Suchergebnisse

In this commentary, I reflect Rhys Jones' (in this issue) suggestion for geographers to take part in exploring and enabling the most effective governmental configurations for just futures. Starting from a Foucauldian perspective on governance as a problematizing activity, I bring to the fore that the future is not something that waits out there to be seized by rulers but a social and political construction dictated by the conditions of the present. Moreover, I also highlight that a conventional scalar framework is not sufficient for understanding complex networks of governance in an increasingly globalized policy world. Accordingly, in studying the future as an object of governance we need to be aware of the engagement of nationally/regionally situated policies with prevailing power relations which extend well beyond the territorial boundaries of governance and which regulate our capacities to imagine the future(s). This is of utmost importance for geographers entering the policy world.

Despite the fact that spatial planning forms one of the key constituents of territorial politics, territory and territoriality have been largely neglected in the studies of European spatial planning. This article seeks to address this shortcoming by considering spatial planning through the recent research on territories and territorial politics in political geography. The article suggests that European spatial planning ought to be conceptualized as a political technology of territory of the European Union, whose effectiveness is not dependent on the acquisition of formal policy status but stems from its capacity to fuse populations and geographical areas into manageable entities, from its reputation as apolitical management of space as well as from its resonance with current political tastes.

AbstractThe article explores European integration in northern Finland. It examines the discursive side of the European integration process by investigating the interplay between European‐level spatial policies and regional territorial practices. Spatial planning is often portrayed from an instrumentalist view as a technical, evidence‐based policy. However, spatial planning is highly political and an effective way of space making: As an inclusive and/or exclusive action, it (re‐)defines spatial relations and (re‐)produces spatial scales. Thus, spatial planning is considered here as a central part of the European integration process through which the regions are spatialized as part of Europe. The empirical analysis shows that polycentrism is the main spatial idea underlying the reorganization of European space. The adaptation to European policies manifests itself through the subjectification, rescaling and relocation of the region.

As a peculiar bureaucracy whose actions and legislation influence European countries on a daily basis and in countless ways, the EU has gradually become a site within which the political and cultural content of Europe and its limits are constantly defined and reworked. In this chapter, we firstly discuss geopolitical dynamics in Europe with regard to the post-Cold War enlargement process of the EU in particular. Secondly, we focus on the explicit territorial construction of the EU itself in what we call the territory work of the EU. In order to authenticate this concept, the third section discusses the spatial imaginaries and practices of so-called European spatial planning. We introduce European spatial planning as disclosing the ways in which EU governance has gradually emerged as a set of spatial practices and strategies, and modes of spatial calculation that operate on something called EU territory. ; Peer reviewed

We examine the constitution of the European Union territory in socio-technical practices. We argue that calculative practices are central in the constitution of the European Union territory but that these practices need to be understood as being situated within the broader 'teleological structures' of European integration. This paper scrutinizes the European Spatial Planning Observation Network programme as one of the activity spaces whereby the calculative practices of the 'European knowledge-based economy', a term which arose in the 1990s, are constitutive of the contemporary making of the European Union territory. We thus highlight the practices of surveying, mapping and modelling as central components in the constitution of the European Union as a political object. ; Peer reviewed

As a governing process in which 'European political space' is dissected and regulated, the EU's nascent spatial planning opens up a number of empirical and conceptual challenges for research. Even if the 'governmentalization of Europe' and the associated mechanisms, tactics, instruments, vocabularies, and technologies through which the power and rule of the EU are effected have been examined, the concept of governmentality offers a useful perspective to explicate European spatial planning. We analyze European spatial planning through the lens of governmentality and offer an ethnographic take on the issue of European spatial planning by problematizing the manifestations of the EU in spatial planning practices in northern Finland.

This chapter elaborates upon political geographies of globalization. By this we refer to the different political discourses and related imaginaries, policy practices and regimes of governance through which globalization can be understood as being constantly produced in and through political geographical formations. We comprehend globalization both as an actually existing process which links places – cities, regions, etc., institutions (especially the state) and people (notably workers) – and creates interdependencies between them, and as a politically loaded rhetorical device used to rationalize and legitimate political decisions and policy practices. We single out three interlinked and partly overlapping issues through which the political geographies of globalization can be mapped out: the spatial formations of globalization and the state, the "globalizing" role and "globalized" nature of public policy, and the globalizing regimes and policies of labor. ; This chapter elaborates upon political geographies of globalization. By this we refer to the different political discourses and related imaginaries, policy practices and regimes of governance through which globalization can be understood as being constantly produced in and through political geographical formations. We comprehend globalization both as an actually existing process which links places – cities, regions, etc., institutions (especially the state) and people (notably workers) – and creates interdependencies between them, and as a politically loaded rhetorical device used to rationalize and legitimate political decisions and policy practices. We single out three interlinked and partly overlapping issues through which the political geographies of globalization can be mapped out: the spatial formations of globalization and the state, the "globalizing" role and "globalized" nature of public policy, and the globalizing regimes and policies of labor. ; Peer reviewed

In this paper, we contribute to recent debates on the geographies of discontent by examining the implications of urbanisation on the state as a territorial-political community in the European context. Building on an Arendtian conception of politics, we argue that the emergence of the "urban" as a dominant spatio-political imaginary has led to a narrowing of the conditions of politics and political agency within states. The urban imaginary has provoked selective spatio-political discourses, geopolitical strategies, and policy practices that have resulted in the exclusion of certain social and spatial fractions of society from a shared sense of community and political agency within the state. To demonstrate this point, we empirically analysed the experience of political efficacy in Europe. The results of our analysis show that perceived external political efficacy is weakest in more rural settings and in regions with low GDP and a declining population. Accordingly, we suggest that policy measures ought to be directed against this sort of political alienation and should be used to create a stronger sense of political belonging and community. ; final draft ; peerReviewed