Search

A ruin infers ruination, a process that led to the site's demise and that also gives a glimpse into the site's story: who or what lived there?; how long did they live there?; where did they go?; where are they now? Implicit in this line of questioning is a link between the past, present, and future, an understanding that ruins and ruination are never quite absolute or complete. In this short article, we theorize with the concepts of ruin and ruination to consider how capitalism both depends upon and is held hostage by its own making. We aim to bring two trends in political ecology together–one that sees ruins as sites of dispossession and one that sees ruins as sites of hope–to develop what we see as a dialectic of ruination with the intention of highlighting where, how, and what kinds of resistance to capital take place within its machinations. This article serves as the introduction to a special issue on ruins and ruination in political ecology, which we see as a critical field for not only resisting capital's hold on nature-society relations but also for providing pathways towards a post-capitalist future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time of multiple, competing, and nested crises, the draw to storytelling is intuitive. Stories help us make sense of the world around us. People are drawn to stories because of their emphasis on community, and the way they create possibilities when it feels like there are none. This paper builds upon geographic research on storytelling, articulating how stories are critical for creating meaning in light of crises. Based on 14 months of fieldwork with storytellers in Appalachia and Alaska, two regions facing profound social, climatic, and economic change and with culturally rich storytelling traditions, research for this paper discusses the practice of storytelling, as told by storytellers, and how different approaches to storytelling help address the climate crisis specifically with notes for crises more broadly. Further, considering calls to use storytelling to address climate change, this paper examines and critiques the stories that are currently being told and valued. Finally, this paper outlines the kinds of stories that could be told to address crises, noting specifically how stories are sites of cultural and political struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of students in the United States are saddled with trillions of dollars in debt. The debt crisis is a behemoth, though, importantly, it is not monolithic. Experiences of student debt are unequal and uneven, and it is critical to study them as such to address them. There are many organizations bringing attention to the student debt crisis; however, there are surprisingly few institutions dedicated to studying it. Further, there are few studies that link the student debt crisis to other competing, nested crises of the present (e.g., climate change). Using theories of debt and indebtedness to contextualize the student debt crisis, this paper utilizes autoethnographic accounts of student debt - as a student debtor and faculty member - and 'gray literature' (reports, policies, and statistics) to highlight and analyze the uneven geographies of student debt in the US. The aim of this paper is to argue that a geographic perspective is generative for studying student debt because it allows for a more nuanced understanding of where and why student debt exists and persists with the intention of complementing ongoing activism to abolish student debt. This paper concludes with four potential pathways for future geographic research on student debt and a call for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]