Thomas Ptak
Biographic Data
| ID | 1433616 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas Ptak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas |
| FAMILY NAME | Ptak |
| SIGNATURE | PTAK T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Texas State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4124-0129 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Poking the dragon! The fiery range of energy geographers’ brea(d)th
A spirited dialog interrogating the identity, importance and impact of energy geographies is long overdue. If energy geographies are to be assessed by the touchstone encompassing the six responses to our original provocation, then we are encouraged to take heart and have reasons to take stock. As demonstrated in these responses, its core is strong yet remains animated by cognate disciplines. Dynamism and diversity continue to characterize this ev…
Destroy to create
Widely considered a success story of climate multilateralism, imperial geopolitics of the global North enabled by state development brokerage have manifested gendered energy injustices in the Upper West region of Ghana. The recently commissioned Kaleo Lawra solar plant (35 MW) was developed by the Volta River Authority in a region beleaguered by economic and energy poverty, receiving assistance from Elecnor SA (Spain), Tractebel Engineering (Germ…
Repositioning energy geographies in a time of crisis
While a range of rapidly proliferating crises shaped by anthropogenic climate change is profound and generating a raft of spatially-centred energy research, energy geographies does not occupy a central position within emergent climate scholarship, nor within broader disciplinary confines of human geography. The centrality of energy is undeniable, and even in light of the considerable history of scholarship combined with the fundamentally spatial …
Coupling fire and energy in the Anthropocene
Extreme events such as wildfires and winter storms result in disruptions to grid-based electricity delivery. Electricity supply disruptions are both reactive, whereby specific events cause damage to physical infrastructure, or anticipatory where electricity suppliers—namely electric utility companies—preemptively de-energize sections of an electrical grid or distribution network based on elevated potential of extreme conditions that may cause wil…
Miner threat
Polycrystalline silicon is an essential input for solar photovoltaic technologies, commonly found in quartz and sand. India's headlong lunge into solar power will require an immense amount of domestically sourced polycrystalline silicon from Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on mixed-methods fieldwork, this study asks the following research question: Which factors produce the precarity of silica miners? This study found that Dalit miners are being disposses…
Border studies at 45
Sacrificing the local to support the national
Developing run-of-the-river (ROR) hydropower can pose a sustainability paradox. The paradox can occur when countries prioritize hydropower development to achieve national-level sustainable development targets while failing to include project-affected communities in planning processes. This research developed a comparative study examining the ways social and political relations were articulated between hydropower companies and project-affected com…
Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones”
This article details the dynamic transformation of Yunnan’s border regime during the early twenty-first century through the Great Western Development Strategy, Bridgehead and Belt and Road Initiative. Although China’s macro-scale national strategies frame border change, experimental ideology and local-scale mechanisms drive border change and refine through constant adjustment. As illustrated in this article, border positioning and repositioning i…
Population exposure to pre-emptive de-energization aimed at averting wildfires in Northern California
Recent extreme fire seasons in California have prompted utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric to pre-emptively de-energize portions of the electrical grid during periods of extreme fire weather to reduce the risk of powerline-related fire ignitions. The policy was deployed in 2019, resulting in 12 million person-days of power outages and widespread societal disruption. Retrospective weather and vegetation moisture data highlight hotspots of …
Understanding borders through dynamic processes
This research supports the evolution of border studies by advancing recently elaborated theoretical insights convincingly captured as borders in motion and the multiscalar nature of borders. Drawing on ongoing empirical research in Yunnan province, China, the combined perspectives tender a new approach of ‘relational motion’ to inform analyses interrogating the complex and dynamic nature of border-related phenomena occurring in, across and beyond…
Borders resurgent
An immediate political geographic consequence of the global pandemic is the rapid imposition of national and subnational borders, particularly where cross-boundary openness and integration was prevalent. Borders are being reinvigorated as a strategy to contain the virus, which securitizes daily life beyond traditional border sites. We see this resurgence as indicating a new global border regime which is manifest at a variety of scales and will li…
Southwest China
This entry on southwest China offers a broad summary of the region's urban and regional characteristics, in addition to outlining core issues. It provides an overview of the historical context which is crucial to understanding southwest China's contemporary position. Major phases of industrialization in urban centers, the social mosaic, development strategies, and drivers of social and political instability are detailed. These components serve to…
