This article assesses the trajectory of postsocialism as a concept and mounts a fivefold critique... more This article assesses the trajectory of postsocialism as a concept and mounts a fivefold critique of postsocialism as: referring to a vanishing object; emphasising rupture over continuity; falling into a territorial trap; issuing from orientalising knowledge construction; and constraining political futures. This critique serves to sketch the contours of an alternative project that still recognises difference but foregrounds links and continuities, develops a political edge, and theorises not just about but with and from this part of the world.
Carving up the world into Global North and Global South has become an established way of thinking... more Carving up the world into Global North and Global South has become an established way of thinking about global difference since the end of the Cold War. This binary, however, erases what this paper calls the Global East – those countries and societies that occupy an interstitial position between North and South. This paper problematises the geopolitics of knowledge that has resulted in the exclusion of the Global East, not just from the Global North and South, but from notions of globality in general. It argues that we need to adopt a strategic essentialism to recover the Global East for scholarship. To that end, it traces the global relations of IKEA's bevelled drinking glass to demonstrate the urgency of rethinking the Global East at the heart of global connections, rather than separate from them. Thinking of such a Global East as a liminal space complicates the notions of North and South towards more inclusive but also more uncertain theorising.
At a cost of often more than US$10 billion, mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA Me... more At a cost of often more than US$10 billion, mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA Men's World Cup are the single most transformative urban project in many host cities for decades. This article develops an analytical matrix for comparing the impacts of these events on cities and proposes a case survey method to apply this matrix to six recent sports mega-events: the Olympic Games in Vancouver, London, Sochi, and Rio de Janeiro and the FIFA Men's World Cups in South Africa and Brazil. We find that for the events in our sample, it is not so much the event itself, but the political and economic contexts that most influence impacts. Cities in democracies with more market-led economies experienced fewer adverse impacts and were better able to use the event for urban development than those in less democratic countries with more state-led economies. None of the cities, however, was able to avoid negative impacts.
Zusammenfassung In den vergangenen Jahren hat die politische und wirtschaftliche Verfl echtung Ge... more Zusammenfassung In den vergangenen Jahren hat die politische und wirtschaftliche Verfl echtung Georgiens mit der EU stark zugenommen. Nach der so genann-ten Rosenrevolution im November 2003 wurde die Republik im Südkaukasus Mitglied der Europäischen Nachbarschaftspolitik (ENP, 2004), der Schwarzmeerinitiative (2007) und der Östlichen Partnerschaft (2009) – drei Regionalprogramme, die die weitgehende Integration der teil-nehmenden Länder nach Europa zum Ziel haben. Vor diesem Hintergrund beschäftigt sich der Beitrag mit der Wahrnehmung der EU und dem Verhältnis zu Europa in der georgischen Bevölkerung auf Basis einer repräsentativen Befragung im Jahr 2009. Eine Mehrheit der georgischen Bevölkerung versteht sich als europäisch und befürwortet einen Beitritt zur EU. Im Gegensatz zur Außenpolitik der Regierung von Präsident Micheil Saakaschwili wünscht die georgische Bevölkerung allerdings, dass ein gutes Verhältnis zur EU nicht zu Lasten der Beziehungen mit Russland gehen solle. Neben der Funktion als sicherheitspolitischer Partner wird eine Annäherung an die EU mit zahlreichen Attributen von Modernität verknüpft. Diese Modernität wird dabei jedoch nicht als alternatives sondern als ergänzendes Element georgischer Identität verstanden. Gerade da Georgien mittelfristig keine Perspektive für einen Beitritt zur EU besitzt, öffnet die EUphorie der georgischen Bevöl-kerung den Blick für ein Modell von Europa jenseits der Binarität der EU-Mitgliedschaft – ein Modell, in welchem die vermeintlich instabilen Ränder Europas am Kaukasus zu einer Erneuerung der europäischen Idee beitragen könnten. Abstract Europe to the Caucasus? EUphoria in Georgia Georgia's political and economic integration with the EU has increased considerably over the past years. After the so-called rose revolution in November 2003, Georgia became a member of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP, 2004), the Black Sea Initiative (2007) and the Eastern Partnership (2009) – three regional programmes aiming at strengthening the integration of the participating countries into Europe. Against this background, this article examines the perception of the EU in the Georgian population on the basis of a representative opinion poll in 2009. A majority of Georgians think of themselves as Europeans and support EU membership. In contrast to the foreign policy of the Saakashvili administration, however, Georgians would prefer a good relationship with the EU not to come at the expense of relations with Russia. Besides promising improvements in the areas of territorial integrity and national security, integration with the EU is associated with attributes of modernity. This modernity, however, is not regarded as an alternative but rather as a complementary element of Georgian identity. It is because Georgia does not have a membership perspective in the medium term that the Georgian EUphoria suggests a model of Europe beyond the binary of EU membership – a model, in which the allegedly unstable margins of Europe in the Caucasus might contribute to a renaissance of the European idea.
