Welfare Warriors: Towards a Genealogy of the Soldier Citizen in Canada

Over the past few decades, new forms of citizenship have emerged in the context of a globalizing and urbanizing world. The government of citizens and economies, it is argued, is increasingly trans‐, supra‐, or sub‐national in scale, and characterized by the eclipse of Keynesian welfarism and rights‐based citizenship. Scholars have documented the emergence of targeted, risk‐based, and workfarist governmentalities and political economies at various spatial scales, and have even described emergent forms of citizenship as "post‐national". And yet, in many countries we are concurrently confronted with massive symbolic and fiscal reinvestment in national militaries, particularly in the welfare of personnel. Given this, and the longstanding relationships between the nation‐state and military service, it is curious that the soldier has hardly figured in recent discussions about citizenship. This paper provides a genealogy of the soldier‐citizen in Canada, from iconic national worker‐citizen in the post‐World War II period to its recent anxious positioning at the intersection of "domestic", entrepreneurial, workfarist citizenship, and the widespread re‐emergence of militarism and national security. It demonstrates that the military citizen has at key times been a template for innovations in social forms of national government, and argues that the soldier has been a crucial figure in their re‐engineering in recent years. Situated amidst transformations in work and worker‐citizenship, and at the intersections of political struggles in both the domestic and international spheres, the soldier provides a unique lens on questions of the national and the social. Through an engagement with the labour of social citizenship, and the war work that initiated many of its governing techniques, the military citizen emerges as a critical figure in the contemporary neoliberal nation.     

Disrupting Gentrification: From Barricades and Housing Occupations to an Insurgent Urban Subaltern History in a Southern City

Housing struggles are key to disrupting gentrification capital flows and dispossessions. Based on life histories, key informant interviews, and six years of engaged ethnography with slum activists in the Philippine capital, this paper explicates political geographies of insurgent housing practices, including community barricades and housing occupations, and marks a history of militant subaltern struggles for the right to the city. I contend that these highly-organised insurgent practices disrupt real estate capital pathways and nurture political subjectification where emancipatory spaces and socialities of care can be founded. Moreover, I intervene in the lack of attendance to the co-constitution of barricades and occupations to less visible forms of insurgent housing practices. As these are emplaced to other subaltern times and spaces, political knowledges and subjectivities developed against forced evictions and demolitions enhance anti-gentrification struggles. In tracing this militant urban history, I mark the incremental advance of subaltern housing struggles in a Southern economy highly reliant on real estate capital investments.     

Infrastructural Activism: Google Bus Blockades,Affective Politics,and Environmental Gentrification in San Francisco

Between 2013 and 2018, the San Francisco Bay Area saw the rise of “Google bus blockades”—a form of protest against gentrification, growing inequality and a housing crisis linked to the economic impacts of the technology sector on the region. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork with housing activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, this article argues that the disruptive tactic of “the Google Bus blockade” can be understood as a form of infrastructural activism—a flexible political form that uses the interruption of infrastructure for political ends. The blockades politicised the “Google buses” and transformed them into symbols of gentrification and sites of resistance. Protestors constructed a political analysis that drew connections between struggles for housing, racial and environmental justice and brought together material, affective and political critiques of infrastructure.     

Double opening,split temporality,and new spatialities: an interview with Sandro Mezzadra on ‘militant research’

Abstract

A militant research approach, Mezzadra suggests, should gesture towards a ‘double opening’: towards struggles on the one hand, and towards the production of concepts and theoretical innovation on the other. Mezzadra defines militant investigation as ‘the ability to localize and consolidate the possibility for ruptures’ and as a practice that does not take the meaning of ‘political struggle’ for granted. Building on the ‘within and against’ militant posture of the Italian Workerist tradition, Mezzadra reflects on the split temporality of militant investigations and on the contested spaces of a political epistemology of migrations.     

Atlantic networks,antagonisms and the formation of subaltern political identities

This paper engages with historians Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker's account of the connections and circulations which they argue constituted a multi-ethnic Atlantic working class in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Linebaugh and Rediker , ). Their stories of the mobile, networked insurgencies that traversed the early modern Atlantic challenge accounts of the geographies of resistance and labour which treat ethnicities as given and sealed, view subaltern movements as trapped in place and privilege the boundaries between spatial scales. This paper sketches some preliminary aspects of an agenda for thinking spatially the political identities constituted through Atlantic resistances. The paper foregrounds the multiple antagonisms constituted through Atlantic subaltern resistances to explore three aspects of the formation of subaltern political identities in the early-modern Atlantic. Firstly, how the spatial relations of Atlantic networks were brought into contestation through subaltern struggles. Secondly, the plural and mobile character of antagonisms between and within subaltern groups. Finally, the paper explores how subaltern agency and identities were formed in relation to the materialities of Atlantic networks. These arguments are developed through discussion of subaltern resistances in and between Ireland, Newfoundland, the West Coast of Africa, the Virgin Isles and London in the eighteenth century.     

