Political Geography

Communautés, fragmentation territoriale et gouvernement au Proche-Orient arabe (Irak, Syrie, Jordanie et Liban)

by Fabrice Balanche

Publiée dans la revue Etudes Interculturelles, Chaire UNESCO de l'Université Catholique de Lyon, mai 2012.

Dans le contexte conflictuel du Proche-Orient, marqué par le conflit israélo-arabe et la concurrence des grandes... more Dans le contexte conflictuel du Proche-Orient, marqué par le conflit israélo-arabe et la concurrence des grandes puissances pour les richesses en hydrocarbures du Golfe, la division communautaire est un facteur supplémentaire de conflit. Cela nous renvoie au fait que la communauté est une construction sociale et/ou politique et non pas une donnée fondamentale immuable forcément facteur de violence. Cependant, dans le contexte géopolitique du Proche-Orient contemporain, les fractures sociales recoupent des fractures communautaires, et lorsqu’une communauté s’identifie à un territoire, cela peut provoquer une partition du pays à la faveur d’un conflit. Le processus de mondialisation, qui provoque un affaiblissement des « Etats-nations », fait rejouer les lignes de failles communautaires, d’autant plus que les Etats du Proche-Orient ne sont que des Etats-territoire. Dans ce contexte, la remise en cause de l’autoritarisme, avec le « printemps arabe » de 2011, ouvre une période d’instabilité qui peut se révéler dangereuse pour les minorités dans toute la région. De l’invasion américaine de l’Irak en 2003 à la révolte syrienne de 2011, en passant par la révolution du Cèdre au Liban en 2005, huit années ce sont écoulées durant lesquelles de nettes tendances à la fragmentation interne se sont dessinées.

Localising Pylian religion: Thoughts on the geographic references in the Fr tablets provoked by a new quasi-join

by Vassilis Petrakis

Pasiphae. Rivista di Filologia e Antichità Egee 4 (2010) [2011], pp. 199-215.

Landscapes of political memories: War legacies and land negotiations in Laos

by Ian Baird

Ian G. Baird and Philippe Le Billon (Published online, May 2012) Political Geography

Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through... more Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through new boundaries, population movements, land reforms and conditions of access. Within a global context of controversial land concessions and farmland acquisitions, we bring to light the continued salience of historical memories of war in the ways land conflicts are being negotiated in Laos. Considering circumstances at different scalesdfrom bilateral government relations to village-level claimsdwe find that political capital linked to memories of wartime affiliations have crucial spatial and place-based connections, and that they affect the ways investors, government officials and villagers negotiate over land concessions. Ethnographic evidence, spatial analysis and a survey of expatriate development workers engaged with land issues in Laos suggest that such ‘political memories’ are an important but often overlooked factor in shaping an uneven concessions landscape. We discuss implications for foreign development organizations that tend to privilege technical and legal aspects of land
management over such political dimensions.

Familial relations: spaces, subjects, and politics

by Lauren Martin

co-authored with Chris Harker

Introduction to our themed issue on the family in geographical research.

Other articles include:
more Introduction to our themed issue on the family in geographical research.

Other articles include:

Do as I say, not as I do: the affective space of family life and the generational transmission of drinking cultures 776 – 792
Gill Valentine, Mark Jayne, Myles Gould

Transnational families and the family nexus: perspectives of Indonesian and Filipino children left behind by migrant parent(s) 793 – 815
Elspeth Graham, Lucy P Jordan, Brenda S A Yeoh, Theodora Lam, Maruja Asis, Su-kamdi

‘The church is ... my family’: exploring the interrelationship between familial and religious practices and spaces 816 – 831
Sonya Sharma

Women in waiting? Singlehood, marriage, and family in Singapore 832 – 848
Kamalini Ramdas

Precariousness, precarity, and family: notes from Palestine 849 – 865
Christopher Harker

Governing through the family: struggles over US noncitizen family detention policy 866 – 888
Lauren L Martin

The spectacular and the mundane: racialised state violence, Filipino migrant workers, and their families 889 – 904
Elizabeth Lee, Geraldine Pratt

