Political Space Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Restrictions on NGOs and others promoting civil liberties have caused alarm about «shrinking civic space» perpetrated by their domestic regimes. Yet because most camps in the world’s civil societies are left
unmolested (indeed many are growing) and because non-domestic sources of constraint often play decisive roles, there are reasons to re-think the issues and ask how, and for whom, civil spaces are shaped.
This exploratory article draws attention to forces set in motion from central, transnational levels that affect civic spaces: securitization; constraints on organized labour; marketization; transnational non-state actors; citizen disengagement driven by state retrenchment; and social media. As problematized in most policy, activist and scholarly writings, outside forces affecting civic space for emancipatory camps are often ignored, despite their being more susceptible to counteraction from outside than are repressive regimes. These issues await deeper investigation and discussion.

- by David Sogge
- •
- Civil Society, Political Space, Repression, Protest and State Repression

This article analyzes how infrastructures take part in constituting Europe as a material collectivity. To that end, it modifies Bruno Latour’s sociology of associations in two respects: In order to theorize the relation between connectivity and collectivity, we consider the political rationalities that infrastructures embody and the political spatiality that they configure. This theoretical perspective is put to a test in exploring the “infrastructuralism” that lies at the core of the European project. After tracing both the operative and imaginary significance of infrastructure policy historically, the analysis concentrates on the most recent initiative to build trans-European energy networks. We demonstrate that the neoliberal configuration of infrastructural collectivity manifests itself in a specific spatial configuration of the market. Europe’s infrastructuralism defines the common as a topological space of corridors and high-voltage lines, which align territorial cohesion with fragmentation.

- by Sven Opitz and +1
- •
- Political Sociology, European integration, Space and Place, Governmentality

Restrictions on NGOs and others promoting civil liberties have caused alarm about «shrinking civic space» perpetrated by their domestic regimes. Yet because most camps in the world's civil societies are left unmolested (indeed many are growing) and because non-domestic sources of constraint often play decisive roles, there are reasons to rethink the issues and ask how, and for whom, civil spaces are shaped. This exploratory article draws attention to forces set in motion from central, transnational levels that affect civic spaces: securitization; constraints on organized labour; marketization; transnational non-state actors; citizen disengagement driven by state retrenchment; and social media. As problematized in most policy, activist and scholarly writings, outside forces affecting civic space for emancipatory camps are often ignored, despite their being more susceptible to counteraction from outside than are repressive regimes. These issues await deeper investigation and discussion.

- by David Sogge
- •
- Third Sector, Foreign Aid, Civil Society, Political Space
- by Lucas Pohl
- •
- Social Theory, Psychoanalysis, Human Geography, Cultural Geography

To overcome the metaphoricality of the term "political space" that is an actual for political sociology, the concept that is point- ed by this metaphorical term, is being criticized. The derivative metaphor "destruction of political space" is used to analyze the Ukraine crisis. A retrospective analysis of the preconditions of the crisis and events that resulted in the change of power in 2014 shows that the derivative metaphor can effectively work in political sociology in the study of macro-political processes.

- by Olena Muradyan and +1
- •
- Ukrainian Studies, Divided Societies, Political Space, Social Cleavages

Abstract: Political space in democracy provides opportunity to civil societies important roles to play. While this role can strengthen democracy, it can also, at the same time, create certain exclusive space for such civil societies themselves within the larger ambit of political system. Civil societies also influence political authority
and governance for intended benefits. In Manipur’s context, every recognised tribe are befallen with three contestations or conflict of interests. One is the problem of asserting one’s tribe identity within the existing system and another is the exertion put on them toward building a larger indigenous or imagined nationality for better political space, and thirdly, they are under the bondage of their traditional institutions. This is more so amongst the Kuki tribes of Manipur. This article discusses the role of civil societies as manifested by the
assertions of different Kuki tribes and that of the chieftainship in the process of building stronger Kuki nationality and the unfolding conflict of ideas and interests therein.
Key words: political space, civil societies, conflict of interest, tribe, nationality, Kuki

- by Ngamkhohao Haokip
- •
- Political Space

Jurisdictional frontiers were created, contested, and negotiated among a wide range of actors, including native Americans and Europeans, with reference to the cities founded in Castilla del Oro (roughly present-day Panama). This research deals, first, with the reshaping of the concept of a city in the New World, based on its inhabitants’ sense of civitas. It analyses, secondly, the creation and redefinition of jurisdiction during political conflicts and, third, the construction and maintenance of jurisdiction through local relations with indigenous populations described as ‘conversation’. The analysis of the creation and preservation of local jurisdictions allows for an interpretation of the complexities involved in the configuration of political power and political space from below in the territories claimed by the Spanish Monarchy.