This contribution examines the rise of the BRICs (Brazil-Russia-India-China) through the lens of ... more This contribution examines the rise of the BRICs (Brazil-Russia-India-China) through the lens of central socioeconomic indicators, including the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators and the World Values Survey. It charts the shift in economic weight and emerging reconfiguration of economic ties as evidenced in foreign direct investment (FDI) and the emergence of transnational corporations (TNCs) and considers the resulting challenges for intercultural contact at different scale levels through two brief case studies.
Zusammenfassung. Interest in the lived mundane practices and embodied experience of subjects has ... more Zusammenfassung. Interest in the lived mundane practices and embodied experience of subjects has seen a tremendous upsurge in human geography in the past years. With its focus on social interaction and concern with subjects' lifeworlds, ethnography suggests itself as a suitable methodological approach to match this interest. Against the lack of a sustained debate in German-speaking human geography, this special issue seeks to illustrate the potential of ethnography for different conceptual approaches with the help of empirical examples. It is the task of this editorial to review key issues associated with ethnographic research. In so doing, it does not equate ethnography with the method of participant observation, but rather understands it as a methodology with specific implications for the responsibility and position of the researcher, the interpretation of the material and the construction of a narrative.
This paper examines the role of paradoxes in research and proposes strategies of engaging with th... more This paper examines the role of paradoxes in research and proposes strategies of engaging with them. For this purpose, it analyses the ways in which six paradoxes are constitutive of sports mega-events such as the Olympic Games: the universalism paradox, the compliance paradox, the winner's paradox, the participation paradox, the uniqueness paradox and the passion paradox. It then develops three strategies of how researchers and practitioners can approach paradox. The first, exploration, examines the consequences and effects of the ambiguity of paradoxes. The second, differentiation, enquires into the spatio-temporal and social make-up of paradoxes. The third, reframing, recasts paradoxes by shifting theoretical perspectives. Instead of pressing to resolve paradoxes, researchers and practitioners alike should make productive use of their ambiguity.
This paper develops the notion of " event seizure " to better understand how mega-events, and the... more This paper develops the notion of " event seizure " to better understand how mega-events, and the elites associated with them, take possession of host cities and societies—of development plans, funds and legislation—and impose their priorities on cities and citizens. It illustrates how event seizure plays out in the preparations for the Football World Cup 2018 in Russia, which is on course to become the most expensive World Cup ever with a total cost of about USD 20 billion. Drawing on government and FIFA documents, public statements from authorities and officials, and media coverage , the paper examines three different dimensions of event seizure. First, infrastructural seizure, where event-related infrastructure, particularly sports venues, crowd out infrastructure that serves wider urban needs. Second, financial seizure, where a close circle of political and business elites benefits from state funding, while the public underwrites cost overruns. Third and last, legal seizure, where the event introduces exceptional legislation, infringing citizen rights and compromising due oversight of event preparations.