Governing through the family: Struggles over US Noncitizen Family Detention Policy

by Lauren Martin

This paper offers a conceptual framework in which ‘the family’ is situated as an object of governmental intervention,... more This paper offers a conceptual framework in which ‘the family’ is situated as an object of governmental intervention, on the one hand, and a site of discursive proliferation, on the other hand. Reading across the works of Michel Foucault and Jacques Donzelot, I argue that the family served an important, but often overlooked, role in Foucauldian conceptualizations of sovereign, disciplinary, and biopolitical modalities of power. In particular, the elaboration of disciplinary institutions and biopolitical governance converged in the family household; as a central point in these governmental strategies, the family’s relationship to sexuality, child-rearing, and kinship provoked anxieties over race, nation building, sexuality, and gender. After reviewing how these concerns overlapped in US immigration policies, I analyze the debates concerning noncitizen family detention policy in the United States. I show how a series of proposals for family detention and release congealed around competing discourses of childhood innocence and criminality, prison and home, and parental authority and security. On the basis of this analysis, I argue that state and nonstate actors produce multiple normative family subjects through strategic spatializations of state and familial power.

Repräsentation von Sicherheit im Film - Eine Analyse von Filmen zum Irakkrieg 2003

by Manuel Berger

جغرافيا الثورة السورية

by Fabrice Balanche

Arabic translation of "Géographie de la révolte syrienne" published by "Outre Terre", n°29, october 2011.

In March 2011, Syria was also affected by the protest movement which was already down the Tunisian and Egyptian... more In March 2011, Syria was also affected by the protest movement which was already down the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents. There are two similarities between the different places that defy the regime of Bashar al-Assad. First, it's peripheral areas on the political and / or economic scales: the neglected provinces in the transition from socialist to market economy, small cities, and finally neighborhoods. The second common point is that this revolt does in Sunni Arab territories. The Kurds, Sunnis, too, manifested in their territories but their engagement is not commensurate with that of the revolt of 2004. As for religious minorities: Druze, Ismailis, Alawites and Christians, they are passive or support Bashar al-Assad.

Metropolisation and Globalization: factors of political instability in the Arab world (in Spanich)

by Fabrice Balanche

published in Foro internacional, n°208, April 2012, Review of Mexico College

Damascus under the Baath (in French)

by Fabrice Balanche

Publisheb in Moyen Orient, n°12, April 2012

À la différence du Caire et de Tunis, les manifestants antirégime n’ont pas encore occupé les grandes places de Damas.... more À la différence du Caire et de Tunis, les manifestants antirégime n’ont pas encore occupé les grandes places de Damas. Si le président Bachar al-Assad nie toute contagion du « printemps arabe » à la Syrie, les chars ont été envoyés dès avril 2011 dans la périphérie de la capitale. En janvier et février 2012, des quartiers intra-muros connaissent également des rassemblements. Le régime a réussi à conserver le centre de la ville et a empêché un embrasement général. Un tel scénario lui serait fatal, car Damas est la clé de voûte du système politique construit par Hafez al-Assad (1970-2000), un cas d’école pour analyser les relations entre l’espace urbain et le pouvoir.

Transnationalism and (Im)mobility: The Politics of Border Crossings

by Rachel Silvey

Co-authored with Elizabeth A. Olson and Yaffa Truleove, in Handbook of Political Geography, 2007.

Spatialising the Refugee Camp

by Adam Ramadan

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Neoliberalism

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2012. Neoliberalism. The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics. Eds. K. Dodds, M. Kuus, and J. Sharp. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

This chapter seeks to demonstrate how a critical geopolitics has contributed to a reading of neoliberalism that... more This chapter seeks to demonstrate how a critical geopolitics has contributed to a reading of neoliberalism that challenges the assumed inevitability and all-encompassing ‘bulldozer effect’ that pervades in popular media accounts of free market capitalism and its colloquial understanding as ‘globalization’. I emphasize neoliberalism’s mongrel character, by attending to the series of mutations, hybridizations, and variegations across space that foreground the role of geography in creating multiple forms of processual and unfolding neoliberalizations, rather than a singular and static neoliberalism. I then turn my attention to the continuing role of the state and address how discourse functions to secure consent for neoliberalism’s particular political rationality. I hope to remind readers that although the role of the state has become subtler under neoliberalism through a reconfiguration of the citizen-subject via processes of governmentality, this does not mean that it has entirely exited the political scene. To the contrary, I argue that the transformed role of the state under neoliberalization is susceptible to expressions of authoritarianism and violence, which brings the state back into plain view as it comes into conflict with those individuals who have been marginalized by neoliberalism’s belligerent regulatory reforms and discriminatory policy initiatives.

Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change.

The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of... more The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.

2010 New political topographies. Mining companies and indirect discharge in Southern Katanga (DRC), Politique Africaine N° 120, December 2010.

by Jana Hönke

For analysing current reconfigurations of political order in Africa in a new way, this article suggests a focus on... more For analysing current reconfigurations of political order in Africa in a new way, this article suggests a focus on particular socio-economic spaces. It analyses how multinational companies govern security in the copper and cobalt mining region of Southern Katanga (DRC). The article argues that the extended role of companies in managing political order in Southern Katanga can be understood as a new form of indirect discharge by the host and the home states of multinational companies in such a way as to quasi-outsource local governance. It engenders political topographies different from those of corporate security governance in the XIXth-XXth centuries.

call for papers-Metamorphosis of the Arab World-Political Geography and Alternative Maps

by barış çoban

Metamorphosis of The Arab World:
Political Geography and Alternative Maps

Editors: Barış Çoban, Barış Erdoğan

The so-called "Arab Spring", recent social movements in the Arab world, which can also be described as the "return of the oppressed", have attracted international attention on the Middle East and Arab world. The Middle East, North Africa and Turkey have been profoundly affected by this political and social metamorphosis. The objective of this project is to discuss “metamorphosis of the Arab world” in the context of international relations, politics, sociology, economics and communications and so on by the contribution of several academicians, researchers, politicians and journalists.
The geography of the Arab world is in a process of metamorphosis and consequently traditional structure of the Arab world, its power structure, power relations, politics and social relations have been fluctuated by the hand of the global super power(s). In fact, “All that is solid melts into air", this expression summarizes clearly what is happening in the Middle East and North Africa. The possible outcomes and/or result of this ongoing process are vague, and it needs to be discussed with its all aspects.
As a result, our focus is on “metamorphosis” of the Middle East and the Arab world, since it simultaneously means “metamorphosis” of the world. This book project aims to address and discuss transformation and subsequent reformation of societies and changes in the political geographies and mental maps of the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey from past to present with a multi-voice and multi-layer approach.

(Papers can be submitted in English, French and Turkish)
Deadline for Abstracts: June 10, 2012
Deadline for Full Paper: December 25, 2012
(Please use APA style)

E-mail:
barishc@gmail.com
baris.erdogan1974@hotmail.com,

Editors:
Barış Çoban (Assoc. Prof. Dr., Department of Communication Studies, Dogus University, Turkey)
Barış Erdoğan (Assist Prof. Dr., Department of Political Sciences, Yeni Yuzyil University, Turkey)

Métamorphose du monde arabe:
Géographie politique et des cartes alternatives
Editeurs: Barış Çoban, Barış Erdoğan
Les mouvenents sociaux recents apparus dans une large partie du monde arabe, appellés communement «printemps arabe», peuvent également être décrit comme le «retour de l'opprimé», ont attiré l'attention internationale sur le Moyen-Orient et le monde arabe. Le Moyen-Orient, l'Afrique du Nord et la Turquie ont été profondément touchés par cette métamorphose politique et sociale. L'objectif de ce projet est de discuter «la métamorphose du monde arabe » dans le contexte des relations internationales, politique, sociologie, économie et communication et ainsi de suite par les biais de la contribution de plusieurs universitaires, chercheurs, politiciens et journalistes.
La géographie du monde arabe est dans un processus de métamorphose et par conséquent la structure traditionnelle du monde arabe, sa structure de pouvoir, les relations de pouvoir, la politique et les relations sociales se sont gravement écroulés par la main de la(des) puissance(s) mondiale(s). En fait, «Tout ce qui est solide se dissout dans l'air", cette expression résume bien ce qui se passe au Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord. Les résultats possible et / ou résultat de ce processus en cours sont vagues, et ils doivent être discuté dans tous ses aspects.
Par conséquent, nous nous concentrons sur la métamorphose du Moyen-Orient et du monde arabe, puisqu'elle constitue à la fois la métamorphose du monde. Ce projet a pour objectif d'aborder et discuter de la transformation et la réforme de ces sociétés ainsi que les modifications de la géographie politique et cartes mentales du Moyen-Orient , de l'Afrique du Nord et de la Turquie du passé au présent, avec un multi-voix et une approche multicouche.
Transmission des propositions et date limite
Vorte propositions doit etre transmise a baris.erdogan1974@hotmail.com ou barishc@gmail.com au plus tard le 10 juin 2012. Les articles peuvent être rédigés en anglais, français ou en turc

