Green space branding in Denmark in an era of neoliberal governance

City place branding, an entrepreneurial urban development scheme, aims to differentiate cities from their national and international competitors based on strengths and competitive advantage. One such strength is quality urban green space which has been shown to make cities more attractive and liveable places, drawing people and investments to urban centres. Applying a place branding approach, this paper presents the results of a survey of Danish municipalities and their place branding in terms of crafting green city, or environmentally sustainable, profiles. Based on survey responses from both municipal green space and communication staff, an overview is presented of the status of ‘green’ municipal place branding, with emphasis on branding through green spaces such as parks. Findings show that green concepts such as environmentally sustainable policies as well as biophysical assets such as green spaces are not in focus in municipal place branding campaigns. Moreover, survey results demonstrate that creative professionals and local citizens are the main focus of those municipalities that are branding. There is great potential to emphasize green spaces in municipal placing branding campaigns building on partnerships with the private sector and citizen volunteers.     

Spatial Concepts in Landscape Analysis and Policy: Some Implications of Globalisation

Globalisation accelerates the dynamics of the network society and economy, in which distant relationships become functionally more significant than local landscape relationships. This presents challenges and opportunities for landscape analysis. Using social scientific concepts of global and local space, and ecological concepts of hierarchy, two qualitative case studies are undertaken of urban fringe landscapes in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Christchurch, New Zealand. They reveal a convergence of landscape pattern over time, but this disguises significant differences in underlying socio-economic process and institutional response. There are several implications for landscape analysis and policy. First, there is a need for studies grounded in particular landscapes that acknowledge both local spatial landscape relationships and non spatial ‘global’ processes. Second, the transformation of landscapes through urbanisation provides a useful focus for the connection of landscape ecological understanding of landscape systems with social scientific understanding of human agency and social structure. Third, there is a significant challenge in how to develop local and regional institutions and policies that have the capacity to utilise and apply these diverse analytical perspectives.     

The challenge of providing plant pest diagnostic services for Africa

The consequences of a globalisation of trade and climate change present an increased threat from first-entry pests and a challenge to plant health authorities. In this paper, pest reporting for the continents of Africa and Europe are discussed, and argued as a barometer of effective Plant Pest Diagnostic Services (PPDS) in terms of human capacity, infrastructure and policy-culture for phytosanitary issues. To illustrate particular areas of concern, case studies are presented on recent pest events which include outbreaks of Ralstonia solanacearum on Pelargonium, Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum on banana (banana Xanthomonas wilt) and Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici race Ug99 on wheat (black stem rust). Examples are given of some recent initiatives to invigorate diagnostic capacity in East Africa, spanning state-of-the-art centres of excellence, traditional capacity building and networking projects, and grass-root level 'going-public' pest surveillance initiatives. Discussion is presented on the provision of PPDS and the impact of technology, institutional factors, the private sector, accreditation of services and policy. Emphasis is placed on the role of PPDS in support of regulatory policy. In recognising the precarious nature of many African cropping systems, the argument is made for a more consolidated approach to PPDS in and for Africa. The paper is presented from the perspective of European practitioners in pest diagnostic and risk analysis.