Showing papers in "Territory, Politics, Governance in 2018"
Abstract: Austerity states, institutional dismantling and the governance of sub-national economic development: the demise of the regional development agencies in England. Territory, Politics, Governance. Contributing to interpretations of the governance geographies of austerity, the paper explains how, why and in what forms austerity states are constructed by actors in particular political-economic contexts and geographical and temporal settings, how and by whom they are articulated and pursued, and how they are worked through public policy and institutional and territorial architectures. Empirically, the focus is explaining the UK Government and its abolition and closure of the regional development agencies in England. First, a more qualitative and plural conception of austerity states is developed to question singular and/or monolithic notions of state types and their transitions, and to better reflect the particularities of how state projects are configured and unfolded by actors within political-economi...
60 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relational and contested nature of territories and territorial praxis is examined in Latin America, and the centrality of power to territory is explored, with a latent attachment to sovereignty which marginalize counter-hegemonic territorial politics.
Abstract: Territories in contestation: relational power in Latin America. Territory, Politics, Governance. Situated in geography’s recent territorial (re)turn, and drawing on Latin American theory and research, this paper examines the relational and contested nature of territories and territorial praxis. Engaging with contemporary literatures, we note the centrality of power to territory. However, as we explore in this paper, many analyses of power are too simplistic, with a latent attachment to sovereignty which can marginalize counter-hegemonic territorial politics. To combat this we explore two conceptions of power, as found in open and autonomist Marxism – poder (understood as power over) and potencia (understood as power to) – and how they function territorially. While such an understanding of power frames the complex production of territories, it is important to also reflect on how movements intervene in producing their own territories. Accordingly, the paper examines the territorial struggles of the ...
59 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose the emergence of specific operational spaces that recur in country after country but are not necessarily framed by national or international law, or by visible legal markers, even as they use particular national institutions such as laws and courts.
Abstract: Embedded borderings: making new geographies of centrality. Territory, Politics, Governance. The organizing thesis posits the emergence of specific operational spaces that recur in country after country but are not necessarily framed by national or international law, or by visible legal markers, even as they use particular national institutions such as laws and courts. These operational spaces contribute to the making of cross-border geographies that include only parts of national territories, often excluding most of the pertinent ‘sovereign territory’ that houses them. These operational spaces look like they belong to those countries as they are marked by thick territorial insertions: whether it is financial centres with their massive concentrations of buildings, or human rights activists tracking tortured bodies in prisons or abandoned fields. Yet, they are in fact tightly bordered territorial fragments that keep out what they do not want in. This specificity holds even for actors operating withi...
39 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored how metropolitan space as a spatial category of politics and policies is constructed discursively, and shed a light on a variety of discursive, ideational or cognitive practices that contribute to the production of metropolitan scales.
Abstract: Metropolitan regions as contested spaces: the discursive construction of metropolitan space in comparative perspective. Territory, Politics, Governance. This paper explores how metropolitan space as a spatial category of politics and policies is constructed discursively. It sheds a light on a variety of discursive, ideational or cognitive practices that contribute to the production of metropolitan scales. It understands metropolitan space as an outcome of political processes or of policies with a metropolitan scope. However, these discursive processes constructing metropolitan space are far from constituting a unitary phenomenon. Exploring the discursive construction of metropolitan space as a social-spatial phenomenon moves from the assumption that the object of analysis does not represent an ontologically given category, but is a socially and politically constructed reality. Our analysis is based on contrasting four heterogeneous cases in which a significant variety of definitions and understand...
35 citations
TL;DR: The Plenum movement as discussed by the authors is the most radical experiment in non-institutional politics that can be found across the Balkans since the collapse of Yugoslavia, which has for citizens meant general impoverishment, de-industrialization, mass unemployment and living under a post-democratic governance of divisive and corrupt elites.
Abstract: A new regional geography of a revolution: Bosnia’s Plenum movement. Territory, Politics, Governance. This paper sheds a light on a recent reawakening of radical politics in the former Yugoslavia. It focuses on citizens living radical politics after socialism, as new groups and movements in the region struggle to embed radically democratic visions of society. Via an on-the-ground regional study, it exposes the endless post-conflict, post-socialist transition era after Yugoslavia, which has for citizens meant general impoverishment, de-industrialization, mass unemployment and living under a post-democratic governance of divisive and corrupt elites. Out of this desert of post-socialism a form of horizontal democracy emerged called Plenum, the most radical experiment in non-institutional politics that can be found across the Balkans since the collapse of Yugoslavia.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at the variegated impact of the 2008 global financial crisis and the different ways in which local strategic actors imagined and responded to it through a comparative study of Barcelona, Brussels, Leeds and Turin.
