders. The discussion addresses the contested nature of deliberative decision-making spaces and the need for pro-active socio-environmental policies. The findings underline the importance of a praxis of everyday public participation that goes beyond rhetoric.

Limits to adapting to water variability in rural Nepal: Gaps in community-based governance

Rural communities in the low-lying plains and lower hills of Nepal remain vulnerable to changes in watershed dynamics. A range of coping and adaptive strategies are being implemented to address technical and infrastructural needs relating to agriculture, ecosystem management and disaster prevention. However, to ensure the equity and equality of these measures in relation to water, effective governance mechanisms that link different water users (e.g. upstream and downstream) emerged as an important, yet contested, component. Conflict exists between local water users (both within and between villages in the same watershed), the resolution of which has been hampered by ineffective and inactive water user committees that lack proportional representation and the institutional capacity for sufficient responsiveness. The paper concludes with suggestions for reviving effective committees at the community scale, bearing in mind the need for institutional and organizational stability, equality and sustainability.