Michael Carolan

Hugh Campbell

Nick Lewis

Richard Le Heron

Recent agri-food studies, including commodity systems, the political economy of agriculture, regional development, and wider examinations of the rural dimension in economic geography and rural sociology have been confronted by three challenges. These can be summarized as: ‘more than human’ approaches to economic life; a ‘post-structural political economy’ of food and agriculture; and calls for more ‘enactive’, performative research approaches. This volume describes the genealogy of such approaches, drawing on the reflective insights of more than five years of international engagement and research. It demonstrates the kinds of new work being generated under these approaches and provides a means for exploring how they should be all understood as part of the same broader need to review theory and methods in the study of food, agriculture, rural development and economic geography. This radical collective approach is elaborated as the Biological Economies approach. The authors break out from traditional categories of analysis, reconceptualising materialities, and reframing economic assemblages as biological economies, based on the notion of all research being enactive or performative.

Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers

Biological Economies

Eric Bird

Beach renourishment is the restoration of beaches that have been depleted. The text deals with the sources of beach sediment as well as the causes and typical responses to beach erosion, before discussion of beach renourishment. Some of the first documented renourishment projects were undertaken in the early 1900’s on the east coast of the United States. Several countries have since renourished beaches, particularly during the past few decades. Most projects have been in the United States, the United Kingdom, some European countries and Australia. These are reviewed and experience from various beach renourishment projects used for discussion of the following topics: 1. The need for preliminary investigations 2. Sources of sediment for beach renourishment 3. Methods of beach renourishment 4. Design considerations 5. Monitoring changes after beach renourishment 6. Assessment of performance 7. Modelling of beach renourishment 8. Beach renourishment for coast protection 9. Environmental impacts 10. Costs and benefits 11. Response of renourished beaches to a rising sea level

Nick Lewis

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