Introduction: reconceptualizing the state from the margins of political geography

Desbiens, Caroline; Mountz, Alison; Walton‐Roberts, Margaret

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2003.12.011

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Although much of the extant geography literature on the ethic of care has pertained to the particular domains of health care and social work, there is also increasing attention to reconceptualizing the state and its action (Desbiens, Mountz, and Walton-Roberts 2004). Rather than understand the state's action through objectivist or universalist lenses (e.g., rational choice or pluralist political theory), a reimagined geopolitical theory would understand it in terms of the particularly situated and embodied-in other words, how state action relates to the person physically and psychologically (Moss 2002;Hyndman 2004).…”

Section: The Possibilities Of An Ethics Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Risk, the Regulatory State, and the Ethic of Care

Lejano

Funderburg

2016

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

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We examine the role of the regulatory state in the inequitable distribution of social advantages and disadvantages. To illustrate this, we examine the spatial distribution of exposures to air toxics from noxious land uses (commonly referred to as the environmental justice problem) and inquire into the nature of state action that would allow such inequity. Findings from our inquiry lead us to focus more closely on the administrative functions of the state, especially its role as a regulatory body. A case study focusing on health risks from incompatible land uses illustrates how spatial inequities result from the formally neutral rule-making actions of regulatory agencies and their particular organizational cultures. We describe the ethical basis of the regulatory state in terms of its formal, juridical, deontological underpinnings. In contrast to this stands the alternative ethical concept of care, which is inherently relational, contextual, and preferentially attentive to the needs of the vulnerable. We argue that the regulatory state can be reformed, building structures of care to better address issues of spatial inequity. We end with a discussion of how the institutional model of the caring state might be achieved in practice.Examinamos el papel del estado regulador en la distribuci on desigual de ventajas y desventajas sociales. Para ilustrar este asunto examinamos la distribuci on espacial de exposiciones a t oxicos a ereos derivados de usos nocivos del suelo (com unmente referidos como problema de justicia ambiental) e inquirimos sobre la naturaleza de la acci on estatal que podr ıa permitir tal tipo de iniquidad. Los hallazgos logrados en nuestra indagaci on nos llevan a enfocarnos con mayor cuidado sobre las funciones administrativas del estado, especialmente aquellas que conciernen a su papel como cuerpo regulador. Un estudio de caso que se ocupa de los riesgos de la salud asociados con usos incompatibles del suelo ilustra c omo subsisten las desigualdades espaciales derivadas de las acciones formalmente neutrales para expedir normas de las agencias reguladoras y de las culturas organizacionales particulares. Describimos las bases eticas del estado regulador en t erminos de sus apuntalamientos formales, jur ıdicos y deontol ogicos. En contraste con eso, se yergue el concepto etico alternativo de la incumbencia, que es inherentemente relacional, contextual y de preferencia preocupado por las necesidades de la poblaci on vulnerable. Sostenemos que el estado regulador puede ser reformado, mediante la construcci on de estructuras de cuidado social para mejor enfrentar los problemas de injusticia espacial. Al final, discutimos sobre la manera como en la pr actica podr ıa lograrse el modelo institucional del estado solidario. Palabras clave: justicia ambiental, etica de la incumbencia, gobernanza, estado regulador, injusticia espacial.A central question in geography is how power relations in society are manifested spatially and how such relations confer spatial distributions of social advantages and disadvantag...

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Section: The Possibilities Of An Ethics Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Risk, the Regulatory State, and the Ethic of Care

Lejano

Funderburg

2016

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

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“…Yet critical geopolitics has to date generally neglected ethnographic methodologies (Kofman 2008; however, see contributions from Secor 2001; Mountz 2003; Desbiens et al. 2004).…”

Section: A Political Geography Of Governments‐in‐exilementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet critical geopolitics has to date generally neglected ethnographic methodologies (Kofman 2008;however, see contributions from Secor 2001;Mountz 2003;Desbiens et al 2004). In a persuasive argument to reverse this, Megoran (2006) asserts that a 're-peopling' of the discipline through a foregrounding of everyday human experience would enrich this body of scholarship, opening new research agendas and countering critical geopolitics' fixation with discourse, representation and textuality (see also Thrift 2000 and feminist critiques from Dowler and Sharp 2001;Hyndman 2004).…”

Section: Beyond Discourse: Ethnographies Of Everyday Governing Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governments‐in‐Exile: Statehood, Statelessness and the Reconfiguration of Territory and Sovereignty

McConnell

2009

Geography Compass

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Governments‐in‐exile are conventionally viewed as discrepant forms of political practice and geopolitical exceptions to the rules of sovereign statehood. However, despite significant limitations, polities such as the Tibetan Government‐in‐Exile enact state‐like functions and are actively forging new political spaces and modalities of sovereignty. Contextualising governments‐in‐exile with regards to a range of twentieth‐century geopolitical anomalies, this study argues that such polities raise key questions for political geographers regarding the relationship between sovereignty and territory, the nature of statehood and the role of ‘the exception’ in geopolitical discourses. In light of contemporary critical reappraisals of sovereignty, territory and statehood, this study calls for political geography – and critical geopolitics in particular – to expand its gaze and engage with issues raised by governments‐in‐exile. In turn, an empirical and theoretical focus on such non‐state entities highlights the utility of ethnographic methodologies within critical geopolitics, enables a critical fusion of literatures of the state and of statelessness, problematises taken‐for‐granted political geography categories and facilitates critical inquiry into alternative political arrangements.

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“…This work is an integral part of the shift toward studying the ‘small things’—the diffuse and everyday, even banal, practices through which state power operates. In this effort, it links up with the broader efforts to produce more embodied accounts of power (e.g., Blomley and Pratt 2001; Chouinard 2003; Desbiens et al . 2004; Kobayashi 2001; Silvey et al .…”

Section: State Power and War On Terrormentioning

confidence: 99%

Political geography and geopolitics

Kuus

2009

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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This essay discusses the key contributions of Canadian political geographers to the remarkable growth of the subfield in the past two decades. I focus on two burgeoning strands of work: first, the transformation of state power, and second, the current phase of war, militarization and surveillance globally. My goal is not to review the field of political geography. Rather, I use the two themes to foreground prominent strands of recent work and delineate some lines of inquiry that require more attention and are likely to grow in importance. In particular, I underscore the need for closer attention to human agency—that is, capacity to act—in political geography and geopolitics.

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Introduction: reconceptualizing the state from the margins of political geography

Cited by 25 publications

References 3 publications

Geographies of Risk, the Regulatory State, and the Ethic of Care

Geographies of Risk, the Regulatory State, and the Ethic of Care

Governments‐in‐Exile: Statehood, Statelessness and the Reconfiguration of Territory and Sovereignty

Political geography and geopolitics

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