Urban farming

It’s increasingly common to hear about food production in the city. Throughout the world, people in the city are turning under-used urban land into highly productive  farms. This is discussed in a recent paper in Geoforum by Foeken and Owuor (2008, issue 6). They draw attention to the importance of urban (and rural) farming in a small town in Kenya. Beyond academe, urban farms in Cuba and even New York City have captured the media’s attention. And we all know that allotments have made a big comeback, not least in and around County Kildare. Even the White House has gone rural! And indeed this is one of the interesting aspects of urban farming: the fact that it subverts our everyday understandings of what urban and rural mean. For most people, no doubt, rural might equal agriculture. Fair enough. But now urban increasingly equals agriculture, too. Meanwhile, it’s easy enough to find lots of ways that so-called urban phenomena (noise, smells, pollution, crime, poverty) are found throughout rural areas. It sounds dull and an awful lot like waffle, but what we mean by ‘rural’ or ‘urban’ is socially constructed.

The Next General Election – A Geographer’s Guide

With the government having survived a series of hurdles in the latter months of 2009 – the renewal programme for government discussions between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, the NAMA debate and the Budget – it now looks likely that – barring a series of by-election defeats – that the next general election will take now take place some time in the spring or summer of 2012.

This election will be fought on the basis of the new electoral boundaries, as recommended by the 2007 Constituency Commission report and as legally enacted by the 2009 Electoral Act. The scope of the changes involved in this report is not as extensive as those involved in previous boundary reports, with no new constituencies created (although the Limerick and north Kerry constituencies have been renamed), only a handful of constituencies losing (Limerick City, Dún Laoghaire) or gaining (Louth, Dublin West) extra Dáil seats, and territory transfers involving some other constituencies. Although obviously having some impact at the local scale, in national terms these changes should not unduly influence the results of the next general election.

The most recent Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll currently ranks Fianna Fáil as the third most popular political party in the state, after Fine Gael and the Labour Party, and the local and European elections of June 2009 proved to be the first national elections since the late 1920s in which Fianna Fáil did not emerge as the largest party in terms of votes and seats. In the local elections, Fianna Fáil won over 125,000 fewer votes and 122 fewer seats than Fine Gael did, but they did win over 200,000 more votes and 86 more seats than Labour did. On this basis, while Fianna Fáil currently trail Labour in the opinion polls, it is safe to say that they will outpoll Labour at the next general election.

Labour support, by constituency, in the 2007 General Election

Why? The main reason has to do with the geography of Labour Party support, with very weak levels of support for the party registered across large tracts of the Irish political landscape – in 2007, for instance, Labour contested very constituency in the state but failed to win over 5% of the vote in any of the Connacht-Ulster constituencies (apart from Galway West), as well as Clare, Cork North-West, Laois-Offaly and Meath West. Draw a line between the cities of Dublin and Cork and there are very few pockets of solid Labour Party support to be found – with the notable exceptions of Limerick City, Galway City and the towns of Mullingar, Drogheda, Killarney and Tralee. The bad news for Fianna fáil, however, is that although Labour may not pose a serious electoral threat in a number of constituencies, these also prove to be the constituencies where the electoral threat from Fine Gael proves to be the most potent – conversely, the eastern constituencies where Fine Gael support is weakest generally tend to be the constituencies where Labour polls strongest.        

 The constituencies where the next election could be won (and lost…)

Given the nature of Ireland’s electoral system and the small numbers of votes that usually decide the destination of the last seat(s) in most constituencies, it could be argued that every Irish Dáil constituency is marginal. However, there are some constituencies where significant changes in representation levels appear unlikely at this stage (Clare, Galway East, Laois-Offaly, Waterford, Wexford) or appear to be relatively predictable (Dublin West – Joe Higgins will probably win the extra seat in this enlarged four seat constituency). On the other hands, the results in some constituencies could prove to be decisive in terms of determining the relative balance of government party (Fianna Fáil/Green Party) and Fine Gael/Labour seats, and hence the composition of the next government. Constituencies that would fall into this category include Cork East, Dublin Central, Dublin Mid West, Dublin South, Dublin South Central, Kerry North-West Limerick and Sligo-North Leitrim, but in my opinion the five key constituencies could well prove to be:  