ECHEANCIERS
- Date limite de réception des propositions : 10 juin 2012
- Date limite de réception des articles : 25 décembre 2012
Information technique
Les propositions, d’un maximum de deux pages, en format Microsoft Word ou PDF, 12 points, devront contenir: le titre de la proposition; le sujet; le nom de l’auteur ou des auteurs; l’institution ou organisation à laquelle vous êtes attaché
Articles
- les articles ne pourront dépasser, avec leur bibliographie, 30 000 caractères, espaces non compris;
- ils devront inclure un résumé de 150 mots maximum qui devra être présenté en français, en anglais ou en turque;

Editeurs :
Dr. Barış Çoban, maitre de conférence, le département de communication, l’Universite de Doğuş, Turquie.
Dr. Barış ERDOGAN, maitre de conférence adjoint, le département des relations internationales l’Université de Yeni Yüzyıl, Turquie.

Arap Dünyasının Dönüşümü:
Siyasetin Coğrafyası ve Alternatif Haritalar

Editörler: Barış Çoban, Barış Erdoğan

Arap ülkelerinde yaşanan ve “Arap Baharı” olarak adlandırılan, “bastırılmış olanın geri döndüğü” kitle hareketleri sonrasında tüm dünyanın gözü yeniden Ortadoğu ve diğer Arap ülkelerine odaklandı. Ortadoğu, Kuzey Afrika ve Türkiye yaşanan siyasal ve toplumsal bu dönüşümden derin bir biçimde etkilenmekte. Bu sürecin uluslararası ilişkiler, siyaset, sosyoloji, ekonomi ve iletişim vb. alanları bağlamında tartışılmasını amaçlayan bu kitap projesi, farklı disiplinlerden akademisyen, araştırmacı, siyasetçi ve gazetecilerin katkılarından oluşacaktır.
Söz konusu coğrafyada bir yılı aşkın bir süredir küresel iktidar(lar)ın da farklı biçimlerde müdahil olduğu toplumsal hareketler geleneksel iktidar yapılarını, siyaset biçimlerini ve toplumsal ilişkileri parçalamakta. Ortadoğu ve Kuzey Afrika’da “katı olan her şey buharlaşmakta”. Bu coğrafyada kurulma aşamasında olan yeni düzende siyasi ve sosyal aktörlerin bu buharlaşmanın ardından nasıl bir katılaşma süreci izleyeceği ise şimdilik belirsiz ve üzerinde çok boyutlu olarak düşünülmesi gereken bir konu.
Sonuç olarak, odak noktamız Ortadoğu’nun ve Arap Dünyasının dönüşümüdür, çünkü bu dönüşüm eşzamanlı olarak dünyanın dönüşümüdür. Bu kitap projesi Ortadoğu, Kuzey Afrika ve Türkiye coğrafyası bağlamında tarihten günümüze siyasal ve zihinsel haritaların değişimi ve toplumların dönüşümünü çoksesli, çok katmanlı bir yaklaşımla ele almayı ve tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır.

(Makaleler Türkçe, İngilizce, Fransızca dillerinde yazılabilir)
Makale Başlığı ve Özeti Gönderimi Son Tarih: 10 Haziran 2012
Tamamlanmış Makale Gönderimi Son Tarih: 25 Aralık 2012
(Makaleler APA formatına göre yazılacaktır.)