- by Jorge Díaz Ceballos
- •
- History, Latin American Studies, Urban History, Imperial History

This paper introduces a crucial dimension for the spatial and comparative analysis of party systems, cleavages, and the conduct of political campaigns. It presents the concepts of “high” and “low” in politics, and the related high-low dimension. High and low are about ways of appealing, and thus relating, to people in sociologically differentiated ways. Politicians on the high are “well behaved,” more restrained, and proper, both in manners and institutional procedures. Politicians on the low sublimate less and are more down-to-earth, coarser, earthier, and personalistic, both in manners and institutionally. The high-low dimension is fully neutral, or orthogonal, with regard to the left-right axis. We argue that this is in sharp contrast to Kitschelt’s authoritarian/libertarian divide or to Inglehart’s materialist/post-materialist political cleavage. The paper also provides a solid conceptual discussion of the classic and quasi universal polarities of left and right, which (like the high-low axis) is in fact comprised of two subdimensions.
Together, the high-low and left-right dimensions form a two-dimensional space of politics, highly useful for characterizing certain political arenas and political strategies. The concept of “low” moreover provides a much-needed, uncontroversial, and highly intuitive central component of the definition of populism. It also brings to the fore the neglected phenomenon of anti-populism. Finally, the paper illustrates the relevance of the high-low dimension in Argentina, with its “double political spectrum” divided between Peronism and anti-Peronism, Venezuela with Chavismo and anti-Chavismo, and Ecuador.

Al-Tahrir Square, surrounded by commercial crowded streets, financial headquarters, and governmental institutions is one of the most iconic squares in Baghdad. It is part of daily life for many Iraqi people due to its central location, which is characterized by busy roads with honking cars. In this essay, I am going to explore Al-Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq as a venue of rebellion for Iraqi people. Since 2015, Iraqi people from diverse backgrounds have been gathering in the square to protest for their rights every Friday. It has been the site of many historical events in Iraq although it has been established as a social place. I will explore the sociopolitical significance of Al-Tahrir Square by connecting the history of the place with how it has been changed since 1961 when the Freedom Monument was first open to the public. The research addresses the urban landscape of Al-Tahrir Square and its transformation over time, taking into consideration the political issues that affect it. I will analyze policies and regulations that have discouraged people from gathering in the Square to prevent political threats to the government and suggest ways to create safer spaces and mixed used attractions, modify the natural landscape of Al-Ummah Garden to make it more connected to the Square, and revitalize the existing kaleidoscope for closer proximity to Tigris River.

- by Rasha Al-Tameemi
- •
- Urban Planning, Public Space, Political Space, Monumentality

In the article, I compare the political space of the Kremlin and residences outside Moscow and focus on the differences of the tsar’s security, social structures, administrative practices, and symbolic conflicts. Social conflict was connected with different publicity. Administrative conflict pointed to the parallelism in the governence. There were two symbolic conflict in the 17th century. On the one hand, the Kremlin as a spiritual and religious center opposed countryside residences as the place of material, economic interests and “amusing” rest. On the other hand, conflict of two types of residences was the traditional opposition of the city and the “spirit desert”. These differences created the conditions for competition between two political spaces and for Petrine transformations.

