•IGU 2013 Kyoto Regional Conference
30 Novembre 2012
C12.33 Political Geography – IGU 2013 Kyoto Regional Conference
Chair: Elena Dell’Agnese, Italy
E-mail: elena.dellagnese [at] unimib.it
URL: www.igu-cpg.unimib.it
Sessions proposal:
1. Re-theorizing territory, sovereignty, and space
Akihiko Takagi, Kyushu Univ., takagi [at] lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Asian countries are recently experiencing the rising of consciousness for civil society in parallel with rapid economic growth. This trend has been gradually changing the sense of territory, nationality, and international relations in those countries, further affecting the nature of sovereignty and territorial conflicts in the region. This session calls for papers that focus on re-theorizing territory, sovereignty, and space in Asia as well as the rest of the world.
2. New frontiers in border studies
Anton Gosar, Univ. of Primorska, anton.gosar [at] guest.arnes.si
Contemporary borders undergo a permanent process of de-territorialisation / re-territorialisation. They do not disappear. But the very location of the border is increasingly open to question. This mobility is the core issue/problem of several border areas. Debordering / Rebordering processes involve selective and hierarchical processes on borderlands. We experience a multiplycity of forms and processes of materialization of borders themselves. The concept of mobile borders has become a major issue of contemporary border research. In some areas the spatial inscription of borders and their visibility appear difficult to define. Borders, as for example in the EU, become more fluid, open or fuzzy. On the other hand, as nation-state interests shift, and power relations change borders become an issue of renewed negotiation and conceptualisation. Inherited borders, often the result of bilateral or international peace treaties (often as enforced borders), are becoming instability factors as political, economic and/or cultural interest come in foreground of interest. Hard-core borders, meaning closed borders or semi-closed borders appear in growing numbers.
3. Migrations and the spatial reconceptualisation of citizenship
Shinya Kitagawa, Mie Univ., shinyappo9 [at] hotmail.com
In the globalizing world, borders have not only functioned as geographical boundaries of national territories, but also been multiplied to control more dynamic and flexible human mobility within and beyond such boundaries. This proliferation of borders has broken into pieces the spaces of citizenship that have been territorialized into national spaces. It can be claimed, however, that the concept of citizenship is not limited to its formal and legal status but that it needs to be reconsidered as people’s practices of and struggles for citizenship. Now the domain of citizenship constitutes a terrain of tensions and conflicts between migrants’ spatial/social movements and bordering apparatuses. This session aims to explore and discuss the reconstruction of spaces of citizenship in various sites at multiple scales.
4. Localizing social movement in a globalizing world
Yuichi Kagawa, Univ. of Shiga Prefecture, kagawa [at] ses.usp.ac.jp
In the current world of fluctuation, social movements by the people have come to attract more and more attention and participants. Due to general concerns about global or local environmental issues, environmental movements by local inhabitants have spread at various scales. The Kyoto Regional Conference will be held at the place where the Kyoto Protocol was agreed. In light of the nature of the place, this session will discuss environmental movements as a nexus between global issues and localized social movements.
5. Militarization and de-militarization from a comparative perspective
Takashi Yamazaki, Osaka City Univ., yamataka [at] lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Militarization or securitization is one of the newly emerging concepts in political geography. Attention has been drawn, particularly after 9/11, to the many places in the world that have experienced and are experiencing various processes and degrees of militarization. Militarism is so pervasive and penetrating that it is sometimes difficult to be aware of its omnipresence. The militarization of everyday life, however, manifests itself and becomes irresistible in a particular time-space context. If we can identify such a manifestation and examine how it works in people’s daily lives in an empirical manner, we will be able to better and critically understand why militarism has been so persistent, why militarization has been so transformative in our society, and how our society can be de-militarized. This session will present theoretical and empirical papers from all over the world to develop a comparative perspective for better understanding of the historical and contemporary meanings of militarization. After the main conference, the Commission on Political Geography will organize a field trip to Okinawa where US military bases are concentrated.
6. Critical perspectives on political geography
Elena Dell’Agnese, Univ. of Milano-Bicocca, elena.dellagnese [at] unimib.it
At the beginning of the 1980s, the French geographer Claude Raffestin defined Political Geography as a ‘system of signs’, built on the general assumption of its being la geographie de l’Etat. Instead, he proposed to develop a much more articulated geography of power. Some thirty years later, notwithstanding other important contributions in the same directions (Peet, 2007; Agnew, 2009), the rethinking of the discipline in this direction is still needed. The session is aimed to discuss critical suggestions in this direction, from theoretical and methodological points of view.
7. Contemporary political geography and geopolitics in Asia
Takashi Yamazaki, Osaka City Univ., yamataka [at] lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Since the demise of the Soviet Union, it seems Asia has been struggling for a new geopolitical order. Along with deepening geopolitical and geo-economic competition and cooperation, this systemic change has provided countries and localities in the region with new crises and opportunities for their peace and prosperity. Rather than drawing on classical state-centric political geography and geopolitics, it would be necessary to develop a new political geographic perspective on inter-connected and transnational aspects among international and inter-local relations in Asia. This session will focus on newly emerging dynamisms, challenges and prospects for the region from political geographic and/or geopolitical points of view.
8. Contemporary political geography implications for inner seas cooperation and regional change [Joint session with the Commission on Mediterranean Basin]
Elena Dell’Agnese, Univ. of Milano-Bicocca, elena.dellagnese [at] unimib.itp
Anton Gosar, Univ. of Primorska, anton.gosar [at] guest.arnes.sip
We welcome papers from the Political Geography perspective on the issue of cooperation and regional change in inner seas. The joint session is aimed to attract papers focused on theoretical implications of regional cooperation for Political Geography, and vice versa papers focused on spatialities of regional change and cooperation stemmed out from contemporary evolutions of Political Geographies in inner seas.