This paper shows that assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have much more to gain f... more This paper shows that assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have much more to gain from each other than debate has so far conceded. Exploring the conjunctions and disjunctions between the two approaches, it proposes three cross-fertilisations that have implications for understanding three key processes in our socio-material world: stabilisation, change and affect. First, the conceptual vocabulary of ANT can enrich assemblage thinking with an explicitly spatial account of the ways in which assemblages are drawn together, reach across space and are stabilised. Second, each approach is better attuned to conceptualising a particular kind of change in socio-material relations: ANT describes change without rupture, or fluidity, whereas assemblage thinking describes change with rupture, or events. Third and last, assemblage thinking could fashion ANT with a greater sensitivity for the productive role of affect in bringing socio-material relations into being through the production of desire/wish (d esir). We demonstrate the implications of these cross-fertilisations for empirical work through a case study of the global market for assisted reproduction.
Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the Football ... more Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup have become complex and transformative undertakings over the last 30 years, with costs often exceeding USD $10 billion. These events are currently planned and governed in ways that produce adverse effects for cities, regions, and residents. This study identifies a mega-event syndrome, a group of symptoms that occur together and afflict mega-event planning, including overpromising benefits, underestimating costs, rewriting urban planning priorities to fit the event, using public resources for private interest, and suspending the regular rule of law. I describe each of these symptoms, providing empirical examples from different countries and mega-events, examining the underlying causes. The research is based on material from field visits to mega-event sites in 11 countries as well as 51 interviews with planners, managers, politicians, and consultants involved in mega-event planning.Takeaway for practice: To curb the mega-event syndrome, I propose both radical and incremental policy suggestions. The most crucial radical change that an event host could make is to not tie mega-events to large-scale urban development, avoiding higher risks that create cost overruns, substandard construction quality, and oversized infrastructure not suitable for post-event demands. Further, event hosts should bargain with event-governing bodies for better conditions, earmark and cap public sector contributions, and seek independent advice on the costs and benefits of mega-events. Event-governing bodies, for their part, should reduce the size and requirements of the events.
This paper assesses the outcomes of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, examining the... more This paper assesses the outcomes of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, examining the costs and economic impacts of the event, the prospects for the long-term use of venues and infrastructure, and the attitudes of the global and the Russian population. Total costs were $55 billion, having increased 4.5 times from $12 billion at the time of the bid. Of this total, about $16 billion were sports-related costs. After accounting for inflation, this makes Sochi the second-most expensive Olympics ever in terms of sports-related costs and the most expensive Olympics in terms of cost per event. With a public share of 96.5 percent of funding, the Sochi Games had the highest proportion of public money for any Olympic Games on record. The benefit from this high cost, however, is limited. Extensive construction led to hotel overcapacities, investors defaulted on state-backed loans, and there is no coherent plan for the after use of venues and some of the largest infrastructure projects. As a consequence, the Sochi Olympics will continue to be a burden for the Russian state, with expenses for operation, maintenance, and foregone interest and tax revenue in the order of $1.2 billion per year. The event also did not manage to improve the image of Russia in the world. Among the domestic population, support dropped over the seven years of its implementation, most notably among the local population.
Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have been at the forefront of a paradigm shift... more Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have been at the forefront of a paradigm shift that sees space and agency as the result of associating humans and non-humans to form precarious wholes. This shift offers ways of rethinking the relations between power, politics and space from a more processual, socio-material perspective. After sketching and comparing the concepts of the assemblage and the actor-network, this paper reviews the current scholarship in human geography which clusters around the four themes of deterritorialisation/reterritorialisation; power; materials, objects and technologies; and topological space. Looking towards the future, it suggests that assemblage thinking and ANT would benefit from exploring links with other social theories, arguing for a more sustained engagement with issues of language and power, and affect and the body.
