DOCSLIB.ORG

Justice, Development and India's Climate Politics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Justice, Development and India's Climate Politics View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Oregon Scholars' Bank JUSTICE, DEVELOPMENT AND INDIA’S CLIMATE POLITICS: A POSTCOLONIAL POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF THE ATMOSPHERIC COMMONS by SHANGRILA JOSHI A DISSERTATION Presented to the Environmental Studies Program and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2011 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Shangrila Joshi Title: Justice, Development and India’s Climate Politics: A Postcolonial Political Ecology of the Atmospheric Commons This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Environmental Studies Program by: Shaul Cohen Chairperson Alec Murphy Member Ted Toadvine Member Peter Walker Member Anita Weiss Outside Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded September 2011 ii © 2011 Shangrila Joshi iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Shangrila Joshi Doctor of Philosophy Environmental Studies Program September 2011 Title: Justice, Development and India’s Climate Politics: A Postcolonial Political Ecology of the Atmospheric Commons Approved: _______________________________________________ Dr. Shaul Cohen Global climate negotiations have been at a standstill for over a decade now over the issue of distributing the responsibility of mitigating climate change among countries. During the past few years, countries such as India and China – the so-called emerging economies that were under no obligation to mitigate under the Kyoto Protocol – have increasingly come under pressure to accept limits comparable to those for industrialized countries. These countries, in turn, have strongly resisted these pressures. My dissertation examines India’s participation in these ongoing climate negotiations. Based on qualitative interviews with relevant Indian officials, textual analysis and participant observation, I tell the story of why and how this so-called emerging economy has been resisting a cap on its emissions despite being one of the most vulnerable countries to the consequences of climate change. I draw upon the literatures of environmental justice, international relations, postcolonialism and political ecology to develop my dissertation and adopt a self-reflexive approach in my analysis. iv The need for global cooperation to address global environmental issues has arguably provided greater bargaining power to countries formerly marginalized in the global political economy. Following the dynamics of North-South environmental politics, India’s climate politics consists of utilizing this power to increase its access to global resources as well as to hold hegemonic industrialized countries accountable for their historical and continuing exploitation of the environmental commons. A key aspect of India’s climate politics consists of self-identification as a developing country. Developed countries with higher cumulative and per capita emissions are seen to have the primary responsibility to mitigate climate change and to provide financial and technological support to developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Developing countries are seen to have a right to pursue development defined as economic growth. The climate crisis is thus seen by my respondents as an opportunity to address the unequal status quo between developed and developing countries. I suggest that this crisis also creates opportunities to redefine development beyond a narrow focus on economic growth. This may be enabled if the demand for justice in an international context is extended to the domestic sphere. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Shangrila Joshi GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Ohio University, Athens St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu University, Kathmandu, Nepal DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Environmental Sciences, Studies and Policy, 2011, University of Oregon Master of Arts, International Affairs, 2004, Ohio University Bachelor of Science, Environmental Sciences, 2001, St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Political Ecology Environmental Justice Environment and Development Climate Policy and Politics South Asia PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 2004-2011 Graduate Associate, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 2002-2004 Reporter, The Himalayan Times, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2001-2002 Instructor, Nepal Sarvodaya Sewa Kendra, Lalitpur, Nepal, 2001 Rapporteur, Richoi Associates, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2001 vi GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) Leadership Initiative Award, Environmental Justice in Arizona and Beyond, Tokyo Foundation, 2011 Barker Travel and Research Awards, 2007-2011 Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, University of Oregon, 2009-2010 Graduate School Research Award, University of Oregon, 2009 Honorable Mention, University of Oregon Public Impact Fellowship, 2009 SYLFF Mobility Fellow Award, Tokyo Foundation, 2008-09 Oregon University System - SYLFF Graduate Fellowship for International Research, Tokyo Foundation, 2008-09 Center for Asian and Pacific Studies Small Professional Grant, University of Oregon, 2008 Media Fellowship, South Asian Journalists’ Workshop on Sustainable Development, Center for Science and Environment, Delhi, 2002 PUBLICATIONS: Joshi, Shangrila. Understanding India’s representation of North-South climate politics. (Invitation to revise and resubmit in Global Environmental Politics) Joshi, Shangrila. Using an environmental justice lens to examine India’s climate politics. (Submitted for publication in a special issue of ‘Socio-cultural Dimensions of Climate Change’ in The Journal of Environment and Development) Joshi, Shangrila, and Bhoj Raj Pokharel. 