- by Vicente Reyes
- •
- Social Media, Singapore Politics, Social Media Networks, Political Space

This article adopts an inductive approach to the study of party positions in the Italian Parliament during the centre-left governments of
Enrico Letta (2013–2014) and Matteo Renzi (2014–2016), as they
emerge from the investiture vote. This is a unique moment in the
relationship between Parliament and Government because the parliamentary groups debate the Government’s programme before delivering their first confidence vote. The research aim is to assess the
alignment of the Italian parties in Parliament following the decline of
the traditional left-right cleavage and the rise of populism. A content
analysis of the texts of the speeches delivered during the parliamentary debate before the confidence votes confirming the investiture of
the Letta and Renzi governments provides a survey of the political
themes addressed by the latter and by the main Italian parliamentary
groups. The findings highlight the multidimensional character of the
competition space and show how party alignment is affected by the
interplay between the supranational dimension (European integration)
and the state’s capacity to provide services and guarantee citizens’
rights. It is argued that the emergence of new parties has favoured the
re-establishment of a multi-polar pattern of competition, but without
clear ideological connotations, in contrast with the situation of the
earlier post-war period.

Pendant des siècles, le royaume de France a été défini par quatre rivières frontière : le Rhône, la Saône, la Meuse et l’Escaut. Mais la naissance de la nation France n'a lieu qu'à la fin de la guerre de Cent Ans, au XVe siècle. En ces temps de crise économique et démographique, comment le roi de France parvient-il à remplir le cadre de ces frontières ? Comment peut-il se représenter son royaume et gouverner ces 450 000 km² ?
Fruit d'une méthode originale, ce livre présente une géohistoire politique de la France de la fin du Moyen Âge, illustrée par un atlas de 48 cartes en couleur. Il redonne sa dimension spatiale à l'histoire de la construction nationale en prenant en compte toutes les échelles, pour étudier la formation des frontières ou celle d'une administration territoriale. La culture géographique commune des Français de cette époque se révèle ainsi dans ses spécificités ; leurs façons de se représenter leur pays, de se repérer, de voyager, de communiquer et de gouverner ont eu un impact durable.
Au terme de l'enquête, il est manifeste que la France n'a pas été unifiée par uniformisation ou centralisation, mais par la formation d'espaces sociaux différenciés : des provinces sont gouvernées par le roi, d’autres sont confiées à un gouverneur, à un prince ou à un Parlement. L'unité royale et l'État d’offices se renforcent grâce à l'émergence de pouvoirs locaux fidèles au roi, parallèle à la construction de fortes identités régionales comme en Languedoc ou en Bretagne. Au début du XVIe siècle, la France devient ainsi un État-nation original, État territorial mixte, unitaire et hétérogène. Cette organisation survit jusqu'à la Révolution dans les pays d'Etats et d'élections ; son souvenir structure encore l'identité française.

- by Léonard Dauphant
- •
- Cartography, Medieval History, Nationalism And State Building, Medieval France

- by Rasha Al-Tameemi
- •
- Political Science, Urban Planning, Public Space, Political Space

Gedung 'Pola' (Pola Building) not only functions as an exhibition gallery built specifically to exhibit Sukarno's Utopian vision on architecture and city planning, but also it has become a place to exhibit his political strategy on Nationalism and Modernism. The building serves as a representative political space for Sukarno's ideal propaganda for Jakarta citizens in particular and all Indonesian citizens in general. Sukarno era especially after 1959's presidential decree signified a new episode in seeking Indonesian national identity. He made the 8 Years Planned Universal Development Program (1961-1969) to fulfill his goals to build future Indonesia as a Great Nation. The former site of his home in Jakarta when he read Indonesian Independence proclaimation in 17 August 1945 was demolished and replaced by 'Tugu Petir' (Lighning monument) and 'Gedung Pola' (Pola Building) in 1961, marking the starting point of his ambitious 8 Years Develeopment Progam. This paper elaborates how an exhibition not only was used as a representative visual medium, but also how it has become a political strategy. Sukarno's ideology could be understood through reciting his archives as evidence, which will be interpreted through a hermeneutical approach to view an architecture artefact as a historical phenomenon. In reciting these archives, leftover traces will be interpreted phenomenologically, as a way to address the existence of political space in Gedung Pola and also to reveal how an exhibition can be a strategy for political space.

- by Amy Marku and +1
- •
- Indonesia, History and Theory of Modern Architecture, Utopia, Exhibitions

Liste des cartes et figures

- by Léonard Dauphant
- •
- Cartography, Medieval France, Middle Ages, Political Space

For the full version of this article, see "Government-NGO Relations in Asia" book listing below!