Disability activism and the politics of scale

In this paper, we examine the role of spatial scale in mediating and shaping political struggles between disabled people and the state. Specifically, we draw on recent theoretical developments concerning the social construction of spatial scale to interpret two case studies of disability activism within Canada and Ireland. In particular, we provide an analysis of how successful the disability movement in each locale has been at 'jumping scale' and enacting change, as well as examining what the consequences of such scaling‐up have been for the movement itself. We demonstrate that the political structures operating in each country markedly affect the scaled nature of disability issues and the effectiveness of political mobilization at different scales .     

‘We are of the connections’: migration,methodological nationalism,and ‘militant research’

Abstract

If there were no borders, there would be no migrants – only mobility. The persistent reification of migrants and migration – even in critical migration studies –(re-)fetishizes and (re-)naturalizes the epistemological stability attributed to the (‘national’) state as a modular fixture of geopolitical space. In this regard, migration scholarship (however critical) is implicated in a continuous (re-)reification of ‘migrants’ as a distinct category of human mobility. Thus, the methodological nationalism that rationalizes the whole conjuncture of borders-making-migrants supplies a kind of defining horizon for migration studies as such. The dilemma of methodological nationalism has never been merely a problem of thought, however. It is indeed a manifestation of the veritable participation of researchers and scholars – whether consciously or unwittingly – in the very same sociopolitical processes and struggles through which the ‘national’ configuration of ‘society’ (or, the social field) is reified and actualized as the territorial expression of state power. Therefore, the questions of methodological nationalism and what might be called ‘militant research’ are deeply interconnected, indeed, mutually constitutive. As scholars of ‘migration’ – and above all, as practitioners of ‘militant research’ – we must attend to a self-reflexive critique of our own complicities with the ongoing nationalization of ‘society’. Hence, as researchers or scholars of migration, we are indeed ‘of the connections’ between migrants’ transnational mobilities and the political, legal, and border-policing regimes that seek to orchestrate, regiment, and manage their energies. We are ‘of’ these connections because there is no ‘outside’ or analytical position beyond them. The larger juridical regimes of citizenship, denizenship, and alienage configure us to be always-already located within the nexus of inequalities that are at stake in these conflicts.     

‘A sense of Nordism’: the impact of Germanic assistance upon the militant interwar Breton nationalist movement

This article explores the political connections that developed between militant Breton nationalists and members of Germanic movements between 1919 and 1945. The adoption of pan-Celticism in general – and the inspiration of Irish Republicanism in particular – has been adequately investigated in recent historical literature dealing with Breton nationalism. The development of Celticism as a racialist concept within the domestic French political context has not received the same level of attention, however, nor have the impacts of the practical, political and material assistance provided to the Breton movement by Germanic autonomist movements in France. In addition to French-language sources, interviews, archival material and contemporary political tracts, this article employs the unpublished memoirs of the chief Breton ‘physical force’ militant, Célestin Lainé (aka Neven Henaff). Where pan-Celticism failed to provide concrete assistance, it is argued, the Flemish and Alsatian movements filled the void, in turn acting as conduits to pan-Germanist and Nazi ideas emanating from across the Rhine. These influences led militant Breton nationalists down a racialist ideological path that guaranteed both the ultimate failure of integral nationalism in Brittany, and their own disastrous collaboration with German forces during the occupation of France.     

Embedded Internationalisms: Building Transnational Solidarity in the British and Norwegian Trade Union Movements

There has been growing interest in the prospects for a new trade union internationalism in recent years, following the end of the Cold War and the coming together of the main national union organisations into one confederation, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). For the first time in decades, geopolitical straitjackets and defensive nationalistic postures are giving way to more open, internationalist perspectives as unions attempt to get to grips with global capitalism. However, despite some well‐publicised grassroots globalisation campaigns, effective international labour organising and networking remains thin on the ground. One of the reasons for this is that, despite the rhetoric of globalisation and the reality of multi‐layered governance, the "national" space remains the critical scale at which unions operate. Variations in both union organisation and the politico‐institutional context within which unions operate nationally continue to shape international solidarity activities. This theme is pursued in this paper through the contrasting cases of the UK and Norwegian trade union movements. Although both union movements have been subject to similar problems in recent years, in terms of membership decline and the pressures of increasing global economic integration, the different national political and economic contexts within which unions are embedded have been important in facilitating or constraining international strategies.     