2002. Prioritizing environmental projects for foreign aid in Nepal. (Report submitted to then Ministry of Population and Environment, Nepal) vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my deepest appreciation to my dissertation committee members for their invaluable support and guidance in conducting research for the dissertation and preparing this manuscript. Special thanks are due to my dissertation chair Dr. Shaul Cohen for his incredible patience as I made my way through the transcription, coding and writing processes. For helpful feedback on various versions of the draft chapters I wish to thank Dr. Cohen, Dr. Alec Murphy, Dr. Ted Toadvine, Dr. Anita Weiss, Gennie Nguyen, Dylan Brady and Innisfree McKinnon. In addition, several individuals were crucial to the successful conclusion of my dissertation, by way of providing much needed encouragement and emotional support. I wish to thank my parents Swayambhu Ram Joshi and Subha Laxmi Joshi, husband James Wynn, brother Saubhagya Ram Joshi, my supervisor and mentor during the past year Dr. Sandi Morgen, friends and colleagues Dr. Eve Vogel, Dr. Janet Fiskio, Erica Elliott, Gayla WardWell, RaDonna Aymong, Leslie McLees, Kiran Sahdev and Divya Bheda for their invaluable support and positive energy. I am also indebted to Dr. Scott Bridgham for enabling the conditions from which this dissertation topic arose, and Tom Ptak for introducing me to the fascinating world of Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak. I wish to thank all my named and unnamed interview respondents in India and Copenhagen for trusting me and sharing their views with my openly. Acknowledgments are also due to Dr. Patricia Solis and Dr. Monica Varsanyi for making it possible for me to attend COP-15 for fieldwork. And finally, I wish to thank various funders who enabled me to travel to India and Copenhagen to conduct research on the dissertation: the Tokyo viii Foundation, the Barker Foundation, the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, the UO Graduate School, and the UO Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. ix I dedicate this dissertation to my son Aadi and to Moss Street Children’s Center for taking care of him while I worked on completing this manuscript. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Dissertation Project ................................................................................................ 4 Organization of Chapters ....................................................................................... 9 Brief Background of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol ................................. 11 Contemporary Discussions and Debate on Climate Mitigation ............................. 14 II. INDIA’S CLIMATE POLITICS: A POSTCOLONIAL POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF THE ATMOSPHERIC COMMONS ................................................. 19 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 19 Postcolonial Geographies....................................................................................... 23 A North-South Postcolonial Geography? ........................................................ 25 Critique and Complicity ................................................................................... 30 Towards a Postcolonial Political Ecology of the Atmospheric Commons ............ 35 India’s Climate Politics .........................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 68: Protest, Policing, and Urban Space by Hans Nicholas Sagan A
    Specters of '68: Protest, Policing, and Urban Space by Hans Nicholas Sagan A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Galen Cranz, Chair Professer C. Greig Crysler Professor Richard Walker Summer 2015 Sagan Copyright page Sagan Abstract Specters of '68: Protest, Policing, and Urban Space by Hans Nicholas Sagan Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Berkeley Professor Galen Cranz, Chair Political protest is an increasingly frequent occurrence in urban public space. During times of protest, the use of urban space transforms according to special regulatory circumstances and dictates. The reorganization of economic relationships under neoliberalism carries with it changes in the regulation of urban space. Environmental design is part of the toolkit of protest control. Existing literature on the interrelation of protest, policing, and urban space can be broken down into four general categories: radical politics, criminological, technocratic, and technical- professional. Each of these bodies of literature problematizes core ideas of crowds, space, and protest differently. This leads to entirely different philosophical and methodological approaches to protests from different parties and agencies. This paper approaches protest, policing, and urban space using a critical-theoretical methodology coupled with person-environment relations methods. This paper examines political protest at American Presidential National Conventions. Using genealogical-historical analysis and discourse analysis, this paper examines two historical protest event-sites to develop baselines for comparison: Chicago 1968 and Dallas 1984. Two contemporary protest event-sites are examined using direct observation and discourse analysis: Denver 2008 and St.