• Carlow Kilkenny (5 seats): The government parties could easily lose two seats in this constituency. In 2007, the combined Fine Gael and Labour vote here came to 26,355, or 39.0% of the total vote, yet between them the two parties won as many seats (i.e. one!) as the Green Party did with just 5,386 votes (8.0%). Labour and Fine Gael will both be looking to take the Green Party seat, but the third Fianna Fáil seat in this constituency is also vulnerable.
• Cork South Central (5 seats): Despite combining to enter government after the last general election, both Fianna Fáil and the Green Party lost seats to Fine Gael and Labour in this constituency in 2007. As opposed to the other examples, this is a constituency where the government parties must be the ones looking to gain seats if they are to enjoy any prospect of retaining power after 2012.        
• Dublin North (4 seats): Between them, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have won roughly 60 per cent of the vote and three out of the four seats on offer in this constituency in the last three general elections. With this constituency having ceded significant amounts of territory to neighbouring Dublin West and Dublin North West in the 2007 Constituency Commission report, this constituency will be very unpredictable, but the second Fianna Fáil and/or the Green Party seat must be viewed as vulnerable to a gain by Labour or Clare Daly of the Socialist Party.    
• Dublin South East (4 seats): Traditionally, Dublin South East and Dún Laoghaire (see below) tend to be included amongst the most volatile constituencies in the state – if there is a national swing towards/against a party in an election then this will tend to assume tidal proportions in these constituencies. This has traditionally tended to be one of Fianna Fáil’s weakest constituencies, but the party won almost one and a half quotas here in 2007 and, barring a total electoral disaster, should probably hold this in 2012. The vulnerable government seat is that of John Gormley, the current Minister for the Environment, especially given that he only narrowly retained this seat in the 2007 election. However, should Gormley retain his seat, or should his seat be won instead by Fianna Fáil, then a Fine Gael-Labour government after this election might not prove to be as certain as has been expected.
• Dún Laoghaire (4 seats): As well as being one of the most volatile constituencies in the state, Dún Laoghaire lost a seat in the 2007 Constituency Commission boundary revisions, meaning that at least one of the five current incumbents will lose their seat in 2012. Of these, the most likely victim is Ciarán Cuffe, who currently holds what is probably the most vulnerable of the six Green Party seats. In 2007, Cuffe won the last seat in the constituency despite winning less than half of a quota and he proved to be highly dependent on Fine Gael and Labour transfers. With these transfers likely to dry up somewhat in 2012 and with the percentage share of the vote needed to reach the quota increased from 16⅔% to 20%, one could feel almost safe in betting a house on Cuffe failing to retain his seat in 2012: it would be an exceptional achievement if he were to hold his seat, even in slightly less unpromising times for the government parties. But given the volatility of this constituency, a national swing against Fianna Fáil would leave at least one of their two seats here vulnerable, either to a resurgent Fine Gael or Labour or to Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit alliance.             

Should Ireland introduce mandatory electoral gender quotas?

A recently published Oireachtas report on women’s participation in Irish politics has called for the introduction of mandatory electoral gender quotas. This will undoubtedly be an unpopular measure for a number of parties involved should the recommendation be carried out. Why are legally-binding gender quotas being considered in the first place?

Women are considerably underrepresented throughout all levels of Irish politics, despite accounting for half of the population (CSO, 2006). Only 13.8% of our current lower house (Dáil) is female, placing us at a global position of 84th (we were 37th in 1990!) and ranks us equally with Djibouti in East Africa (see http://www.ipu.org). This figure falls well below the world average and the internationally recommended ‘critical mass’ figure of 30%. Between 1977 and 2007, there had only been a 9.1% increase in the number of female TDs. Despite seeing a relatively significant increase of 7.1% between 1977 and 1992 (which brought female representation to 12.2%), progress since then has been considerably static. To put it in another way, the Dáil has always been at least 86% male. There is a slight improvement at local government level, with women comprising of 17.2% of our county/city councillors, but it is still strikingly low.