This paper examines the relationship of actor-network theory (ANT) and economic geography, arguin... more This paper examines the relationship of actor-network theory (ANT) and economic geography, arguing that there has been a rather restrictive, sometimes ambiguous reading of ANT literature. It reviews three major lines of reception in economic geography around the themes of topological space, translation and performativity. Subsequently, the paper problematizes conflicting interpretations of ‘network’ and ‘power’ as central ANT terms. In an attempt to open up new avenues of engagement with ANT, it finally sketches an agenda around three themes that are of relevance both for economic geography and for human geography more broadly: hybridity, desire and fluidity.
This chapter reviews what it means for political geography to become more than representational. ... more This chapter reviews what it means for political geography to become more than representational. After setting out the key propositions of the more-than-representational agenda, it focuses on three major themes and their significance for political geography: affects and emotions, socio-material assemblages and the methodological implications of presenting/presencing more-than-representational research. It concludes with four central questions to orient further research: 1) What is the politics of the more-than-representational? 2) How are the representational and the more-than-representational tied together? 3) How do we move from the micro to the macro? 4) How can we do justice to the vitality of matter?
This article assesses the trajectory of postsocialism as a concept and mounts a fivefold critique... more This article assesses the trajectory of postsocialism as a concept and mounts a fivefold critique of postsocialism as: referring to a vanishing object; emphasising rupture over continuity; falling into a territorial trap; issuing from orientalising knowledge construction; and constraining political futures. This critique serves to sketch the contours of an alternative project that still recognises difference but foregrounds links and continuities, develops a political edge, and theorises not just about but with and from this part of the world.
Carving up the world into Global North and Global South has become an established way of thinking... more Carving up the world into Global North and Global South has become an established way of thinking about global difference since the end of the Cold War. This binary, however, erases what this paper calls the Global East – those countries and societies that occupy an interstitial position between North and South. This paper problematises the geopolitics of knowledge that has resulted in the exclusion of the Global East, not just from the Global North and South, but from notions of globality in general. It argues that we need to adopt a strategic essentialism to recover the Global East for scholarship. To that end, it traces the global relations of IKEA's bevelled drinking glass to demonstrate the urgency of rethinking the Global East at the heart of global connections, rather than separate from them. Thinking of such a Global East as a liminal space complicates the notions of North and South towards more inclusive but also more uncertain theorising.
At a cost of often more than US$10 billion, mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA Me... more At a cost of often more than US$10 billion, mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA Men's World Cup are the single most transformative urban project in many host cities for decades. This article develops an analytical matrix for comparing the impacts of these events on cities and proposes a case survey method to apply this matrix to six recent sports mega-events: the Olympic Games in Vancouver, London, Sochi, and Rio de Janeiro and the FIFA Men's World Cups in South Africa and Brazil. We find that for the events in our sample, it is not so much the event itself, but the political and economic contexts that most influence impacts. Cities in democracies with more market-led economies experienced fewer adverse impacts and were better able to use the event for urban development than those in less democratic countries with more state-led economies. None of the cities, however, was able to avoid negative impacts.