    [Show full text]
  • Spatial Politics, Historiography, Method Introduction
    1 Spatial Politics, Historiography, Method Introduction Bu şehirde ölmek yeni birşey değil elbet Sanki yaşamak daha büyük bir marifet! (Ha, to die in this city brings no new thrill, Living is a much finer skill!) —can yücel (2005), “Yesenin’den Intihar Pusulası Moskova’dan” 1.1 URBAN ACTIVISM IN ISTANBUL Imagine a city characterized by the radicalization en masse of students, workers, and professional associations. Imagine as a core aspect of struggle their inventive fabrication of a suite of urban spatial tactics, including militant confrontation over control and use of the city’s public spaces, shantytowns, educational institutions, and sites of production. Sounds and fury, fierceness and fearlessness. Picture a bat- tle for resources, as well as for less quantifiable social goods: rights, authority, and senses of place. Consider one spatial outcome of this mobilization—a city tenu- ously segregated on left/right and on left/left divisions in nearly all arenas of public social interaction, from universities and high schools to coffee houses, factories, streets, and suburbs. Even the police are fractured into political groups, with one or another of the factions dominant in neighborhood stations. Over time, escalat- ing industrial action by trade unions, and increasing violence in the city’s edge suburbs change activists’ perceptions of urban place. Here is a city precariously balanced between rival political forces and poised between different possible futures, even as its inhabitants charge into urban confrontation and polarization. Imagine a military insurrection. Total curfew. Flights in and out of the country suspended, a ban on theater and cultural activities, schools and universities shut down.
    [Show full text]
  • Gray, Neil (2015) Neoliberal Urbanism and Spatial Composition in Recessionary Glasgow
    Gray, Neil (2015) Neoliberal urbanism and spatial composition in recessionary Glasgow. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6833/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Neoliberal Urbanism and Spatial Composition in Recessionary Glasgow Neil Gray MRes Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geographical and Earth Sciences College of Science and Engineering University of Glasgow November 2015 i Abstract This thesis argues that urbanisation has become increasingly central to capital accumulation strategies, and that a politics of space - commensurate with a material conjuncture increasingly subsumed by rentier capitalism - is thus necessarily required. The central research question concerns whether urbanisation represents a general tendency that might provide an immanent dialectical basis for a new spatial politics. I deploy the concept of class composition to address this question. In Italian Autonomist Marxism (AM), class composition is understood as the conceptual and material relation between ‘technical’ and ‘political’ composition: ‘technical composition’ refers to organised capitalist production, capital’s plans as it were; ‘political composition’ refers to the degree to which collective political organisation forms a basis for counter-power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spatial Politics of Pokémon GO
    Hong Kong and Insect Rhetoric: The Spatial Politics of Pokémon GO Hugh Davies Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. [email protected] ABSTRACT During Hong Kong’s 2019 street protests, images of Pokémon became a recurring motif. What accounts for the presence of this videogame franchise figure among the anti-extradition demonstrators? Establishing Pokémon as a lens through which spatial politics can be viewed, this paper examines the sociocultural, economic and geographic tensions in Hong Kong through this popular Nintendo franchise. Charting the emergence of insect rhetoric as an invective in that city, the contours of the anti- extradition crisis are charted at the intersections of language, identity, space and nostalgia. Drawing extensively on reportage of protest movement, this paper concerns itself with how digital platforms enact, elaborate and represent spatial politics and activism in both virtual and embodied worlds. Keywords Spatial Politics, Urban Play, Pokémon GO, Insect Rhetoric, Hong Kong, Sinophobia INTRODUCTION Within a week of the launch of Pokémon GO, public space had been radically transformed. Throughout July 2016, and in the months followed, players amassed in unprecedented numbers in streets and parks of world cities, seeking to capture small animated creatures attached to physical landmarks, yet visible only through the AR interfaces of mobile phones. The sudden infestation of billions of virtual Pokémon abruptly upended a wide range of spatial norms, altering how space was experienced, used and understood. While the regulation of urban space tends to be highly controlled and contested, the arrival of Pokémon GO constituted a unilateral re-zoning at a global scale (Harle 2016).
    [Show full text]
  • Gowland, Ben (2021) the Decolonial Spatial Politics of West Indian Black Power: Praxis, Theory and Transnational Exchange
    Gowland, Ben (2021) The decolonial spatial politics of West Indian black power: praxis, theory and transnational exchange. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/82297/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Decolonial Spatial Politics of West Indian Black Power: Praxis, Theory and Transnational Exchange Ben Gowland Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Geographical and Earth Sciences College of Science and Engineering University of Glasgow Abstract The 1960s and 1970s were tumultuous decades in the West Indies. In this period, many of the islands of this former British colony attained formal independence and with this national identity, international alignment, state and economic structure and national trajectory become objects of political contestation for the first time in fully free and democratic nation-states. It was in this field of social, political and cultural upheaval that a significant Black Power movement and ideology emerged in the later years of the 1960s. Emergent from growing popular dissatisfaction with the trajectories and construction of these newly independent states and rooted in longstanding and powerful currents of subaltern race consciousness and anti-colonial and anti-imperial resistance the West Indian Black Power movement represented a serious challenge to the region’s post-colonial states and governments.
