Political geography

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constituency division in Belfast , Northern Ireland : if there is a segregation of several population groups with different political orientations such as DUP and Sinn Féin , different majorities can also be expected in the constituencies

The political geography as part of the field of human geography / cultural geography studies the relationships between power and space, therefore, so interactions between (natural) spatial events and political action of actors and social processes and conditions. In the German-speaking context in particular, this sub-discipline has an eventful history, ranging from its justification as geopolitics to political instrumentalization under National Socialism and current approaches to discourse analysis and criticism of rule.

Discipline history

The examination of the connection between spatial structures and political power relations can be traced back to the writings of Aristotle. Friedrich Ratzel explicitly dealt with the interactions between spatial conditions and state organization for the first time and thus founded the sub-discipline political geography. In his works, for example in his main work "Political Geography" from 1897, geodeterministic ideas still prevail, spaces and thus territorial divisions are given by natural law. In addition, the nation-state was seen as a kind of organic whole (state organism ). Comparable to the struggle for survival of a living being, the survival of a nation is therefore only guaranteed through territorial expansion and social oppression of other peoples (Wolkersdorfer: 2001). Following Ratzel, the Swede Rudolf Kjellén (1864–1922) and later the geography professor Karl Haushofer (1869–1946), who taught at the University of Munich, further developed and sharpened these geodeterministic ideas.

The demand suggested by these authors for a unity of state, people and soil and the resulting natural pressure of a "struggle for living space" offered a welcome pseudo-scientific justification film for the National Socialist blood-and-soil ideology and accordingly became propagandistic to justify the Wars of annihilation in Eastern Europe. After the Second World War, geopolitics in the Federal Republic of Germany was permanently discredited, both in common usage and in scientific discourse. As a result, political-geographical research in Germany largely lost its importance and concentrated on politically harmless and descriptive disciplines (e.g. electoral geography ). In the Anglo-Saxon language area, the development was somewhat different. The influence of the best-known representatives of geopolitics, such as Alfred Thayer Mahan or Halford Mackinder , remained here, even after the Second World War, in part, although the idea of ​​an expansive state policy in the sense of classical geopolitics was passed on to the Time has been adapted and further developed (Helmig: 2007).

Current concepts

While in the 1970s the connection between space and society was questioned by many social scientists, since the 1990s there has been a clear trend across disciplines to investigate the spatial relationship of social phenomena. At the latest since the newly awakened interest in the neighboring disciplines, political geography has been attracting increasing attention again. The end of the Cold War and the associated reorganization of the state system as well as the changed - increasingly disenfranchised areas of conflict in international politics - form the research basis for new political and geographical issues.

In order to better understand the change in social space-power structures at all levels of scale, three concepts have particularly emphasized themselves in political geography: "Radical Geography", "Critical Geopolitics" and "Geographical Conflict Research" (cf. . Reuber and Wolkersdorfer 2007: 756).

Radical Geography

Radical Geography has its roots in the Anglo-American language area in the 1970s. She does not focus on the analysis of nation states, but on general space-power asymmetries of different spatial scales. It sees itself not only as a mere descriptive theory, but rather as a reform-oriented social theory with reference to neo-Marxism.

In particular, David Harvey shaped Radical Geography. From an initially liberal interpretation of spatial science approaches, he increasingly turned to the explanations offered by Marxism. The aim is to research socio-economic spatial inequalities, the starting point of which is often the market-economy-capitalist system and is therefore criticized.

Social inequalities are seen as a result of the control over resources by political and economic elites, who deny a large part of the population access to them and thus exploit them. These power relations are recognizable both at the local level and at the international level of geopolitics (cf. Reuber and Wolkersdorfer 2007: 756).

Critical Geopolitics

Towards the end of the 1970s, especially in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking area, as well as in France, a trend arose which is generally known as 'critical geopolitics'. In the Anglo-American context, Gearóid Ó Tuathail was the key cue for this direction in political geography . As the name suggests, this field of research is primarily concerned with a criticism of common ideas about geopolitical relationships. The assumption that spatial structures and territorial boundaries are inherent factors, for example for the formation and design of nation states, was negated. It is not the space that influences the development of a society, but rather, conversely, it is specific spatial ideas and political intentions that shape the structure and division of space. However, demarcation and attribution are never value-neutral, which is why spaces and spatial ideas are clearly socially constructed and only arise within a specific social discourse . A so-called 'discursive triangle' is therefore at the center of the analysis, whereby the mutual influences of space, power and knowledge are examined (Lossau 2001).

Geographical conflict research

Geographical conflict research deals with the actions of actors in the context of disputes about “power and space” in local-global areas of conflict, which range from the hierarchical distribution of offices in a public administration, through the architectural representation of the power of a state, to regional tribal conflicts in African societies or international conflicts.