A number of factors have been identified as obstacles to women’s political participation: conservative and traditional gender stereotypes, voter bias, PR-STV, and district magnitude (Ireland has an average of four). These factors all come together in the candidate selection process. This has been termed the ‘secret garden’ of politics, and in Ireland this garden is highly male-dominated. Only 17.4% of candidates in the 2007 general election were women. Fianna Fáil did not field women in 28 constituencies, and the figure for Fine Gael was 30. Overall, at least 60% of constituencies had no women running for these parties. When more closely looked at, the trends that emerged are of particular interest to a feminist geographer. Significant regional variations occurred in the levels of female candidacies. Women constituted of 23% of candidates in the Dublin constituencies, 21% in Leinster and 16% in Munster, yet just 13% in Connacht-Ulster. Such regional variations are evident in all Irish elections. An urban/rural divide is even more evident for the local elections that were held last June, with women making up 25.7% of urban candidates and just 16.9% of rural candidates.

All the political parties have introduced some form of ‘token’ representation, such as voluntary quotas, training/mentoring and future targets. The above figures, however, show that these casual measures have not worked effectively, with the majority of parties failing to meet their targets in the past. This is why an Oireachtas committee has recommended that gender quotas be introduced as a matter of law. Indeed, the Irish government has been criticised in the past by both the UN and the EU for failing to do more. Arguments can be made for and against gender quotas. Those on the latter side argue that they are discriminatory against men, result in a less competent government and that women selected/elected through such means are not as respected. Those in favour would point to the very successful cases of Belgium and Spain where the proportions of women in parliament have increased dramatically since the introduction of legally-binding quotas. Will Ireland follow suit? It is hard to tell, but unless we can alleviate the root structural and cultural factors hindering politically-aspirant women in the first place, we may have no other alternative.

Haitian shock space?

There is no shortage of coverage of the horrific events in Haiti these last few days.  See, for example, the informative maps at The New York Times.  The Real News is an excellent place for alternative coverage, with original slants, and informative content from up-and-coming journalists and broadcasters. In the video below, for example, Jesse Freeston, adds to his growing reputation as an informed and sharp observer of events in and around the Caribbean and Latin America.

What’s original here, at least in terms of a lot of the Irish coverage of the Haiti earthquake, is that Freeston questions whether the United States will use crisis there as a guise to pursue what Naomi Klein has called the ’shock doctrine’ – a project of neoliberalizing a place in a time of crisis and when possible opposition to such changes is weak. Freeston’s question seems pertinent. As Klein noted in her 2007 book, new neoliberal policies were immediately pursued and then implemented in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. ‘There’s no opportunity like a crisis to make some radical changes’ -  or so says the shock doctrine.

“Climategate” scientist tells his side of the story

Penn State University climatologist Michael Mann, one of the scientists caught in fallout from the ‘Climategate’ theft of personal email conversations by climatologists in University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit,  agreed to talk to the press at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco in December, 2009.

His interview is covered in the EARTH blog.  Mann is well known and well regarded for his work in climate science, but is also used to ‘being a lightning rod for controversy in the climate debate’, due to his famous “hockey stick” climate graph, which describes changes in Northern Hemisphere mean temperature over the past 1,000 years, including a sharp upturn in the last 100 years.

He explained how innocent language can easily be misrepresented to support a particular viewpoint. Regarding the Climategate leaks, the Blog reports:

“The hackers..mined the e-mails for words and phrases to take out of context, thus misrepresenting what the scientists were actually saying to each other. Two specific examples included a couple of phrases used by [Phil] Jones in a 1999 email, in which he wrote (on the subject of reconstructing temperatures), “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

These are two of the most often-repeated examples, Mann said, but that’s “taking an innocent discussion between scientists out of context.” For example, by “hiding the decline,” Jones was not suggesting withholding data; he was referring specifically to a very well-known subject in the climate science community: A divergence in temperature reconstruction post-1960 between a 1998 Nature study based on tree ring density data by Keith Briffa and other temperature records. Briffa himself, in fact, had recommended not using the post-1960 part of his reconstruction, because it is not yet clear why that divergence occurs.