    [Show full text]
  • Partisanship, Ideology, and the Sorting of the American Mass Public Nicholas T
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2017 Partisanship, Ideology, and the Sorting of the American Mass Public Nicholas T. Davis Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Nicholas T., "Partisanship, Ideology, and the Sorting of the American Mass Public" (2017). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 4484. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/4484 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. PARTISANSHIP, IDEOLOGY, AND THE SORTING OF THE AMERICAN MASS PUBLIC A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Nicholas T. Davis B.S., Taylor University, 2010 M.S., Louisiana State University, 2015 May 2017 0 DEDICATION To Mb: ever an adventure i Acknowledgments “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” ~Seneca Pursuing a doctoral degree is an extraordinarily selfish exercise.
    [Show full text]
  • “Put the Fun Between Your Legs!”: the Politics and Counterculture of the Bicycle
    “PUT THE FUN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS!”: THE POLITICS AND COUNTERCULTURE OF THE BICYCLE by Zachary Mooradian Furness B.A. Pennsylvania State University, 1999 M.A. University of Pittsburgh, 2001 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2005 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Zachary Mooradian Furness It was defended on October 20, 2005 and approved by Gordon Mitchell, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Andrew Weintraub, Associate Professor, Department of Ethnomusicology Co-Advisor: Carol Stabile, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Dissertation Advisor: Jonathan Sterne, Associate Professor, McGill University ii Copyright © by Zachary Mooradian Furness 2005 iii “PUT THE FUN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS!”: THE POLITICS AND COUNTERCULTURE OF THE BICYCLE Zachary Mooradian Furness, PhD University of Pittsburgh This project is a cultural study of bicycles and the politics that inform the everyday practice of cycling. Through a close examination of media, rhetoric, and protest, I focus my attention on groups of people who believe that bicycles are not merely forms of transportation, rather, they are instruments of communication, sources of identity, vehicles for pleasure, and tools for technological, cultural, and political critique. This ‘counterculture’ is comprised of feminists, socialists, punks, anti-globalization activists, writers, environmentalists, and others who have created and developed a politics of cycling through a dialectic of communication and action. Through this dialectical process, these cyclists have not only created an important body of knowledge that speaks to issues of gender, class, culture, technology, and ideology, they also demonstrate both how these issues are interrelated and how people can actively negotiate and contest their meanings.
    [Show full text]
  • Governmentality, the Grid, and the Beginnings of a Critical Spatial History of the Geo-Coded World”
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Earth and Mineral Sciences GOVERNMENTALITY, THE GRID, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF A CRITICAL SPATIAL HISTORY OF THE GEO-CODED WORLD A Thesis in Geography by Reuben S. Rose-Redwood © 2006 Reuben S. Rose-Redwood Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2006 The thesis of Reuben S. Rose-Redwood was reviewed and approved* by the following: James P. McCarthy Assistant Professor of Geography Thesis Adviser Chair of Committee Melissa W. Wright Associate Professor of Geography Daniel L. Purdy Associate Professor of German and Slavic Languages and Literatures Jeremy S. Packer Assistant Professor of Film/Video and Media Studies Roger M. Downs Professor of Geography Head of the Department of Geography * Signatures are on file in the Graduate School ABSTRACT In many cities and towns throughout the world today, the numbering of houses has become such a commonplace practice of local government that its everydayness makes it hard for urban inhabitants to even imagine living without these inscriptions that make up the abstract spaces of everyday life. Yet, as a spatial practice, house numbering is a comparatively recent phenomenon, which did not become widespread until the second half of the eighteenth century. So taken-for-granted has the house number become that few geographers have examined the history of house numbering from a critical perspective. This is particularly surprising given the recent interest in understanding the intersecting “axes” of knowledge, power, and the production of space. Drawing upon extensive archival research, this study brings together the theoretical insights of governmentality studies and Marxian geography to explore the history of house numbering in U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Organising Anarchy Spatial Strategy Prefiguration and the Politics of Everyday Life Ince, Anthony James Elliot
    Organising anarchy spatial strategy prefiguration and the politics of everyday life Ince, Anthony James Elliot The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author For additional information about this publication click this link. https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/496 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] ORGANISING ANARCHY SPATIAL STRATEGY , PREFIGURATION , AND THE POLITICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE ANTHONY JAMES ELLIOT INCE THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY QUEEN MARY , UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2010 0 ABSTRACT This research is an analysis of efforts to develop a politics of everyday life through embedding anarchist and left-libertarian ideas and practices into community and workplace organisation. It investigates everyday life as a key terrain of political engagement, interrogating the everyday spatial strategies of two emerging forms of radical politics. The community dimension of the research focuses on two London-based social centre collectives, understood as community-based, anarchist-run political spaces. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international trade union that organises along radical left-libertarian principles, comprises the workplace element. The empirical research was conducted primarily through an activist-ethnographic methodology. Based in a politically-engaged framework, the research opens up debates surrounding the role of place-based class politics in a globalised world, and how such efforts can contribute to our understanding of social relations, place, networks, and political mobilisation and transformation.