They all have something in common, physical-material aspects often form the focus of social disputes in addition to the arena. Spatially localized resources and symbolic potentials can trigger conflicts of disposition, design and control. The main focus of geographical conflict research is on three essential elements: the individual actors , the socio-political framework and the spatial structures. From these three elements three basic questions can be formulated:

  1. According to which goals and with which strategies does the individual actor act in spatial conflicts of use or distribution?
  2. How do the interaction of the actors and the rules or structures of the socio-political institutions in which they are integrated influence the spatial conflict?
  3. In what way can spatial references be conceptually appropriately integrated in an action-oriented political geography?

The results of an investigation can be useful for political advice or general political education (cf. Reuber and Wolkersdorfer 2007: 759ff).

Current research focus

The potential of current political geography lies in the interplay of the two areas described above. Using a discourse theoretical approach, an attempt can be made to deconstruct existing geodeterministic models and thus contribute to a better understanding between potential conflict parties. In addition, geographical conflict research is used to determine which motivation and causes are behind different conflicts of interest, whereby the various actors themselves are increasingly brought into focus. Reuber (2002) identifies the following six core areas of political geography:

  1. Political conflicts over ecological resources (including political ecology)
  2. Political conflicts over territorial control and borders
  3. Political conflicts over spatial identity
  4. The symbolic representation of political power
  5. Globalization and New International Relations
  6. Regional conflicts and new social movements

See also

literature

  • John Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal (Geróid Ó Tuathail) (Eds.): A Companion to Political Geography. 2nd Edition. Blackwell, Oxford 2005.
  • U. Ante: The Political Geography. The Geographical Seminar. Westermann, Braunschweig 1981.
  • Bernd Belina , Boris Michel (ed.): Space productions. Contributions from Radical Geography. An interim balance sheet (= spatial production. Theory and social practice. Vol. 1). 2nd Edition. Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-89691-659-4 .
  • Georg Glasze, Annika Mattissek: Handbook Discourse and Space. Theories and methods for human geography as well as social and cultural spatial research. Bielefeld 2009.
  • Georg Glasze: A political conception of spaces . In: Iris Dzudzek, Caren Kunze and Joscha Wullweber (eds.): Discourse and Hegemony. Socially critical perspectives . Bielefeld: Transcript, pp. 151-172. (pdf: [1] (PDF; 7.0 MB) )
  • J. Helmig: Geopolitics - Approaching a Difficult Concept. In: From Politics and Contemporary History . 20-21/2007, pp. 31-37.
  • J. Helmig: Metaphors in geopolitical discourses. Spatial representations in the American missile defense debate. Chapter: Basic theoretical premises. VS, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 27-31.
  • D. Josten: Is there a renaissance in geopolitics? , Munich / Ravensburg, 2007
  • J. Lossau: Different thinking in political geography. The Critical Geopolitics Approach. In: Paul Reuber, G. Wolkersdorfer (Hrsg.): Political Geography: Action-Oriented Approaches and Critical Geopolitics. Geographical Institute of Heidelberg University, Heidelberg 2001, pp. 57–76.
  • P. Reuber: Political geography as an action-oriented and constructivist sub-discipline - Anglo-American theoretical concepts and current fields of research. In: Geographical Journal. Volume 88, 2000.
  • Paul Reuber, Günter Wolkersdorfer (Ed.): Political Geography - Action-Oriented Approaches and Critical Geopolitics. Spectrum, Heidelberg 2002.
  • Paul Reuber: Political Geography after the End of the Cold War - New Approaches and Current Fields of Research. In: Geographical Rundschau. 54, 7-8, 2002 , pp. 4-9.
  • Paul Reuber, Günter Wolkersdorfer: Political geography. In: H. Gebhardt, R. Glaser, U. Radtke, P. Reuber (Eds.): Geographie. Physical geography and human geography. Spektrum, Heidelberg 2007, pp. 750-770.
  • P. Reuber, A. Strüver: Discursive spatializations in German print media: The example of geopolitics after 9/11. In: J. Döring, T. Thielmann (Hrsg.): Mediengeographie. Theory - Analysis - Discussion. Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, pp. 315-332.
  • Paul Reuber: "Political Geography". Schöningh, UTB, Münster 2012.
  • Günter Wolkersdorfer: Political geography and geopolitics between modernity and postmodernism. Geographical Institute Heidelberg, Heidelberg 2001.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Related literature: Jürgen W. Falter, Harald Schoen (Hrsg.): Handbuch Wahlforschung. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3531132202 , pp. 107-134.