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networks and through various human interactions. Spaces are unique
and specific, but simultaneously conjoined and universal.
Box 2.1: Features of different types of spaces
Geographical spaces: features of the 'natural environment'
• local and regional ecologies (for example, biotic and abiotic characteristics)
• type of species (for example, speciic plant and animal species)
• topography and land form (for example, mountains, valleys)
• lows and connections within and between areas (for example, ocean
currents, air currents, rivers and streams)
• climatic conditions (for example, monsoonal rains, hours of sunlight)
Political economic spaces: features of the 'social and cultural
environment'
• local and regional industries (for example, agriculture, ishing, mining, tourism)
• role of local and transnational companies (for example, business interests)
• role of local and national state, namely regulation and governance (for
example, neoliberal policy, fiscal constraints)
• instrumental and intrinsic valuing of land, air, water, energy (for example,
commodification and profit, communal access and use)
• mechanisms for transference (for example, technology, free trade zones,
shipping).
Globalising spaces: key stakeholders dealing with localised issues
• integration of local, regional, national, international, transnational levels
• transnational drivers (for example, systemic imperatives of global capitalism)
• transnational actors (for example, corporations, World Trade Organization)
• transnational activists (for example, NGOs, governments in alliance)
• global networks (for example, social networking, environmental law
enforcement agencies)
Specific incidents, trends and issues can be analysed in terms of local
conditions and international influences. We might consider, for example,
issues pertaining to the ownership and control over heavily polluting
factories in Mexico, the transfer of toxic waste to the Ivory Coast due
to lax regulation and state corruption, the impact of forest sequestration
schemes on local communities in Africa, the involvement of eco-Mafia
in waste and pollution control in Naples, and the BP oil spill off the
coasts of Louisiana and Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. Each case
deserves close attention to specific factors arising from the particular
'spaces' in which they have emerged. Such analysis also provides the
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