    [Show full text]
  • Scales of Political Life: Space and Power Beyond the Polis
    SCALES OF POLITICAL LIFE: SPACE AND POWER BEYOND THE POLIS by Derek Denman A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October 2015 © 2015 Derek Denman All Rights Reserved Abstract This dissertation considers how geographic scale shapes the theory and practice of politics. It develops a dynamic, relational approach to scale that finds folds and overlaps between micro- and macro-processes. The project asks how subjects negotiate non- concentric political domains: bodies, localities, cities, nations, the globe, and the planet. In contrast to hierarchically nested models of belonging, it emphasizes transnational, transversal, and eccentric forms of ethical and political interconnectedness. Attending to the elaborate interactions between the embodied, local, urban, global, and planetary complicates state-centric images of politics as well as those that present a flattened, reductive approach to globalization. By tracking an undercurrent in political theory through readings of Machiavelli, Michel Foucault, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, David Harvey, and Manuel De Landa, the project renders explicit a theory of scale that has remained at the margins of work on each of these thinkers. It connects this geographic formulation within political theory to bodies of literature focused on the polis, contemporary studies of cities, and urban interconnection. In contrast to predominant approaches to political theory and international relations that privilege either the national or global scale, this project takes the city as the starting point for an inquiry into the ethics and politics of a globalizing world. By selectively emphasizing the political space of the city and its complexities, it pursue the areas of overlap and intersection between multiple scales with rough edges.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spatial Politics of Red Clydeside: Historical Labour Geographies and Radical Connections
    Griffin, Paul (2015) The spatial politics of Red Clydeside: historical labour geographies and radical connections. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6583/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Spatial Politics of Red Clydeside: Historical Labour Geographies and Radical Connections Paul Griffin Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geographical and Earth Sciences College of Science and Engineering University of Glasgow July 2015 Abstract Red Clydeside was a period of increasing industrial, political and social unrest during the early twentieth century. This research draws upon an innovative combination of theoretical work from labour geography, labour history, historical geography and spatial politics to illuminate factors previously understated within this established labour history. In particular, the thesis builds upon contributions from labour geographers alongside E.P. Thompson and the broader ‘history from below’ tradition. These contributions facilitate a nuanced understanding of labour agency and experiences, which can be developed through the histories of Red Clydeside. By assembling materials from a variety of archives the thesis interrogates the making of connections by Clydeside’s workers.
    [Show full text]
  • They Say the Centre Cannot Hold: Austerity, Crisis, and the Rise of Anti-Politics
    How to cite this article: Drago, A. (2020). Afterword: They say the Centre cannot hold: Austerity, crisis, and the rise of anti-politics. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420981388 Afterword: They say the Centre cannot hold: Austerity, crisis, and the rise of anti-politics Ana Drago1 Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra/CES-Lisboa, Portugal Abstract This afterword engages in a dialogue with the theoretical prospects opened by this Special Issue. First, it discusses how these articles show that conceptualizations such as anti-politics that aimed to organize a reading on the growing mistrust and disenchantment towards the institutional apparatus of contemporary democracies must not be equated to political voidance – I argue that these articles rather point to a profound legitimization crisis of the political-spatial consensus of neoliberal governance that, as this SI sustains, must be analyzed through the social and geographical configurations of the austerity cycle of the last decade and the situated conflict confronting it. In that sense, anti-politics redefines traditional conflict in liberal democracies, although through contradictory forms: commoning; radical protest; or ethno-nationalist extremism. And secondly, I discuss a most relevant argument that runs through the SI: analysis of anti-politics must engage with everyday spatial practices and geographical imaginaries that point where conflict arises, but also how it is being recrafted. I discuss this proposal of a spatial turn on anti-politics by interpreting it as emerging from the collapse of the aspirational narrative of neoliberalism– its promise of a global post-class conflict order succumbed as post-2008 austerity punitively targeted specific geographies, spaces and social classes, leading to a cycle of politicization organized through spatial or geographical dichotomies: North/South Europe; urban versus periurban/rural; streets versus institutions.
    [Show full text]