Political geography: returning to basic conceptions

Will the application of spatial multi criteria evaluation technique enhance the quality of decision-making to resolve boundary conflicts in the Philippines?

“…Shmueli (2008) has identified different attributes of the contenders, which include attitudes, perceptions, interests and needs, that shape the level of the disputes and are strongly influenced by the geographical milieu in terms of both the human and physical landscapes. Research has shown that municipal boundary conflict is a multifaceted type of conflict with different levels: a) geopolitical (e.g., electoral interests -manipulation of an electoral boundary to influence the political power of parties), b) economic (e.g., municipalities aim to maximise the amount of land uses that contribute the most to their local tax base and to minimise the size of the burden on municipal services), c) local identities (e.g., powerful sentiments for the preservation of historical local identities), and d) cultural/inter-group relationships (e.g., ethnic disputes) (O'Loughlin, 1991;Razin and Hazan, 2004;Shmueli, 2008). Generally, the first two issues are common in a pluralist society whereas the later two are common in a deeply divided society (Razin and Hazan, 2004).…”