İletişim:
barishc@gmail.com
baris.erdogan1974@hotmail.com

(Barış Çoban, Doç. Dr. Doğuş Üniversitesi, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, İletişim Bilimleri Bölümü)
(Barış Erdoğan, Yrd. Doç. Dr., Yeni Yüzyıl Üniversitesi, İktisadi İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü)

call for papers-

Metamorphosis of the Arab World-
Political Geography and Alternative Maps
more call for papers-

Metamorphosis of the Arab World-
Political Geography and Alternative Maps

Métamorphose du monde arabe:
Géographie politique et des cartes alternatives

Arap Dünyasının Dönüşümü:
Siyasetin Coğrafyası ve Alternatif Haritalar

Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2012. Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments. Area 44 (2), 136-143.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can... more This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

A Political Geography of Canada

by Christopher Allen-Shinn

I suppose it has come to this - How a Western Shaped Australia’s Identity

by Stefan Zimmermann

Zimmermann, Stefan (2012): I suppose it has come to this - How a Western Shaped Australia’s Identity. In: Klein, Thomas , Ivo Ritzer & Peter W. Schulze (eds.): Crossing Frontiers: Intercultural Perspectives on the western. 134 - 148.

Reflecting appropriate genre theories of the Western, Stefan Zimmermann discusses the importance of the Australian Ned... more Reflecting appropriate genre theories of the Western, Stefan Zimmermann discusses the importance of the Australian Ned Kelly myth as a Western narrative. In the light of Roland Barthes’ notion of myth, Ned Kelly is analysed as an Australian variation of an outlaw, deeply rooted in Australian historical past,  a time in the second half of the 19th century which was shaped by the appearance of bushrangers.
Ned Kelly was the last and most prominent bushranger who reached the status of a social bandit. Beginning with the first ever made feature film of the world, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) and ending with Gregor Jordan’s Ned Kelly (2003) featuring Heath Ledger, Zimmermann retraces the development of Ned Kelly as a national icon and a national commodity.

Labour turnover and the spatial distribution of unemployment. A panel data analysis using employment registry data

by Francesco Pastore

Co-augthored with Joanna Tyrowicz-
Paper presented at the XXV AIEL Conference, University of Chieti and Pescara, 2010.

This paper aims to study whether the local variation in unemployment rates is related to labour turnover and what is... more This paper aims to study whether the local variation in unemployment rates is related to labour turnover and what is the sign of such relationship. In addition, the paper aims to assess the relative impact of inflow and outflow from unemployment on the dynamics of the local unemployment rate. The empirical analysis is based on a newly available unique dataset from the employment registry of a transition economy (Poland), encompassing nine years of monthly data (from 2000 to 2008) at a county (poviat) level. We find that turnover, as well as inflows and outflows separately, are ceteris paribus positively related to the unemployment level. This general conclusion is robust to sub-sampling that addresses potential heterogeneity of the analysed local labour markets. It is also robust to the use of different panel estimators, such as fixed effect and alternative GMM specifications, as well as for spatial clustering of poviats. Nonetheless, point estimators differ, reflecting the diverse adjustment patterns. We also find that elasticity is larger in the case of the inflow rate than for the outflow rate. Finally, we demonstrate that the effect is stronger in low unemployment regions.

Insurance, climate change, and the creation of geographies of uncertainty in the Indian Ocean Region

by Luis Lobo-Guerrero

Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, vol. 2(6), 239-251.

This article is a geopolitical-biopolitical interrogation of the global insurance discourse in relation to climate... more This article is a geopolitical-biopolitical interrogation of the global insurance discourse in relation to climate change. Based on two general assumptions made by the insurance industry, namely that the ‘Global South’ remains uninsured, and that insurance is the technology for coping with environmental risk, it is argued that a risk management insurantial imaginary is effecting a globalisation of spaces of liberal security. As a result, the globalisation of a rationality of governing uncertainty through insurance aligns ‘other’ non-Western ways of being in the world with a Western financial capitalist rationality of governance. The argument is explored in relation to the Global South and is illustrated through the case of parametric rain insurance in Ethiopia.