- by James Riker
- •
- Sustainable Development, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Political Space

The relationship of public space to democracy is dominated by two competing, yet intertwined, theoretical bases: political philosophy and spatial theory. But how does the architect make political space? Can architectural practice create political space through design? In this book, Teresa Hoskyns theorizes that the converging point between theoretical foundations and democratic practices is “participation” within “social production of space.” Therefore, “participation” from joint perspectives of architecture and political philosophy has been studied in two different frameworks: the theoretical and the practical. Unlike most previous works on the relationship between architecture and democracy, Hoskyn’s book transcends the spatial and political interpretation of public space. By incorporating new theoretical approaches to representative democracy, it depicts a complex dialectic and multilayered picture of—“spaces of democracy” and the “democracy of space”—in her phrasing.

- by Asma Mehan
- •
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Architecture, Democratic Theory
- by Kyle Novak
- •
- Rhizomes, Hannah Arendt, Political Space, Gezi Park

The structure of political space of tsar’s residences in the 2nd half of the 17th century complied with the system of access of persons belonged to different social groups. The 1649 Council Code (Sobornoye Ulozheniye) evened up the status of the tsar’s town and country seats. The results of studying the material culture of the residents prove that in practice the tsar family had “sedentary life” in Kremlin and “nomadic” in the country seats. It was due to the norms of security (tsar things could be used for witchcraft and poisoning) and the necessity of distancing the supreme power from its subjects.

- by Jean-Sébastien Philippart
- •
- Liberalism, Reflexivity, Individualism, Islamism

In this article, we examine the structure of party competition in Italy in the February 2013 elections. We rely on the spatial approach to party competition to analyse the most salient dimensions of the policy space in the Italian context. Our analysis is based on quantitative estimates from expert survey data. These data highlight the salience of the socioeconomic policy dimension and capture the change in the importance of the EU dimension. Finally, this study provides an analysis of potential coalition governments in the aftermath of the 2013 general election that is grounded on the spatial approach to coalition formation.

- by andrea pedrazzani and +1
- •
- Political Parties, Italian Politics, Political Space, Expert surveys
- by Adrián Velázquez Ramírez
- •
- Teoría Política, Political Space, Doreen Massey

Paper prepared for the 2001 INDEPENDENT SECTOR Spring Research Forum on "The Impact of Information Technology on Civil Society: How will online innovation, philanthropy, and volunteerism serve the common good?" Washington, DC, March 15 –... more

- by David Ragazzoni
- •
- Political Philosophy, Geopolitics, Sovereignty, Hobbes

In recent years the issue of space has returned to arouse the interest of those who
study international politics from various disciplinary perspectives. If during
bipolarity there was little interest in spatiality, both because its dual scheme
was highly evident and because the two ideologies of reference explained
the reality according to factors which were substantially indifferent to space
(the class struggle and popular democracy on the one hand and market laws
and liberal democracy on the other), the end of the Cold War has made it
appropriate once again to wonder about which spatial paradigm lies at the
base of the international system: Unipolar? Bipolar (USA vs. China)?
Multipolar? Apolar? In addition, considerations on political spatiality
become necessarily relevant today in the analysis of the processes of rearticulating
regional areas and new relationships between global and regional
dynamics.
But a new interest in the spatial dimension of politics today pervades the entire,
vast field of Social Sciences, from Political Geography to the Philosophy of
Law and Politics, as well as International Law, History of Political Thought,
History, Economy, Regional Studies and, obviously, International Relations.
This wide-ranging rethink of political space implies a redefinition of the
traditional categories, beginning with that of borders, which in recent years
has aroused the very lively and prolific field of Border Studies.
9
Edoardo Boria
Starting from the observation of this recent evaluation of space as an explanatory
device for the understanding of politics, this research focuses on one specific
aspect: its cartographic representation. The interest in this topic is justified
by the recent critical turn in map studies, which has produced an epistemological
revision and focused attention on the rhetorical power and
performative quality of the map. This provoked a re-examination of the
meaning and political value of cartography, to which this study intends to
make a contribution.
After a close examination of the phenomena which lie at the basis of the research,
it must finally be asked if the novelty of the current political and intellectual
context about the themes of political space have consequently produced
updates, and if so which, in the way of representing political spatiality. The
conclusions of the reflection lead us to believe that there are indeed promising
signs of renewal, however not yet enough to overthrow the primacy of
the cartographic model of modernity in favour of a fully postmodern paradigm.
Keywords: space, cartography, geopolitics, politics