As for Jones’ use of the word “trick,” Mann noted, the scientific and mathematical community often use the term as a clever way to solve a problem — as in, “trick of the trade” or “the trick to solving the problem.”

Cyber-China

For geography tech-geeks, Danny O’Brien’s weekly Wired column in the Irish Times is essential reading. His work often highlights some fascinating aspects of the place of technology in contemporary society, aspects which geographers can often use to develop how they understand technological geographies. This week O’Brien draws attention to China’s so-called ‘patriotic hackers’: the “roving gang of justified vigilantes, attacking and taking down websites that demean or criticise China.” In Cyber-China, these hackers “defend the honour of their homeland” and even enrol in “hacker schools”! It’s a further case of the web’s network politics.

Damn you, Hannah Montana

A couple of weeks ago we had a family gathering for my grandmother’s birthday. When my cousin from Dublin arrived, my uncle greeted her by saying, “Christ Olivia you’re as fat as a fool.” My cousin looked at him, not knowing whether to hit him or to break down in tears. My cousin’s not fat at all, and my uncle wasn’t trying to insult her about her appearance.  “Fat as a fool” is actually a compliment at home. It means someone looks healthy or vibrant. But my cousin, being from Dublin and not from the countryside, wasn’t to know, hence the awkward silence that followed.

This anecdote got me thinking: Ireland is a tiny country which covers a mere 70,280 sq km, yet the range of different accents and colloquial tongue that we find across the country is astonishing. Whether it’s the different dialects of Gaelic or the different accents in English, Ireland is full of the ‘wink and elbow language of delight,’ as Patrick Kavanagh aptly described it.

When you’ve been born, bred, and buttered in Cavan, moving to Maynooth is a life changing experience. Cavan is renowned for two things, men who are tight with their money, and a thick “bogger” accent. I quickly discovered that, instead of greeting each other with a “well?” or “much of it out?”, people down the country use this crazy, “hello,” word. I’d never heard of it before, but it seems to be all the rage down here.

I’ve also discovered that half the people I come across in college have a problem pronouncing words which start with “th.” They say “tree” when they mean “three” or “tanks” is apparently “thanks.” This has me in stitches because, being from the “counthry”, I have the opposite problem. We can’t pronounce any word with a “t” in it without throwing in an “h” for good measure, like in “butther,” “wather,” and even “counthry.”

After stumbling along for three years in NUI Maynooth trying desperately to adapt to this new breed of specimen I’ve encountered – best described as “cultured” folk that grew up in towns with more than one shop, an abundance of playstations, and a language seemingly far from the English I was reared on – there is no better feeling than when I come across one of my own… another person lost in a world of ‘’likes” and “whatevers.” But I can’t help feel that this kind of experience will be gone soon. Just like the diminishment of the Irish language, Ireland’s vast array of different accents and “twangs” are slowing dying out. Americanisation, globalisation, call it what you will, has given birth to a distinguished “Mid-Atlantic” Irish accent which is infecting our cities and countryside alike (I like to call it the language of “The Hills”). It’s a real shame that the sayings and slights of tongue which have survived the plantations, the famine, and which have been passed down through generations, are slowly being killed off by the likes of Hannah Montana, Friends, and other global influences.

Although we are privileged to be living in one of the most affluent and integrated societies in the world, its pains me to see the death of the colloquial languages that have been the cornerstone of Irishness. Whether it’s the incomprehensible Donegal man or the warm accent of the man from Kerry, surely we must strive to keep our identities intact.

A guest post written by Mark Farelly, 3rd year Geography student.

The Irish Geography of Tenpin Bowling

As the map below shows, Dublin is the main centre for bowling in the Republic of Ireland. In Northern Ireland, it’s Antrim/Down (or Belfast, to be more precise). These areas contain the highest number of bowling centres, which have the most lanes sanctioned by the two bowling organizations, the I.T.B.A. in the Republic and the N.I.T.B.F. in the North of Ireland. The geography here could be explained by a higher population, which provides a higher demand. But infrastructure also affects the location of bowling centres: Dublin and Belfast are well connected to their hinterlands, which makes it easier for bowlers from other countries to get to competitions held in these bowling alleys compared with bowling centres in more remote locations that couldn’t handle major competitions and everything they entail.

