Artisanal refining of crude oil in the Niger Delta: A challenge to clean-up and remediation in Ogoniland

While the activities of multinational oil corporations contribute significantly to oil pollution and environmental degradation in most oil-producing countries, the extent to which illegal artisanal refineries contribute to the environmental problems in Niger Delta remains unclear. Extant literature attributes this to the expanding activities of the artisans as well as the use of crude technology in illegal oil refining. Given the widespread nature of the artisanal oil-refining economy in the Niger Delta region, we assess its contribution to the growing environmental pollution in the region. By artisanal oil refining, we mean small-scale crude oil processing or subsistent distillation of petroleum that is often outside the boundaries of the state law. This study links the continual failure of the clean-up programme in the Niger Delta to the booming artisanal crude oil-refining economy in the region. Using predominantly qualitative methods of data collection and content analysis, we adopted the enterprise value chain analysis to underscore the underlying local economic interests and external economic opportunities that sustain oil bunkering, oil theft and petro-piracy. We conclude that these illegal refining processes significantly undermine the Ogoniland clean-up project and make the remediation programme unsustainable in Nigeria.

A place-based approach to population sustainability: Demographic and economic change at the local level in Fife, Scotland

Population sustainability is a prevalent yet nebulous concept within academic and policy debates surrounding the nature and consequences of demographic and economic change. This research seeks to add nuance to understandings of population sustainability in ageing societies. The fiscal challenges posed by population ageing mean that more and more states are implementing specific policies in response to it, with limited degrees of success thus far. This investigation examines place-based understandings of population sustainability on the part of local stakeholders in a region of Scotland, a country facing significant demographic challenges and which is enacting policy measures specifically aimed at promoting population sustainability. The findings suggest that the on-the-ground realities of population sustainability are nuanced and complex. As such, there is scope for greater attention to the diversity and complexities of population and economic change at the sub-national scale in broader academic conceptualisations of and policy responses to the increasingly pressing issue of population sustainability.

The geography of financial condition in the Mexico City metropolitan area

There has been academic and policy concern about the financial capacity of administratively fragmented metropolitan areas to implement inclusive development measures and provide public services. Metropolitan public financing is problematic because there is a geographical mismatch between extended functional urban regions and administrative units. While local governments are responsible for implementing policies, spending, and raising revenues, financial capacity tends to differ across jurisdictions in response to economic, social and political factors, resulting in manifold disparities. Such variations can be particularly acute depending on the complexity and size of the metropolitan area, and can lead to major spatial disparities in the life standards of residents. This paper focuses on the local financial condition in Mexico City Metropolitan Area, which is often used to exemplify a fragmented metropolitan area. Official statistics from 1989 to 2018 are used to identify major intra-metropolitan variations in the financial condition of local governments. A novel methodology is used to classify municipalities according to their financial health, and discriminant analysis is used to explore the factors shaping the geography of financial performance. The economic and demographic size of municipalities appear to play a significant role.

COVID-19: How community businesses in England struggled to respond to their communities’ needs

Economic policies tend to downplay social and community considerations in favour of market-led and business-focussed support. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for greater and deeper social cohesion and local social support networks while highlighting that an overreliance on market forces can create social problems at times of need. Community businesses (CBs) are not for profit organisations that provide services and produce goods where the profit (or surplus) is reinvested back into that community. This article explores why CBs in England responded in a variety of ways to the COVID-19 pandemic, assesses what government policy did to help and hinder their place-based operations, and explores the observed socioeconomics of their age-related volunteer staff churn. Some CBs were ravaged by the consequences of the pandemic and associated government policies with many becoming unsustainable, while others evolved and augmented their support for and services to their communities, thereby enhancing their community’s resilience. We highlight how adjustments to government policies could enhance the sustainability of CBs, making them and the communities they serve more resilient.

Could a new Scottish CO2 transport and storage industry deliver employment multiplier and other wider economy benefits to the UK economy?

In 2021, the UK Government commenced a ‘cluster sequencing’ initiative to identify early movers in delivering carbon transport and storage (T&S) services to proximate regional industry clusters with capture potential. A Scottish proposition focussed primarily on linking the Grangemouth industry cluster to North Sea storage, and the potential to transition Oil and Gas industry capacity to deliver CO2 T&S has devolved policy support. This is in terms of potential to transition and create new direct industry and supply chain jobs, set against risks of displacing jobs in different sectors and regions of the UK. We introduce a Scottish CO2 T&S industry to a UK multi-sector economy-wide model, assessing the extent of potential expansion and job creation in the presence of supply-side and funding constraints. We find that large employment ‘multiplier’ gains registered in previous studies only apply over the very long term and in the absence of such constraints. Crucially, any need to recover demands on the public purse via socialisation of costs severely constrains possible gains, while imposing ‘polluter pays’ leads to net economy-wide contractions triggered by competitiveness losses concentrated in Scottish cluster industries, leading to offshoring of production and jobs, potentially skewed within the localities hosting the clusters.