- by Ahmad Naufal Azizi
- •
- Conflict, Political Space

This research explores the reflection of the Turk and Turkey in historic board games produced in nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe. It states that the image of the Turk lost its thematic value in board games from the beginning of the nineteenth century and entered a century-long period characterized by a representational decline. During the hype of imperialism, newly colonized territories and peoples took the attention of board game designers, while the Turk and Turkey were no longer a popular entity in games. In the twentieth century, however, this decline turned almost to a total absence of Turkish representation in board games. This inquiry proposes to seek this declining trend in the mutual relationship between game space and political space. In the light of historic board games from Dutch, Flemish, French and British collections, the study revisits Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga’s theories on play and games in culture. Statistical data supporting the proposal here will also be shared with the participants.

- by Ömer Fatih Parlak
- •
- Modern History, Johan Huizinga, Political Space, Game space

Book Review of Adam T. Smith, 2003, The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities, Los Angeles: University of California Press. Kitap Eleştirisi: Adam T. Smith, 2003, The Political Landscape:... more

The current growing interest in the concept of “political space” is largely associated with its use within constructivist studies. Adopting this perspective, this article examines the construction of political space in tsarist country residences of the 17th century and identifies two methods employed in the process. The first led to the creation of a hierarchically (vertically) organized political space, the second — to a horizontal space. In the first case, only representatives of the supreme power were endowed with political subjectivity, while in the second every participant in the political communication process was. Both methods were used simultaneously, which was caused not only by the need to satisfy private interests, but also by the need for empowering interaction, when subjects received certain benefi ts in exchange for recognition of the legitimacy of the supreme power.
Современный рост интереса к концепту «политическое пространство» в значительной степени связан с использованием его в рамках конструктивистских исследований. С этих позиций данная статья рассматривает процесс организации политического пространства царских загородных резиденций XVII в. и выявляет два способа его конструирования. Первый вел к созданию иерархически (вертикально) организованного политического пространства, второй — горизонтального пространства. В первом случае политической субъектностью наделялись исключительно представители верховной власти, а во втором — каждый участник политической коммуникации. Оба способа использовались синхронно, что было вызвано не только необходимостью удовлетворить частные интересы, но и потребностью в усиливающем взаимодействии, когда подданные получали те или иные преимущества в обмен на признание легитимности верховной власти. Ключевые слова: политическое пространство, конструктивизм, иерархия, усиливающее взаимодействие.

- by Karsten Paerregaard
- •
- Conflict, Neoliberalism, Land reform, Political Space

Data from Indonesia’s Democracy Baseline Survey conducted by Gadjah Mada University and University of Oslo in 2014 reveals that, even though pro-democracy activists has no longer been barred to participate in politics, their engagement has been confined in a relatively thin zone. The idea of civil society, and the way it frames their participation in public live, sets barriers for their own space of participation. To some extent, the stagnant of democratic movement in the country has been conditioned by discursive design for ensuring, coherent popular control in public live. This paper gears to explain the phenomena by uncovering the embedded discourse of democratization in the country.

- by jamie doucette
- •
- South Korea, Democratization, Conservatism, Alain Badiou