View Larger Map

No matter what the reasons, the fact is, if you don’t live close to these concentrations, it’s unlikely that you will make it to the top. Harsh, but true! Viewing the top men and women in 2009, from the I.T.B.A. rankings and N.I.T.B.F. rankings, it is difficult to find a bowler who doesn’t live in these two regions. In the Republic of Ireland, out of the 20 top men and woman, only two are not located in Dublin. Conan Mackey lives and bowls in Wicklow. Although he isn’t in Dublin, he is close to it. Working in the Bray bowling alley, he gets free bowling. This may contribute to his ranking. The second exception is Stephen O’Connor. He is Irish, bowls in Dublin, but lives in England. The concentration of the bowling alleys that hold ranking tournaments allows him to commute to these competitions. In Northern Ireland, 90% of the bowlers live within 20 miles of Belfast – only two ranking bowlers live further away: Kevin Horton lives in Derry and travels to bowl in the Jet Centre, Coleraine (he was a top ranking bowler before he moved away from Belfast); and the second is Paul McCauley, who bowls in the same centre.

Bowling centres outside of Dublin and Antrim/Down tend to have fewer lanes and usually don’t include a pro-shop. They are more relaxed, community based centres. Bowling in these centres will not prepare you for what it’s like to bowl in a ranking tournament. Many major competitions, including the Irish Open, National Championships and the World Cup are held in Dublin. The only exception is the City Limits tournament in Galway. This alone shows that Dublin bowlers will have an advantage over bowlers not from Dublin. Dublin bowlers have access to lanes all year round and will have used these lanes on a regular basis. To come and bowl in a tournament in Dublin can be very intimidating if you are not used to it. Nothing prepares you for the sickening nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach as the music blares over the speakers for your five minutes of practise. It’s terrifying!

A guest post written by Sarah A. Keogh, 3rd Geography Student

Is Geography killing the FIFA World Cup?

The Republic of Ireland is out of the World Cup, defying the general pattern established over the decades following Italia 90 wherein the Irish team generally failed to qualify for the competitions that were located close to home (France 98, Germany 06) while qualifying for competitions taking place on the other side of the world (USA 94, Japan/South Korea 02). The ‘hand of Henry’ may have have been part responsible for this, but perhaps more insidious was the ‘hand of Blatter’ and the dodgy FIFA decision to seed the European play-off matches (undoubtedly to protect countries such as France and Portugal), thus rewarding the big countries for underperforming in their qualifying groups while punishing smaller countries such as Bosnia, Ireland and Slovenia for having the temerity to rise above their stations in performing above expectations in their qualifying groups. Seriously folks, don’t get me started…

It also begs the question why countries like Ireland, Bosnia, Russia and Ukraine in Europe, Gabon and Egypt in Africa and Costa Rica in North America ended up having to navigate through tough qualifying campaigns only to narrowly miss out, while a country such as New Zealand (the “All Whites”) got through by beating…er…Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Bahrain. It is important that – as it’s a World Cup – all the continental regions are represented but surely there has got to be more to qualifying that beating a small Gulf state and a few small Pacific Island states (and the “All Whites” did end up losing one game to the mighty Fiji) – who are more renowned for their rugby prowess? With it proving very difficult to qualify from Europe (or well night impossible if you are not a seeded country) or Africa,  just how fair can the current qualifying process be? Is Geography killing the World Cup???     

Now that the French and Portugese – as well as the ”All Whites” - are safely through and the Irish and Bosnians out, FIFA is now moving on to the draw for the finals. There will be 32 countries taking part, with a certain number of countries qualifying from the different continental federations, and these will be divided into eight groups of four countries – Groups A to H – with the hosts, South Africa, as top seeds in Group A.  Countries will be drawn from four pots – one of which contains the seeded countries based around current FIFA rankings (South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and England). The remainder of the pots are organised on a geographical basis, but this results in some real differences in quality between the teams that can be drawn from certain pots.

