Papers by Christian Brannstrom
Revista Internacional Interdisciplinar INTERthesis, 2010
Revista de História Regional, 2010
Journal of Historical Geography, 2001
Journal of Historical Geography, 2010
The western region of São Paulo state, Brazil, became one of several sites of global cotton produ... more The western region of São Paulo state, Brazil, became one of several sites of global cotton production during the first half of the twentieth century in response to increased global demand and fears of cotton shortages. The cotton boom tapped a 'forest rent' that helped Brazil rise to become the largest producer in Latin America, providing both export revenue and critical raw material to a growing industrial economy that would become the largest in South America. This paper uses an organizational and institutional perspective to analyze causes and effects of the mid-century cotton boom that centered on São Paulo state. Organizations and institutions relating to cotton production are considered using oral histories, judicial documents, agronomic texts, and the sediment record in small catchments as empirical evidence. The state dramatically reformed some organizations to provide the key inputs to cotton production, while most contemporary observers ignored institutions, such as sharecropping and tenant farming, that supported cotton. São Paulo's institutions and organizations were characterized by the borrowing and adaptation of existing labor institutions, the creation of new state organizations that subsidized elite producers, and the weak development of institutions or organizations in response to soil fertility issues and labor supply.
Journal of Historical Geography, 2002
Historical geographies of environmental resources need reliable biophysical baselines. In this es... more Historical geographies of environmental resources need reliable biophysical baselines. In this essay, I construct a vegetation baseline for early-twentieth-century southeastern Brazil using new empirical evidence. Analysis of land subdivision court proceedings and postmortem property inventories suggests a mosaic of semideciduous mesophytic forest, subtropical savanna (Cerrado) and dense arboreal savanna (CerradaÄo) in western SaÄ o Paulo state, Brazil. The ®ndings support the claims of botanists and biogeographers regarding the relationship between vegetation communities and chemical±physical soil characteristics. The idea of a mosaic of early-twentieth-century vegetation also provides the basis for questioning the`Atlantic Forest' supported by Warren Dean's With Broadax and Firebrand. The conclusions raise the epistemological issue of how to reconstruct biophysical baselines.
Geographical Review, 2012
Geographers have recognized that trade fairs and other temporary spaces function as centers of kn... more Geographers have recognized that trade fairs and other temporary spaces function as centers of knowledge, but we have a weak understanding of how fairs are themed spaces, similar to parades, festivals, and built environments, that produce cultural and political meanings. In this article we analyze the morphology, iconography, and performance of a large agricultural fair in Brazil, the Bahia Farm Show, which produces a regional identity of highly productive, leading-edge, and globally competitive agriculture in a former economic backwater. We discuss the production of themes in terms of power relations, cultural processes, relations with nature, and sociotechnological norms for agriculture. Omissions from the Farm Show indicate tension and accommodation between elites at different geographical scales. Brazil's high-input, high-output agriculture relies in part on the meanings that events such as agricultural fairs sustain and reproduce.
Environment and History, 2005
Page 1. Environment and History 11 (2005): 395430 © 2005 The White Horse Press Was Brazilian Ind... more Page 1. Environment and History 11 (2005): 395430 © 2005 The White Horse Press Was Brazilian Industrialisation Fuelled by Wood? Evaluating the Wood Hypothesis, 19001960* CHRISTIAN BRANNSTROM Department ...
Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2005
Land Use Policy, Apr 1, 2012
Marine Policy, 2015
The marine extractive reserve (RESEX), a sustainable use and co-management conservation instrumen... more The marine extractive reserve (RESEX), a sustainable use and co-management conservation instrument,
is increasingly being established in coastal Brazil because of international and national pressure to
protect coastal–marine environments. RESEX establishment is producing ambiguous outcomes despite
claims of protecting rural livelihoods. This paper presents the case of the Cassurubá RESEX and
demonstrates that a recent fishery agreement contradicts with fisherfolk livelihood diversification
strategies and produces differentiated impacts on households. The findings are drawn from mixed
methods adapting a household livelihoods approach to develop household typologies. Three household
typologies emerged: (1) high market orientation, high income, (2) low market orientation, low income,
and (3) high market orientation, low income. Low income households are the most impacted by new
institutions that contradict with temporal and spatial livelihood diversification strategies of resource
users. Also, they have lost fishing grounds, material assets (gear), and access to subsistence farmland.
These findings support claims that sustainable use conservation agendas need to better consider the
differential livelihood strategies of fisherfolk, and other resource users, or efforts for livelihood
protection and improvement will be undermined.
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Papers by Christian Brannstrom
is increasingly being established in coastal Brazil because of international and national pressure to
protect coastal–marine environments. RESEX establishment is producing ambiguous outcomes despite
claims of protecting rural livelihoods. This paper presents the case of the Cassurubá RESEX and
demonstrates that a recent fishery agreement contradicts with fisherfolk livelihood diversification
strategies and produces differentiated impacts on households. The findings are drawn from mixed
methods adapting a household livelihoods approach to develop household typologies. Three household
typologies emerged: (1) high market orientation, high income, (2) low market orientation, low income,
and (3) high market orientation, low income. Low income households are the most impacted by new
institutions that contradict with temporal and spatial livelihood diversification strategies of resource
users. Also, they have lost fishing grounds, material assets (gear), and access to subsistence farmland.
These findings support claims that sustainable use conservation agendas need to better consider the
differential livelihood strategies of fisherfolk, and other resource users, or efforts for livelihood
protection and improvement will be undermined.
is increasingly being established in coastal Brazil because of international and national pressure to
protect coastal–marine environments. RESEX establishment is producing ambiguous outcomes despite
claims of protecting rural livelihoods. This paper presents the case of the Cassurubá RESEX and
demonstrates that a recent fishery agreement contradicts with fisherfolk livelihood diversification
strategies and produces differentiated impacts on households. The findings are drawn from mixed
methods adapting a household livelihoods approach to develop household typologies. Three household
typologies emerged: (1) high market orientation, high income, (2) low market orientation, low income,
and (3) high market orientation, low income. Low income households are the most impacted by new
institutions that contradict with temporal and spatial livelihood diversification strategies of resource
users. Also, they have lost fishing grounds, material assets (gear), and access to subsistence farmland.
These findings support claims that sustainable use conservation agendas need to better consider the
differential livelihood strategies of fisherfolk, and other resource users, or efforts for livelihood
protection and improvement will be undermined.