Towards an ethnography of small hydropower in China
Considering multiple Chinas in the shifting regional geopolitics of Mekong river dams
Vietnamese-Chinese Relationships at the Borderlands
Vietnamese-Chinese Relationships at the Borderlands: Trade, Tourism and Cultural Politics." Journal of Borderlands Studies, 31(1), pp. 141–142
The Trans-Political Nature of Southwest China’s Energy Conduit, Yunnan Province
Transboundary flows of energy across Yunnan Province in China and to Southeast Asian states provide insight into the changing nature of borders and border areas. Rather than monolithic symbols of state sovereignty, China’s southwest borders in Yunnan can be more accurately characterised as zones of connectivity and exchange, serving a range of local, national and regional objectives. Energy production and distribution in and across Yunnan can be …
Borders resurgent
An immediate political geographic consequence of the global pandemic is the rapid imposition of national and subnational borders, particularly where cross-boundary openness and integration was prevalent. Borders are being reinvigorated as a strategy to contain the virus, which securitizes daily life beyond traditional border sites. We see this resurgence as indicating a new global border regime which is manifest at a variety of scales and will li…
Towards an ethnography of small hydropower in China
Repositioning energy geographies in a time of crisis
While a range of rapidly proliferating crises shaped by anthropogenic climate change is profound and generating a raft of spatially-centred energy research, energy geographies does not occupy a central position within emergent climate scholarship, nor within broader disciplinary confines of human geography. The centrality of energy is undeniable, and even in light of the considerable history of scholarship combined with the fundamentally spatial …
The Trans-Political Nature of Southwest China’s Energy Conduit, Yunnan Province
Transboundary flows of energy across Yunnan Province in China and to Southeast Asian states provide insight into the changing nature of borders and border areas. Rather than monolithic symbols of state sovereignty, China’s southwest borders in Yunnan can be more accurately characterised as zones of connectivity and exchange, serving a range of local, national and regional objectives. Energy production and distribution in and across Yunnan can be …
Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones”
This article details the dynamic transformation of Yunnan’s border regime during the early twenty-first century through the Great Western Development Strategy, Bridgehead and Belt and Road Initiative. Although China’s macro-scale national strategies frame border change, experimental ideology and local-scale mechanisms drive border change and refine through constant adjustment. As illustrated in this article, border positioning and repositioning i…
Considering multiple Chinas in the shifting regional geopolitics of Mekong river dams
Coupling fire and energy in the Anthropocene
Extreme events such as wildfires and winter storms result in disruptions to grid-based electricity delivery. Electricity supply disruptions are both reactive, whereby specific events cause damage to physical infrastructure, or anticipatory where electricity suppliers—namely electric utility companies—preemptively de-energize sections of an electrical grid or distribution network based on elevated potential of extreme conditions that may cause wil…
Miner threat
Polycrystalline silicon is an essential input for solar photovoltaic technologies, commonly found in quartz and sand. India's headlong lunge into solar power will require an immense amount of domestically sourced polycrystalline silicon from Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on mixed-methods fieldwork, this study asks the following research question: Which factors produce the precarity of silica miners? This study found that Dalit miners are being disposses…
Sacrificing the local to support the national
Developing run-of-the-river (ROR) hydropower can pose a sustainability paradox. The paradox can occur when countries prioritize hydropower development to achieve national-level sustainable development targets while failing to include project-affected communities in planning processes. This research developed a comparative study examining the ways social and political relations were articulated between hydropower companies and project-affected com…
Understanding borders through dynamic processes
This research supports the evolution of border studies by advancing recently elaborated theoretical insights convincingly captured as borders in motion and the multiscalar nature of borders. Drawing on ongoing empirical research in Yunnan province, China, the combined perspectives tender a new approach of ‘relational motion’ to inform analyses interrogating the complex and dynamic nature of border-related phenomena occurring in, across and beyond…
Border studies at 45
Vietnamese-Chinese Relationships at the Borderlands
Vietnamese-Chinese Relationships at the Borderlands: Trade, Tourism and Cultural Politics." Journal of Borderlands Studies, 31(1), pp. 141–142
The Trans-Political Nature of Southwest China’s Energy Conduit, Yunnan Province
Transboundary flows of energy across Yunnan Province in China and to Southeast Asian states provide insight into the changing nature of borders and border areas. Rather than monolithic symbols of state sovereignty, China’s southwest borders in Yunnan can be more accurately characterised as zones of connectivity and exchange, serving a range of local, national and regional objectives. Energy production and distribution in and across Yunnan can be …
Considering multiple Chinas in the shifting regional geopolitics of Mekong river dams