Abstract: Locating the global financial crisis: variegated neoliberalization in four European cities. Territory, Politics, Governance. This paper looks at the variegated impact of the 2008 global financial crisis and the different ways in which local strategic actors imagined and responded to it through a comparative study of Barcelona, Brussels, Leeds and Turin. Drawing on cultural political economy, we see crisis moments as fertile territory for the analysis of variegation in urban neoliberalization processes as they can break path dependencies and open up alternatives. Inspired by the comparative turn in critical urban studies, our case studies are not offered as representative samples but as dense sites to explore the various interpretations and uses of the crisis, particularly at the elite level. This analysis suggests considerable variegation in how the crisis was both felt and interpreted locally across the four cities. The local elites did not regard this as a crisis of or in their own urban growth ...
28 citations
TL;DR: The biopolitics and geopolitics of border enforcement in Melilla are explored in this article, where the authors use the multiple and contradictory realities of Melilla, a pene-enclave and exclave of Spain in North Africa, to draw out the contemporary practice of Spanish, European Union, and Moroccan immigration enforcement policies.
Abstract: The biopolitics and geopolitics of border enforcement in Melilla. Territory, Politics, Governance. This article uses the multiple and contradictory realities of Melilla, a pene-enclave and -exclave of Spain in North Africa, to draw out the contemporary practice of Spanish, European Union, and Moroccan immigration enforcement policies. The city is many things at once: a piece of Europe in North Africa and a symbol of Spain’s colonial history; an example of the contemporary narrative of a cosmopolitan and multicultural Europe; a place where extraterritorial and intraterritorial dynamics demonstrate territory’s continuing allure despite the security challenges and the lack of economic or strategic value; a metaphorical island of contrasting geopolitical and biopolitical practices; and a place of regional flows and cross-border cooperation between Spain, the EU, and Morocco. It is a border where the immunitary logic of sovereign territorial spaces is exposed through the biopolitical practices of the s...
27 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how urban policy actors organize policy practice according to their understanding of the diverse city and compare policies dealing with migrant incorporation in Amsterdam and The Hague, two highly diverse cities in The Netherlands.
Abstract: Governance in cities: Urban imagination and integration of immigration policy. Territory, Politics, Governance. This article examines how urban policy actors organize policy practice according to their understanding of the diverse city. In contrast to the national level, cities are sometimes considered to have a pragmatic approach to governing (ethnic) diversity. Yet urban policies also reflect local norms and identities. As such, the city functions as a local discursive condition for and product of understandings of the social world, including processes of differentiation and boundary-drawing. A comparison of policies dealing with migrant incorporation in Amsterdam and The Hague – two highly diverse cities in The Netherlands – shows a discrepancy may exist between overarching discourses and policy practices. While municipal policy discourses suggest a coherent programme, policy practices are rather fragmented. Even though policy actors explain this divergence (also) in terms of pragmatism, they u...
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the relationship between governance networks and the emergence (or lack thereof) of metropolitan scales through an analysis of metropolitan development-policy processes, and explore the characteristics and substance of policies that purport to be metropolitan in scope through a set of six case studies.
Abstract: The role of governance networks in building metropolitan scale – Territory, Politics, Governance. The broad aim of this comparative study is to examine the relationship between governance networks and the emergence (or lack thereof) of metropolitan scales through an analysis of metropolitan development-policy processes. It explores the characteristics and substance of policies that purport to be metropolitan in scope through a set of six case studies of global city-regions lacking a formal metropolitan-scale government: Berlin, Delhi, New York, Paris, Rome and Shenzhen. This is done to obtain a better sense of the networks, strategies and approaches used in various contexts to tackle boundary-spanning issues in regions. Three paired case studies analyse what interests and actors were involved, how central each actor was to the policy process, and what territorial scales and interests dominated to identify commonalities across cases and to look for evidence of the emergence of new actors in metropo...
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the role of public-private relations in the development of metropolitan scale is investigated. But the authors focus on the role played by economic players in political activities through which metropolitan scales are constructed, and they focus on three cities: Paris, Rome and Shenzhen.