Pot 2 is a good case in point – this contains teams from North America, Asia and Oceania and means a seeded country could get a difficult draw here in terms of the USA or Mexico (or in the case of Italy, either North Korea or South Korea!!!) just as easily as being drawn against the aforementioned and already maligned Kiwis. Pot 3 (Africa and rest of South America) in fairness does not contain such extremes in terms of footballing quality – African teams such as Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana offer as difficult a prospect as the South American teams (Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the generally perceived ‘easy team’ in this pool, Algeria, has already knocked out the African champions, Egypt, as well as having a proud World Cup history that involves a victory over Germany in Spain 82! Pot 4 contains the rest of the European countries and – like Pot 2 – this involves a decidedly mixed group of teams, including World ’giants’ such as France and Portgual on the one hand (albeit ‘giants’ that were not good enough to win their qualifying groups unlike most of the other teams in this pot) and lesser lights such as Switzerland, Slovenia and debutants, Serbia and Slovakia, on the other hand. 

Further adding to the geographical flavour of the draw;  the FIFA website notes that when it comes to the actual draw, “geographical criteria will also be respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group). For example, South Africa cannot play the African teams from Pot 3 and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams”. Thus South Africa are now 33.3% certain that they will be playing Paraguay or Chile or Uruguay in their one of their opening group games.

With these various geographical stipulations, the draw on Friday (4 December) is likely to result in one or two real “groups of death” – where a seeded team such as England finds itself drawn in a group involving teams like Mexico, Cote d’Ivoire and France – and a few ‘groups of sleep’ – where a seeded team such as Brazil ends up with a much easier draw involving New Zealand, Algeria and Slovakia. Some seeded teams will get the chance to slowly build up momentum, while others will be invovled in a bitter fight just to get past the group stages. With one or two hotly tipped teams’ campaigns likely to end prematurely (when it comes to the World Cup, one of these teams usually tends to be Spain!) and another four years until the next competition, is this another case of Geography killing the FIFA World Cup? You could claim it as just a case of the luck of the draw? Perhaps. But then again, as we’ve seen, the luck of the draw seems to tend to favour some countries more so than others… Maybe to make it a fair playing field, it’s time to think of detaching geography from the process.

PS: Following on the hot tip in the “Jedward” post that Lucie Jones was the one to back, this blog suggests that hard pressed readers should consider putting a few bob on Brazil or Argentina or Uruguay – South American teams always win when the competition is outside Europe and the team that wins the World Cup usually tends to be a team that has won it before! So we can reduce the list of ‘usual suspects’ down to these three!!!

Geographies of Abuse

In the wake of the Murphy report, there has been a considerable amount of attention given, not just to the individual priests who were responsible for sexual abuse, but also the Church hierarchies who protected them. What has been equally interesting are two geographies, one local, the other global, which have been incorporated into the reporting. The first refers to a Fr. Green, whose thirty-year reign of terror saw him regularly moved to new locations throughout his career. Staggeringly, these nodes on a spatial network were all found within a single Irish County, Donegal, as was graphically portrayed in RTE’s Prime Time on November 26^th and which is redrawn below.

 

In another report, in the Sunday Times of November 29^th, there was also a map representing the global dimension to the geographies of myopia, or more correctly, criminal deception, that characterised the Church’s response. The article documents that abusing priests were moved to London, Scotland, San Diego & Eureka in California, as well as East Africa, the West Indies and Japan. These local-global patterns can also be seen as representative of a wider geography of mental health, where the lingering effects of abuse in one setting, follows individuals through their lives and is reproduced across different times and spaces. Here a combination of life events and unhealthy experiential engagements in place are reflective of what Philo and Parr refer to as ‘psychotherapeutic geographies’ and also reflect Danny Dorling’s notion that ill-health is often a function of individual personal experience as well as unequal systems and genetic susceptibility. For the unfortunate boys and girls in Catholic parishes from Kilmacrenan to Kenya, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong person, shaking off horrendous experiences continues to be a difficult and trying process.