Kei Otsuki

This chapter explores the dynamics of smallholder inclusion in contract farming arrangements. Existing literature dominantly evaluates benefits of contract farming for those who have already entered the contract. The literature tends to assume that the participating farmers are likely to possess more assets and access to labor and resources, in comparison to non-participating farmers, in the same geography. However, specific conditions through which less well-off smallholder farmers could participate and benefit from the contract farming remain elusive. Drawing from a case study of the sugarcane sector in Mozambique, this chapter reveals that landholding size, household labor availability and gender have significantly influenced smallholder participation in contracted sugar production over time, confirming the literature that relatively better-off farmers tend to participate and benefit from contract farming. At the same time, the case study also highlights that a sugar mill’s production model called block farming has benefited female and less well-off farmers, as it worked to alleviate risks for smallholders to enter the contract farming model. The chapter underscores the need for more attention to be paid to block farming and similar production models in different contexts to promote inclusion of smallholders in contract farming policies and research.

This special feature brings into dialogue debates that have evolved mainly separately: scholarship on infrastructural heterogeneity in Southern cities and research on distributed and decentralized energy transitions in the North. Drawing on empirical cases from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America, the contributions show that heterogeneity is no longer an exception but a defining feature of contemporary urban energy landscapes, characterized by varied technological configurations and diverse forms of (co-)provision and energy use. While acknowledging the fundamental differences between these contexts, urban energy landscapes reveal striking commonalities from which we draw key lessons: the contributions to this special feature show how heterogeneous energy systems emerge from diverse context-specific drivers, create new governance and spatial planning challenges, and are increasingly accompanied by processes of digital re-homogenization and coordination. The papers also demonstrate that heterogeneous energy systems yield uneven sustainability outcomes, raising critical questions about equity, accountability, and the distribution of costs and benefits. By moving beyond simplistic North–South binaries, this special issue advances a comparative and cross-contextual perspective on the governance of heterogeneous energy systems. Ultimately, we argue that heterogeneous energy systems have become a shared global condition whose governance requires comparative, context-sensitive approaches that explicitly confront coordination challenges, power asymmetries, and sustainability trade-offs across diverse urban settings.

Indonesia’s new capital city construction is inducing state-led urbanization in the absence of private investments. Reports show the impacts of this process as a rapid land price increase and the government’s policy to control it. However, little is known about how the residents in surrounding settlements of the new city have extracted value from this process and the implication of these speculative activities for the state-led urbanization. Critically engaging with the concept of everyday speculation elaborated in Leitner et al. in this journal, and drawing on fieldwork in East Kalimantan during the construction of the city in 2022–2024, we clarify how differentiated land titles, which have been historically established between indigenous populations and transmigrants settled in the area, are working to exclusively benefit transmigrant landowners with strong land claims, while tacitly displacing the indigenous populations. We show how the government’s attempt to control the land prices further benefits the landowners entitled to full compensation. Theoretically, we show that everyday land speculation in the new city takes place without production activities, unlike the cases in Leitner et al. where urban residents extract values from spatiotemporal rent gaps produced through the livelihood activities or new rental unit construction. We argue that this dynamic ends up benefiting the government, as they also claim land for urban infrastructure development, with political support from the residents with strong land claims, and leads to further marginalization of indigenous populations.

According to the WHO 2021 Health and Climate Change Global Survey Report , most countries’ climate change and health plans are witnessing low to moderate implementation due to (among other reasons) insufficient funding, evidence, research, and multisectoral collaboration. In Ghana, the national climate change agenda has, for over two decades, consistently prioritised its health systems, but progress is slow due to underfunding, inconsistent policies and poor mainstreaming in health system polices - “thick mainstreaming”. This study examined how Ghana’s national-level climate-resilient health systems agenda has translated to building climate-resilient Primary Healthcare (PHC) systems and identified existing barriers to further mainstreaming. In this mixed-method study, 27 District Health Management Team members (82%) %) from 3 PHC systems and 65 PHC facilities (HCF) managers (98%) from three low-resourced districts/PHCs participated in vulnerability assessments of their respective PHC and HCF using the WHO checklist. Key informant interviews were conducted and thematically analysed to explore facilitators and barriers to mainstreaming climate change action into PHC operations. The vast majority (82%) of PHCs observed multiple climate hazards. PHC systems showed incomplete preparation or medium risk with an average score of 2.3. Eighty-three per cent of PHC facilities were unprepared (unable to respond or at higher risk) for the recorded impacts of climate hazards such as storms, heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildfires. Key informants reported the mainstreaming of the national climate agenda into PHC policies and programs as facilitators, but limited human resource capacity, financing, and weak subnational inter-sectoral collaboration were reported as barriers. Based on these findings, Ghana’s national climate agenda has not adequately translated into the development of climate-resilient PHC systems. We recommend investments in capacity development and in mainstreaming Ghana’s national climate agenda into PHC operational policies, protocols, and standards, with inbuilt monitoring mechanisms to catalyse sustainable climate action within PHC amidst scarce resources.