Abstract: For a political economy of metropolitan scale: the role of public–private relations. Territory, Politics, Governance. The metropolitan scale of urban development and governance has received increasing attention in urban research. Such a scale can be articulated in spatial, economic and political terms. This paper builds on the rescaling thesis and its practical expectations and investigates the engagement of economic players in political activities through which metropolitan scales are constructed. The cases of Paris, Rome and Shenzhen provide evidence of the determinants of how public–private relations shape the metropolitan scale under different conditions. The comparative analyses conclude that the role of global processes, the kind of firms and the role of national contexts are important in determining the ways public–private relations affect metropolitan-scale development.
20 citations
TL;DR: In the 2000s and 2010s, a narrative of "Africa Rising" was popular with the Mozambican middle class as mentioned in this paper. But this narrative was short-lived, and it was not sustainable.
Abstract: Was Africa rising? Narratives of development success and failure among the Mozambican middle class. Territory, Politics, Governance. In the 2000s and 2010s, a narrative of ‘Africa Rising’ was popul...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the reasons why the metropolitan scale is gaining momentum as a concept, as well as a process taking place in the real world, and consider its definition.
Abstract: This editorial presents the reasons why the metropolitan scale is gaining momentum as a concept, as well as a process taking place in the real world, and considers its definition. The main question...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the implications of territorial discrepancy amongst governance arrangements and introduce the notion of "urban political dissonance" in order to engage sustained patterns of conflict or incongruity.
Abstract: Urban development and the politics of dissonance. Territory, Politics, Governance. A major reason for the peripheral treatment of political conflict in established theories of urban development derives from the tendency to underplay questions of territory and spatial governance. In this paper, we examine the implications of territorial discrepancy amongst governance arrangements and introduce the notion of ‘urban political dissonance’ in order to engage sustained patterns of conflict or incongruity. This focus implies examination of strategic action on the part of competing urban interests which may result in policy incoherence, institutional manoeuvring in pursuit of divergent objectives and difficulties in finding workable compromise, with potentially significant implications for economic development outcomes. An illustrative case study is presented of growth politics in Oxford, UK, where a central and unresolved dilemma over the physical expansion of the city has effectively defined the nature ...
TL;DR: In this article, the focus is on the government of food systems in British East and Southern Africa, with a focus on food scarcity, population and territory in the British East Africa.
Abstract: Ecologizing regions; securing food: governing scarcity, population and territory in British East and Southern Africa. Territory, Politics, Governance. The focus is on the government of food systems...
TL;DR: In this article, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is proposed as a method for protest mobilization and social causation and protest mobilization, where temporality and interaction matter.
Abstract: Social causation and protest mobilization: why temporality and interaction matter. Territory, Politics, Governance. In this study, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is proposed as ...
TL;DR: The Cayuga Nation has worked through various US politico-legal mechanisms to establish sovereignty over land taken from them by European settlers and their descendants in what is today New York State beginning in the 1700s as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: ‘No sovereign nation, no reservation’: producing the new colonialism in Cayuga Count(r)y. Territory, Politics, Governance. Since 1980, the Cayuga Nation has worked through various US politico-legal mechanisms to establish sovereignty over land taken from them by European settlers and their descendants in what is today New York State beginning in the 1700s. When, in 2005, the US Supreme Court refused to review a lower court’s dismissal of their case, the Cayugas began purchasing land they claim from local (non-Cayuga) property owners. Relatedly, they petitioned the US Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the land that they collectively own into federal trust, which would exempt them from various taxes. These efforts have engendered strong opposition from elements of the non-Native population, particularly the organization Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE). This article interrogates the discourse of UCE, and its allies and antecedents, one that effectively nationalizes the Cayugas by producing them a...
TL;DR: The work of Adam Watson from the English School of International Relations as discussed by the authors has been used to highlight the potential of supranationalism for transcending the prejudices imposed upon international relations theory by the anarchy assumption and the reification of independent statehood.
Abstract: Beyond the Westphalian rainbow: a dissident theory of supranational systems. Territory, Politics, Governance. This article focuses on the work of Adam Watson from the English School of International Relations for two purposes. The first is to highlight the potential it contains for transcending the prejudices imposed upon international relations theory by the anarchy assumption and by the reification of independent statehood. The second and the more specific purpose is to understand the formation of legitimate supranational systems once these prejudices are removed. Watson approaches supranationalism as an extant condition in international society rather than as a deviation from a normal condition of anarchy or independent statehood, and proposes a culturalist and a moralistic framework in which supranational systems can be legitimized. As a case study to determine which framework is more valid, I analysed the convention on the future of Europe and concluded that the moralistic serves better for u...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the political economy of European diplomacy as an uneven transnational field, where national, international and supranational elements blend in daily practice to create qualitatively new forms of diplomatic knowledge production.