The main purpose of this paper was to analyze the emergence of the Hungarian Media Law debate as a European political issue. The research was based on a dataset that was collected by Gabriella Szabó for her doctoral research on the European public sphere. Using a combination of qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis, I examined how the identities of the actors, the stake of the contestation and the expected political outcome were framed in the course of the debate; and an ‘analytical narrative’ was deployed to provide a constructivist interpretation of the Hungarian Media Law issue. The analysis of the issue showed that the debate had three distinct stages: a low-intensity ‘preliminary’ phase when the European dimension was introduced into the debate; an ‘explosion’ phase when there emerged a higher level of politicization with the intervention of the hitherto passive European Commission; and, finally, a ‘falloff’ phase when the most radical possible political outcomes were smoothed away. In all the three stages of the contestation, the actors spent considerable energy to publicly frame their identities and those of their adversaries (actor and opponent frames), the stakes of the issue (issue and rival explanations frames) and their goals (outcome frames), and when facing new challenges, they keenly changed these frames. The analysis also demonstrated that the emergence of the issue did not follow the logic of ‘Europeanization’, but was a contingent result of a political process that was from the beginning participated both by domestic and genuinely transnational actors.

The paper discusses in-depth new perspectives in the Holocaust studies. It pays special attention to the spatiality of the Nazi camps and analyzes the Holocaust geographies more in general. It conceptualizes the camp as a ‘space of lawlessness’ that was created by political means of terror and exclusion. The specific spatiality of the Nazi camp was constructed by perpetrators with intentions to neglect both juridical law and moral laws of humanity. To prove this point the author analyzes P. Levi, the survivor of Auschwitz, witness and his prominent books “The Drowned and the Saved” and “If This Is a Man”. After reading his witness one can conclude that two spatial characteristics of the camp have been the most fundamental. The first one were the borders that cut the camp’s inmates from the people lived in the outside world and made impossible all human relations like providing help, solidarity, empathy. The second one was ‘the grey zone’ – a spatial metaphor that P. Levi used to explain all forms of collaboration with the camp authorities. The presence of the ‘grey zone’ as a main characteristic of the Nazi camp allows us to conceptualize it as a ‘space’ where ‘the starry heavens and internal moral law’ were no more present. So, the Nazi camp is a ‘place of indistinction’, a ‘spatial threshold’ where ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’, ‘human’ and ‘animal’, ‘drowned’ and ‘saved’ were no more distinguishable. The author analyzes more broaden Holocaust geographies outside the camp. Nazis used extensively occupied territories in Eastern Europe to perpetrate their crimes. The author concludes that the geographical localization of the Holocaust was an expression of Nazi irrational genocidal intentions and spatial imaginations. Eastern territories have been constructed by Nazis as ‘broaden spaces of exception and lawlessness’. That spatial imagination and planning allowed the perpetrators to neglect juridical and moral laws in reality. The paper concludes by insisting on the importance of the Holocaust legacy for modern humanitarian action and thinking. The Holocaust legacy helps us to conceptualize more precisely ‘new spaces of lawlessness’. It provides a base for the concepts of human security and ‘global responsibility’ for saving humanity in the contemporary world.

U tekstu se razmatra pojam ekološkog građanstva, kao i različiti argumenti kojima se opravdava njegovo zasnivanje, ali i kritikuje ideja da je reč o novom obliku građanstva i političke zajednice koja ga konstituiše. Konačno, izneće se predlog da potragu za novim konceptom zamenimo usvajanjem drugačije perspektive iz koje pojmovi građanske akcije i političkog prostora u kome se ona zbiva ne gube eksplanatorni kapacitet u kontekstu savremenih globalnih ekoloških problema.

- by Jelena Vasiljevic
- •
- Citizenship, Political Space, Ecological Footprint, Ecological Citizenship
- by Vicente Reyes
- •
- Social Media, Multidisciplinary, Singapore Politics, Social Media Networks

This article examines Machiavelli’s writings on fortresses as a new starting point for a genealogy of urban fortification. In contrast to theorists of Machiavelli who approach fortresses as defensive structures that preserve the present political order, this article considers fortresses as weapons to privatize civic life. It explores the significance of fortresses for democratic readings of Machiavelli, suggesting that Machiavelli offers a careful analysis of the spatial organization of power and its implications for popular self-government. This reconsideration of fortresses in Machiavelli brings his political thought into conversation with contemporary urban theorists critical of the enclosure of public space. The article argues that Machiavelli seeks to resignify notions of fortification and replace the construction of fortresses with practices of fortifying publics. Such practices find ways to strengthen public spaces and envision durable democracy.

- by Derek Denman
- •
- Critical Theory, Political Theory, Democracy, Machiavelli