The student urban leisure sector: Towards commercial studentification?

The case study of the student urban leisure sector in Lodz, Poland, presented in this paper encourages the reader to look at cities through the lens of the expansion of consumerism and higher education. While the mainstream of the literature dealing with students as an urban population covers accommodation issues, this paper focuses on the development of the leisure economy. To these ends, it looks at students as customers and workers of the leisure venues. The paper shows that in these venues, students are not just sizeable groups of customers but also employees. Therefore, the central areas of Lodz do not function solely as student playscapes but also as students’ places of work. Moreover, in contrast to the insights from prior studentification research, in which students were frequently reported as unwanted neighbours, in the eyes of leisure providers in Lodz, students are often kind customers and hard-working employees. Therefore, this paper argues for the nuanced treatment of students in research on cities by including a broader spectrum of roles students have as actors of urban change. The paper ends with a methodological standpoint that research into students in cities may benefit from applying the perspective of commercial studentification.

Considering the role of negotiated developer contributions in financing ecological mitigation and protection programs in England: A cultural perspective

This paper explores the potential of ‘Land Value Capture’ in addressing the shortfall in funding to address the biodiversity crisis through a series of interviews with Local Planning Authority officers in England. It finds heterogeneity in their responses to financial austerity and imperatives to deliver development, which heavily influences developer contribution (DC) practice. The response to these pressures differed depending upon localised planning culture and its interrelation with behavioural biases, which defined the scope of officer agency to influence developer contribution outcomes. Most LPAs placed a strong emphasis upon securing real estate investment to drive economic growth and to provide opportunities to secure DC to address socio-economic issues, with the status quo bias contributing towards inertia in policy and practice change. Elsewhere, there was a greater emphasis placed upon reconciling the need to deliver development with the preservation of environmental amenity, enabling officers to carefully frame practice changes, to successfully secure funding for ecological mitigation programs. The paper illustrates the cultural and behavioural challenges in implementing DC policy change to support funding these priorities, whilst this may be overcome by legislative changes, integrating these may be compromised by resource limitations whilst also affecting the existing delivery of public goods.

An agent of change against all odds? The case of Ledger in Vierzon, France

The literature in economic geography is increasingly interested in the role of human agency in local and regional development. The understanding of the role of agents of change on path development is especially critical for small- and medium-sized towns (SMSTs), which tend to be less diversified and to have fewer localised capabilities. The town of Vierzon in the Centre-Val-de-Loire region in France is a medium-sized old industrial town in a structural crisis. It is suffering from deindustrialisation, population decline, unemployment and poverty. This article takes a micro-perspective with a case study approach to explore the creation and growth of Ledger – a frontier blockchain start-up that designs, produces and commercialises hardware wallets for cryptocurrencies – against all odds in Vierzon, France. It underlines the role of a Window of Locational Opportunity, agency, chance, the broader institutional context in the location of Ledger in an unlikely place and subsequent unrelated diversification and path creation. It contributes to the debate on the interplay between agency and structure by linking agents of change in SMSTs to the broader institutional context and to the understanding of the emergence of place-based leadership.

Formulation and application of a multi-variable location quotient index in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Leading regions drive economic growth and development, and it is important to determine which sectors are driving growth. Leading sectors need to be supported while lagging sectors need to be guided towards growth. The location quotient method has been used as a regional economic development measurement tool using a single variable, mostly employment data. This paper aims to formulate and apply a multi-variable location quotient index (MVLQI), which includes four variables, allowing for a more comprehensive and consistent model. A new formula was developed as part of the methodology, and a classification matrix and index coefficient values were categorised. The new model was tested and applied in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, between 2012 and 2017. A normal index was calculated for both years and a dynamic index based on the four variables included in the model. The study’s contribution is that the outcomes from the MVLQI provide analysts with more comprehensive and consistent results for economic strategy development. The new MVLQI could be used with success in regional economic analysis in identifying sectors with high levels of concentration, comparative advantage and calculation of multipliers.