Abstract: Political economies of transnational fields: harmonization and differentiation in European diplomacy. Territory, Politics, Governance. Focusing on Europe, this paper analyses diplomacy as an uneven transnational field. The field is uneven not only along the predictable lines of big and small states, but also along the lines of wealth and tradition that are customarily overlooked in diplomatic studies. The political economy of European diplomacy cannot be read off the map of states without considering cross-national patterns of economic and symbolic capital. The field is transnational in the sense that national, international and supranational elements blend in daily practice to create qualitatively new forms of diplomatic knowledge production. By analysing such uneven transnationalism, the paper brings greater empirical and conceptual specificity to our understanding of bureaucratic knowledge production. The empirical material focuses on diplomatic training. It is drawn from web-based sources and ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the long-term institutional trajectory of the Milan metropolitan area in Italy using a set of historical data points from the early 1970s to the present day.
Abstract: The institutional history of Milan metropolitan area. Territory, Politics, Governance. This paper highlights the long-term institutional trajectory of the Milan metropolitan area in Italy using com...
TL;DR: The authors explored the political geographies of these imaginary futures as depicted in post-peak oil novels from the UK and the US from the 1990s to twenty-first century novelists dealing with the twin crises of climate change and peak oil.
Abstract: Crude geopolitics: territory and governance in post-peak oil imaginaries. Territory, Politics, Governance. Concerns over diminishing access to cheap fossil fuels and the impacts of their use on the environment have engendered the production of novels in which new ways of living and alternative forms of governance are imagined. From pioneering self-sufficiency expert John Seymour in the 1990s to twenty-first century novelists dealing with the twin crises of climate change and ‘peak oil’, these stories draw on existential concerns over resource depletion, environmental degradation and climate change to portray fundamentally altered socio-political futures. This article explores the political geographies of these imaginary futures as depicted in post-peak oil novels from the UK and the US. It traces the reterritorialization and rescaling of governance following the imagined disintegration of social and political structures post-peak oil, highlighting an emphasis on the creation of small, localized co...
TL;DR: Finn et al. as mentioned in this paper argue that the power of story-telling in fiction and popular media can be seen as a mediator between popular culture and world politics or cultural anthropology (see, for example, Davies, 2018).
Abstract: When reflecting on the relationship between, and intersection of, territory, politics and governance, I find myself drawn to fictional writing and popular media. Freed from the scholarly conventions of knowledge generation, methodological rigour and academic referencing, there is something rather refreshing about the creative power of novelists, film directors and television writers to contemplate, interrogate, and speculate on fictional and factual worlds in the past, present and future. In my disciplinary matrix, I would term this either popular and/or everyday geopolitics, while others might refer to popular culture and world politics or cultural anthropology (see, for example, Basham, 2016, Dittmer & Dodds 2008, Jansen, 2009). The critical acclaim that accompanied the televisual adaption of Margaret Atwood’s The handmaid’s tale (Miller, 2017) speaks to a contemporary appetite for politicised drama, which is unafraid to contemplate weird, unsettling and violent worlds. As others have noted, it seems emblematic of a world where the ‘darker clouds’ of populism, ethnic nationalism, chauvinism and affect-fuelled violence are making themselves felt (see, for example, Davies, 2018). Wendy Brown’s Undoing the demos, reminds us that there is a long history of neoliberal rationality to trace and appreciate, when accounting and auditing the undermining of liberal democratic imaginaries and practices (Brown, 2015). As a scholar of film, and rapacious reader of novels, I don’t need much encouragement to posit the claim that films such as Frozen river (Hunt, 2008) and novels such as Celeste Ng’s Everything i never told you (2014) are extraordinary mediations on territory, politics and governance (for example, Dodds, 2013). In Frozen river, we follow the stories of two women, one white working class and a younger woman of Sioux heritage, who live and work close to the US-Canadian border. Economic dislocation and sexual discrimination bring the women together in a high-stakes illegal smuggling operation involving Asian nationals made possible by the freezing of the river border. The social and physical qualities of the borderland terrain prove, literally, elemental in their negotiation of border security and the everyday (racist) politics of upstate New York. In Everything i never told you, we learn how a family tragedy shapes the lives of a married couple, a ChineseAmerican husband and white American wife, through the struggle to deal with self-hate, survivor guilt and sibling rivalries. The racial and gendered politics of small town America make themselves felt in everyday life, from the university, schools and local community somewhere in Ohio. If Frozen River is informed by a post-9/11 zeitgeist, the novel’s backdrop of Cold War America and post-war expressions of the ‘American dream’ inform the narrative arc and emotive qualities of the persona dramatis. The articles in this special issue speak to me, at least, to the power of story-telling. They tackle on the face of it a diversity of topics – from colonial Kenya to the neo-liberal condition of European cities, alongside peak oil imaginaries and contemporary Mozambique. I want to start with
TL;DR: The six papers in this issue cover a wide range of topics, but they do have a common theme. All address the methodological problems of incorporating time and space into social science analysis as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The six papers in this issue cover a wide range of topics, but they do have a common theme. All address the methodological problems of incorporating time and space into social science analysis. Tim...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors empirically explored what causes anti-western sentiments to emerge and deepen in some contexts, and provided a theoretical framework explaining how anti-Western feelings are conceived, and how they evolve under different conditions.