Zusammenfassung In den vergangenen Jahren hat die politische und wirtschaftliche Verfl echtung Ge... more Zusammenfassung In den vergangenen Jahren hat die politische und wirtschaftliche Verfl echtung Georgiens mit der EU stark zugenommen. Nach der so genann-ten Rosenrevolution im November 2003 wurde die Republik im Südkaukasus Mitglied der Europäischen Nachbarschaftspolitik (ENP, 2004), der Schwarzmeerinitiative (2007) und der Östlichen Partnerschaft (2009) – drei Regionalprogramme, die die weitgehende Integration der teil-nehmenden Länder nach Europa zum Ziel haben. Vor diesem Hintergrund beschäftigt sich der Beitrag mit der Wahrnehmung der EU und dem Verhältnis zu Europa in der georgischen Bevölkerung auf Basis einer repräsentativen Befragung im Jahr 2009. Eine Mehrheit der georgischen Bevölkerung versteht sich als europäisch und befürwortet einen Beitritt zur EU. Im Gegensatz zur Außenpolitik der Regierung von Präsident Micheil Saakaschwili wünscht die georgische Bevölkerung allerdings, dass ein gutes Verhältnis zur EU nicht zu Lasten der Beziehungen mit Russland gehen solle. Neben der Funktion als sicherheitspolitischer Partner wird eine Annäherung an die EU mit zahlreichen Attributen von Modernität verknüpft. Diese Modernität wird dabei jedoch nicht als alternatives sondern als ergänzendes Element georgischer Identität verstanden. Gerade da Georgien mittelfristig keine Perspektive für einen Beitritt zur EU besitzt, öffnet die EUphorie der georgischen Bevöl-kerung den Blick für ein Modell von Europa jenseits der Binarität der EU-Mitgliedschaft – ein Modell, in welchem die vermeintlich instabilen Ränder Europas am Kaukasus zu einer Erneuerung der europäischen Idee beitragen könnten. Abstract Europe to the Caucasus? EUphoria in Georgia Georgia's political and economic integration with the EU has increased considerably over the past years. After the so-called rose revolution in November 2003, Georgia became a member of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP, 2004), the Black Sea Initiative (2007) and the Eastern Partnership (2009) – three regional programmes aiming at strengthening the integration of the participating countries into Europe. Against this background, this article examines the perception of the EU in the Georgian population on the basis of a representative opinion poll in 2009. A majority of Georgians think of themselves as Europeans and support EU membership. In contrast to the foreign policy of the Saakashvili administration, however, Georgians would prefer a good relationship with the EU not to come at the expense of relations with Russia. Besides promising improvements in the areas of territorial integrity and national security, integration with the EU is associated with attributes of modernity. This modernity, however, is not regarded as an alternative but rather as a complementary element of Georgian identity. It is because Georgia does not have a membership perspective in the medium term that the Georgian EUphoria suggests a model of Europe beyond the binary of EU membership – a model, in which the allegedly unstable margins of Europe in the Caucasus might contribute to a renaissance of the European idea.
This contribution examines the rise of the BRICs (Brazil-Russia-India-China) through the lens of ... more This contribution examines the rise of the BRICs (Brazil-Russia-India-China) through the lens of central socioeconomic indicators, including the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators and the World Values Survey. It charts the shift in economic weight and emerging reconfiguration of economic ties as evidenced in foreign direct investment (FDI) and the emergence of transnational corporations (TNCs) and considers the resulting challenges for intercultural contact at different scale levels through two brief case studies.
Zusammenfassung. Interest in the lived mundane practices and embodied experience of subjects has ... more Zusammenfassung. Interest in the lived mundane practices and embodied experience of subjects has seen a tremendous upsurge in human geography in the past years. With its focus on social interaction and concern with subjects' lifeworlds, ethnography suggests itself as a suitable methodological approach to match this interest. Against the lack of a sustained debate in German-speaking human geography, this special issue seeks to illustrate the potential of ethnography for different conceptual approaches with the help of empirical examples. It is the task of this editorial to review key issues associated with ethnographic research. In so doing, it does not equate ethnography with the method of participant observation, but rather understands it as a methodology with specific implications for the responsibility and position of the researcher, the interpretation of the material and the construction of a narrative.
This paper examines the role of paradoxes in research and proposes strategies of engaging with th... more This paper examines the role of paradoxes in research and proposes strategies of engaging with them. For this purpose, it analyses the ways in which six paradoxes are constitutive of sports mega-events such as the Olympic Games: the universalism paradox, the compliance paradox, the winner's paradox, the participation paradox, the uniqueness paradox and the passion paradox. It then develops three strategies of how researchers and practitioners can approach paradox. The first, exploration, examines the consequences and effects of the ambiguity of paradoxes. The second, differentiation, enquires into the spatio-temporal and social make-up of paradoxes. The third, reframing, recasts paradoxes by shifting theoretical perspectives. Instead of pressing to resolve paradoxes, researchers and practitioners alike should make productive use of their ambiguity.