Scholars argue that the rise of neoliberal mining and outsourcing has created a more fragmented working class and precarious working environment for mineworkers in the global South. Less examined is how climate change and the decarbonisation process have further restructured the labour dynamics. In the late 2000s, with the surge in global commodity prices, Tete province in Mozambique emerged as a coal frontier. However, long-established multinational mining companies gradually divested from their coal ventures, partly responding to international calls for decarbonisation. Since then, Indian companies have entered the frontier. The shifts in ownership have restructured the projects and their labour dynamics in Tete. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article argues that Indian investors have further fragmented the existing class relations and worsened already precarious labour conditions in Tete. As the coal economy persists, the authors expect to see more variations in the nexus between shifting investors and changing labour dynamics across coal-producing countries.

Urban Agriculture (UA) in Iran plays a pivotal role in economic sustainability and food security. Recent years have witnessed significant transformations in UA land use, posing challenges to households and affecting urban planning efficiency. This study employs a mixed-methods approach to comprehensively investigate the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind land changes in UA Damavand, located adjacent to Tehran, Iran. Geospatial and quantitative analyses, coupled with qualitative assessments, aim to uncover the driving factors behind these alterations. Google Earth Engine (GEE) and NDVI mapping from 1995 to 2022 are used to analyze vegetation changes. Geospatial techniques in QGIS are employed to assess changes, complemented by qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 participants from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, the study explores the applicability of Q-methodology in understanding the causes of UA land use changes in Damavand. Findings indicate a substantial increase in built-up land (109 %), alongside declines in barren (14.34 %) and vegetation (22.44 %) classes, including UA lands. Correspondingly, four thematic factors have been identified as primary reasons for UA changes: land value changes and attraction to urban livelihoods, management and planning factors, physical-environmental factors, and the availability of urban infrastructure. The study underscores the urgency of effective planning to mitigate the threats posed by extensive UA transformations in Damavand. It highlights the significant role of analyzing land markets in integrating UA into urban planning policies, providing essential insights for informed policymaking.

Among the considerable challenges many African utility companies and governments face in universalising electricity access are the economic losses and technical problems resulting from irregular practices of electricity access. Despite its concerted efforts, TANESCO—the Tanzania Electric Supply Company—is no exception to this. Against this backdrop, this study empirically investigates the tensions between energy access and cost recovery goals and the spatially heterogeneous practices of unruly electricity access in Dar es Salaam. Here, organised networks of street electricians act as intermediaries between TANESCO and electricity users and facilitate energy access in a grey zone of illegality, informality and entrepreneurship. We studied two contrasting neighbourhoods in Dar es Salaam: Mabwepande, an unplanned peri-urban neighbourhood with low- to middle-income residents, and Msasani, a low-density neighbourhood of wealthy households and upmarket hotels and businesses. Based on a literature review and the analysis of policy documents, utility reports and statistical data, participatory observations and interviews with key stakeholders, our empirical investigation demonstrates that the phenomenon of widespread unruly energy access practices is far from exclusive to low-income communities: in Msasani, wealthy urban households and local businesses have developed sophisticated practices of energy theft, causing a considerable financial burden to the utility company. Our findings indicate that to address irregular energy access more effectively, more differentiated policy responses are needed that take account of the heterogeneous user experiences within cities and that take advantage of informality and entrepreneurship as potential resources for infrastructural and urban futures.