Abstract: Anti-Western feelings in the Arab world and the role of exposure to the West: rethinking connections through public opinion. Territory, Politics, Governance. Anti-Western feelings in the Arab Middle East are reported as if they are a defining characteristic of the region, even without proper contextualization. This paper empirically explores what causes such sentiments to emerge and deepen in some contexts. This study is focused on the views of Palestinians (2013 public opinion survey, N = 832) towards Western states and societies. Informed by empirical data, it provides a theoretical framework explaining how anti-Western feelings are conceived, and how they evolve under different conditions. It also examines the role of travel, and family connections, in addition to exposure to the West through the Internet in acquiring sentiments towards and about the West.
TL;DR: The authors developed an exploratory account of an emerging form of Antipodean territoriality that contributes another exemplar to interpretations of how public authority and private interests coalesce in the governance of space.
Abstract: Assembling the Antipodes: migration, finance and territoriality across Australia and New Zealand. Territory, Politics, Governance. Australia and New Zealand’s historically close cultural and economic ties have deepened since the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s. This paper develops an exploratory account of an emerging form of Antipodean territoriality that contributes another exemplar to interpretations of how public authority and private interests coalesce in the governance of space. Drawing on publicly available empirical material on contemporary migration and financial flows across the Tasman Sea and concepts from assemblage thinking, it is argued that these flows are stabilized through different institutional adjustments and enmeshments with cultural norms in both territories. Australian banks now supply financial capital to undergird a property (real estate) boom in New Zealand, the profits from which are returned to Australia. Concurrently, there has been mass migration of New Zealand citize...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed electoral outcomes at the municipality level with spatial analysis techniques (Moran's I and spatial autoregressive model), showing that parties' support seems to follow a local electoral cycle, partly independent from the aggregate one.
Abstract: Local and national effects in the electoral cycle: the case of Italy, 2001–2009. Territory, Politics, Governance. According to electoral cycle theory, in second-order elections small parties are expected to improve their performance, while big parties are expected to be punished. This paper formally tests whether these electoral cycle effects can be considered as solely national in nature or whether they vary at the local level. It tests the expectations in Northern Italy in two electoral cycles (2001–2004 and 2008–2009), with special reference to Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia/PdL and the smaller ally, Lega Nord. The paper analyses electoral outcomes at the municipality level with spatial analysis techniques (Moran’s I and spatial autoregressive model), showing that parties’ support seems to follow a local electoral cycle, partly independent from the aggregate one.
TL;DR: The idea of foreign embassies is a fascinating idea that you enter a jurisdiction where different laws apply the moment you step through their doors (or, in the case of... as discussed by the authors ).
Abstract: When I was a child, I found foreign embassies intriguing. It is a fascinating idea that you enter a jurisdiction where different laws apply the moment you step through their doors (or, in the case ...
TL;DR: This article conducted a survey of nearly 300 federal and provincial constituency associations in Canada's largest province to understand how parties cooperate with one another or the range of possibilities available to national and sub-national parties.
Abstract: Party integration at the grassroots: evidence from Canada. Territory, Politics, Governance. Party organization and electoral competition are increasingly taking place within structures of multilevel governance. While a growing body of literature has recently emerged, quantifying linkages between national and sub-national political parties, considerably less attention has been devoted to understanding theoretically how parties cooperate with one another or the range of possibilities available to national and sub-national parties. Drawing upon an original survey of nearly 300 federal and provincial constituency associations in Canada’s largest province, this paper adds to the literature in two important ways. First, it systematically and empirically evaluates a recent typology of grassroots party integration. In doing so, it demonstrates the considerable variation that can be found between and within parties. Second, examining the direction of cooperation and collaboration, it provides evidence to c...