This paper develops the notion of " event seizure " to better understand how mega-events, and the... more This paper develops the notion of " event seizure " to better understand how mega-events, and the elites associated with them, take possession of host cities and societies—of development plans, funds and legislation—and impose their priorities on cities and citizens. It illustrates how event seizure plays out in the preparations for the Football World Cup 2018 in Russia, which is on course to become the most expensive World Cup ever with a total cost of about USD 20 billion. Drawing on government and FIFA documents, public statements from authorities and officials, and media coverage , the paper examines three different dimensions of event seizure. First, infrastructural seizure, where event-related infrastructure, particularly sports venues, crowd out infrastructure that serves wider urban needs. Second, financial seizure, where a close circle of political and business elites benefits from state funding, while the public underwrites cost overruns. Third and last, legal seizure, where the event introduces exceptional legislation, infringing citizen rights and compromising due oversight of event preparations.
This paper shows that assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have much more to gain f... more This paper shows that assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have much more to gain from each other than debate has so far conceded. Exploring the conjunctions and disjunctions between the two approaches, it proposes three cross-fertilisations that have implications for understanding three key processes in our socio-material world: stabilisation, change and affect. First, the conceptual vocabulary of ANT can enrich assemblage thinking with an explicitly spatial account of the ways in which assemblages are drawn together, reach across space and are stabilised. Second, each approach is better attuned to conceptualising a particular kind of change in socio-material relations: ANT describes change without rupture, or fluidity, whereas assemblage thinking describes change with rupture, or events. Third and last, assemblage thinking could fashion ANT with a greater sensitivity for the productive role of affect in bringing socio-material relations into being through the production of desire/wish (d esir). We demonstrate the implications of these cross-fertilisations for empirical work through a case study of the global market for assisted reproduction.
Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the Football ... more Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup have become complex and transformative undertakings over the last 30 years, with costs often exceeding USD $10 billion. These events are currently planned and governed in ways that produce adverse effects for cities, regions, and residents. This study identifies a mega-event syndrome, a group of symptoms that occur together and afflict mega-event planning, including overpromising benefits, underestimating costs, rewriting urban planning priorities to fit the event, using public resources for private interest, and suspending the regular rule of law. I describe each of these symptoms, providing empirical examples from different countries and mega-events, examining the underlying causes. The research is based on material from field visits to mega-event sites in 11 countries as well as 51 interviews with planners, managers, politicians, and consultants involved in mega-event planning.Takeaway for practice: To curb the mega-event syndrome, I propose both radical and incremental policy suggestions. The most crucial radical change that an event host could make is to not tie mega-events to large-scale urban development, avoiding higher risks that create cost overruns, substandard construction quality, and oversized infrastructure not suitable for post-event demands. Further, event hosts should bargain with event-governing bodies for better conditions, earmark and cap public sector contributions, and seek independent advice on the costs and benefits of mega-events. Event-governing bodies, for their part, should reduce the size and requirements of the events.
This paper assesses the outcomes of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, examining the... more This paper assesses the outcomes of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, examining the costs and economic impacts of the event, the prospects for the long-term use of venues and infrastructure, and the attitudes of the global and the Russian population. Total costs were $55 billion, having increased 4.5 times from $12 billion at the time of the bid. Of this total, about $16 billion were sports-related costs. After accounting for inflation, this makes Sochi the second-most expensive Olympics ever in terms of sports-related costs and the most expensive Olympics in terms of cost per event. With a public share of 96.5 percent of funding, the Sochi Games had the highest proportion of public money for any Olympic Games on record. The benefit from this high cost, however, is limited. Extensive construction led to hotel overcapacities, investors defaulted on state-backed loans, and there is no coherent plan for the after use of venues and some of the largest infrastructure projects. As a consequence, the Sochi Olympics will continue to be a burden for the Russian state, with expenses for operation, maintenance, and foregone interest and tax revenue in the order of $1.2 billion per year. The event also did not manage to improve the image of Russia in the world. Among the domestic population, support dropped over the seven years of its implementation, most notably among the local population.
Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have been at the forefront of a paradigm shift... more Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have been at the forefront of a paradigm shift that sees space and agency as the result of associating humans and non-humans to form precarious wholes. This shift offers ways of rethinking the relations between power, politics and space from a more processual, socio-material perspective. After sketching and comparing the concepts of the assemblage and the actor-network, this paper reviews the current scholarship in human geography which clusters around the four themes of deterritorialisation/reterritorialisation; power; materials, objects and technologies; and topological space. Looking towards the future, it suggests that assemblage thinking and ANT would benefit from exploring links with other social theories, arguing for a more sustained engagement with issues of language and power, and affect and the body.
This paper examines the relationship of actor-network theory (ANT) and economic geography, arguin... more This paper examines the relationship of actor-network theory (ANT) and economic geography, arguing that there has been a rather restrictive, sometimes ambiguous reading of ANT literature. It reviews three major lines of reception in economic geography around the themes of topological space, translation and performativity. Subsequently, the paper problematizes conflicting interpretations of ‘network’ and ‘power’ as central ANT terms. In an attempt to open up new avenues of engagement with ANT, it finally sketches an agenda around three themes that are of relevance both for economic geography and for human geography more broadly: hybridity, desire and fluidity.
This chapter reviews what it means for political geography to become more than representational. ... more This chapter reviews what it means for political geography to become more than representational. After setting out the key propositions of the more-than-representational agenda, it focuses on three major themes and their significance for political geography: affects and emotions, socio-material assemblages and the methodological implications of presenting/presencing more-than-representational research. It concludes with four central questions to orient further research: 1) What is the politics of the more-than-representational? 2) How are the representational and the more-than-representational tied together? 3) How do we move from the micro to the macro? 4) How can we do justice to the vitality of matter?
Geography is sometimes conceived as a regional science, a discipline specialized in the study of ... more Geography is sometimes conceived as a regional science, a discipline specialized in the study of the specificities of regions. When introducing geography to students, it is customary to highlight two different approaches to geography regional geography versus thematic geography-and to conceptualize their relations as follows. Thematic geography consists of a wide array of subdisciplines focusing on the geographical (meaning spatial, territorial, and/ or scalar) dimensions of a social, behavioral, or physical aspect. Political geography, for example, studies the geographical dimensions of the political. Regional geography, by contrast, has a regional focus and synthesizes knowledge and insights from many thematic perspectives in the study of a specific region. Regions can be small or large, and a great deal of geographical theorizing has been done to develop and enhance our conceptualization of regions and their delimitation. Some definitions are based on one dimension, such as a linguistic region as the area in which a common language is spoken, distinct from the languages spoken in the neighboring regions, or a region defined by a distinct landscape, different from the landscapes in the neighboring regions. Others are functional, such as the service area of a market town. Some are administrative, as in the case of a territory under the jurisdiction of a specific authority such as a municipality, a province, or a state, whereas others are defined on the basis of the combinations of different physical, economic , cultural, and other dimensions. As far as political geography is concerned, regions are important as political constructs, as arenas of political engagement, and as terrains of the projection of power.
The Olympic Games claim to be exemplars of sustainability, aiming to inspire sustainable futures ... more The Olympic Games claim to be exemplars of sustainability, aiming to inspire sustainable futures around the world. Yet no systematic evaluation of their sustainability exists. We develop and apply a model with nine indicators to evaluate the sustainability of the 16 editions of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games between 1992 and 2020, representing a total cost of more than US$70 billion. Our model shows that the overall sustainability of the Olympic Games is medium and that it has declined over time. Salt Lake City 2002 was the most sustainable Olympic Games in this period, whereas Sochi 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 were the least sustainable. No Olympics, however, score in the top category of our model. Three actions should make Olympic hosting more sustainable: first, greatly reducing the size of the event; second, rotating the Olympics among the same cities; third, enforcing independent sustainability standards.
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Papers by Martin Müller