Towards an ethnography of small hydropower in China
Southwest China
This entry on southwest China offers a broad summary of the region's urban and regional characteristics, in addition to outlining core issues. It provides an overview of the historical context which is crucial to understanding southwest China's contemporary position. Major phases of industrialization in urban centers, the social mosaic, development strategies, and drivers of social and political instability are detailed. These components serve to…
Population exposure to pre-emptive de-energization aimed at averting wildfires in Northern California
Recent extreme fire seasons in California have prompted utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric to pre-emptively de-energize portions of the electrical grid during periods of extreme fire weather to reduce the risk of powerline-related fire ignitions. The policy was deployed in 2019, resulting in 12 million person-days of power outages and widespread societal disruption. Retrospective weather and vegetation moisture data highlight hotspots of …
Understanding borders through dynamic processes
This research supports the evolution of border studies by advancing recently elaborated theoretical insights convincingly captured as borders in motion and the multiscalar nature of borders. Drawing on ongoing empirical research in Yunnan province, China, the combined perspectives tender a new approach of ‘relational motion’ to inform analyses interrogating the complex and dynamic nature of border-related phenomena occurring in, across and beyond…
Borders resurgent
An immediate political geographic consequence of the global pandemic is the rapid imposition of national and subnational borders, particularly where cross-boundary openness and integration was prevalent. Borders are being reinvigorated as a strategy to contain the virus, which securitizes daily life beyond traditional border sites. We see this resurgence as indicating a new global border regime which is manifest at a variety of scales and will li…
Sacrificing the local to support the national
Developing run-of-the-river (ROR) hydropower can pose a sustainability paradox. The paradox can occur when countries prioritize hydropower development to achieve national-level sustainable development targets while failing to include project-affected communities in planning processes. This research developed a comparative study examining the ways social and political relations were articulated between hydropower companies and project-affected com…
Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones”
This article details the dynamic transformation of Yunnan’s border regime during the early twenty-first century through the Great Western Development Strategy, Bridgehead and Belt and Road Initiative. Although China’s macro-scale national strategies frame border change, experimental ideology and local-scale mechanisms drive border change and refine through constant adjustment. As illustrated in this article, border positioning and repositioning i…
Border studies at 45
Coupling fire and energy in the Anthropocene
Extreme events such as wildfires and winter storms result in disruptions to grid-based electricity delivery. Electricity supply disruptions are both reactive, whereby specific events cause damage to physical infrastructure, or anticipatory where electricity suppliers—namely electric utility companies—preemptively de-energize sections of an electrical grid or distribution network based on elevated potential of extreme conditions that may cause wil…
Miner threat
Polycrystalline silicon is an essential input for solar photovoltaic technologies, commonly found in quartz and sand. India's headlong lunge into solar power will require an immense amount of domestically sourced polycrystalline silicon from Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on mixed-methods fieldwork, this study asks the following research question: Which factors produce the precarity of silica miners? This study found that Dalit miners are being disposses…
Repositioning energy geographies in a time of crisis
While a range of rapidly proliferating crises shaped by anthropogenic climate change is profound and generating a raft of spatially-centred energy research, energy geographies does not occupy a central position within emergent climate scholarship, nor within broader disciplinary confines of human geography. The centrality of energy is undeniable, and even in light of the considerable history of scholarship combined with the fundamentally spatial …
Poking the dragon! The fiery range of energy geographers’ brea(d)th
A spirited dialog interrogating the identity, importance and impact of energy geographies is long overdue. If energy geographies are to be assessed by the touchstone encompassing the six responses to our original provocation, then we are encouraged to take heart and have reasons to take stock. As demonstrated in these responses, its core is strong yet remains animated by cognate disciplines. Dynamism and diversity continue to characterize this ev…
Destroy to create
Widely considered a success story of climate multilateralism, imperial geopolitics of the global North enabled by state development brokerage have manifested gendered energy injustices in the Upper West region of Ghana. The recently commissioned Kaleo Lawra solar plant (35 MW) was developed by the Volta River Authority in a region beleaguered by economic and energy poverty, receiving assistance from Elecnor SA (Spain), Tractebel Engineering (Germ…
Geography (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Economic geography (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · China (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Regional science (5 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Water Governance and Infrastructure (4 works)