Spaces of Labor Activism, Mexican‐American Women and the Farm Worker Movement in South Texas Since 1966

This paper studies the farm worker unionization experience and the historical development of Mexican‐American women's activism in South Texas to elaborate more precisely the relationship among socio‐spatial practices, political activism and labor's geography. Drawing upon archival documents and interviews, the paper describes how Mexican‐American farm workers used public space for political activity; however, radical unionization efforts also domesticized other spaces for women's activities. The paper chronicles how Mexican‐American women in South Texas transformed the farm worker center from a "domesticated space" into one of empowerment. In short, women in the union made the farm worker center into a space that challenged both the class‐based structure of larger South Texas society and masculinist practices within the larger farm worker movement. The analysis advances the imperative to better understand how workers "make space" to ensure their own survival. The paper advances the study of labor geography by arguing that working class mobilization reconstitutes dynamic social geographies within laboring communities themselves. In arguing this point, the paper illustrates the limitations of activism based solely on the use of public space and argues for more attention to the significance of other socio‐political spaces for labor mobilization.     

Anti‐corporate Campaigning and Corporate “Social” Responsibility: Towards Alternative Spaces of Citizenship?1

This paper seeks to bring together debates on anti‐corporate protest with discussions on the nature of corporate responsibility. It does so in order to examine the implications of this interaction between conflicting social forces for the constitution of citizenship on the one hand, and for an understanding of the corporation on the other. I first identify the significance of anti‐corporate activism within the current anti‐globalisation movement. The proclaimed emergence of an era of corporate citizenship is then examined. The spaces of engagement between anti‐corporate activism and corporate social responsibility are constructed through a variety of means, including ethical trading initiatives and corporate codes of conduct. In interpreting these engagements, I identify three contrasting perspectives on the spaces of citizenship that might result. These stress in turn the turbulence of a global civil society, the re‐definition of the national state, and the spatial discontinuities of democracy. I also situate corporate social responsibility practices as part of the discursive narrative of the corporate form, enabling a consideration of the extent to which it is potentially possible to de‐centre the corporation.     

Three problems without a solution: the militant research conundrum and the social condition of migration

Abstract

The article deals with the relation between research and militancy considering migration as a total social fact, employing different theoretical tools coming from the autonomy of migration theory, migrant labour studies and postcolonial critique. By posing to the reader three problems without a solution, the article frames the main features of what the author calls the migration and militant research conundrum. The essay briefly defines the three problems as the problem of the researcher, the problem of militancy in migration research and the problem of politics and migration. The article argues that if it is true that migration is a social relation mediated by different statuses/documents/definitions in the transnational space, it is thus fundamental both for the researcher and for the militant to critically analyze what does it means to be part of this social relation in postcolonial capitalism conditions. The institutional racism produced by different authorities, from the States to international assemblages, and the transnational labour market must be taken into account. Therefore, in order to address the migration and militant research conundrum in a productive manner, it is crucial to understand the specific position of the militant and the researcher vis-à-vis the materiality of rule and the larger political dimension of migration.     

The place of politics and the politics of place: Housing,the Labour Party and the local state in England

This paper argues that geographical research needs to pay greater attention to political parties and their relationship to local governing. In returning to, and updating the concept of the local state, analysis of local socio-spatial and political relations reveals the quieter registers of political power in local governing, and in turn what this means for the condition of local democracy. The long-term housing regeneration of a neighbourhood in Gateshead, North East England is used here as an optic to do just that. Through moments of housing activism, the social and political relations between and within a local Labour Party and local state are considered. A local manifestation of a growing trend that questions the representation of mature structures of power that the Labour Party holds in deindustrialised areas of the UK is considered through struggles over decision-making, belonging, representation and legitimacy. Such accounts of the local scale are critical in relation to global political trends; where apathy, cynicism, lack of expectation and representation and insurgent populist parties are increasingly framed as potential political crises of mature western democracies.     

Cleaning up after the Celtic Tiger: scalar 'fixes' in the political ecology of Tiger economies

This paper explores intersections between political economy and nature in the so-called Tiger economies that have risen to prominence since the 1960s. Whilst Tiger states are in many ways emblematic of the extremes of late capitalism, they are nevertheless characterized by socio-natural environments that are distinctive, both in terms of the political and economic interests that have underpinned them and their rates of production. Whilst produced under a distinctive set of capitalist social relations, the dialectical reading offered herein chooses to foreground the agency that socio-nature itself possesses in relation to prevalent class interests. This agency is conceptualized in terms of a series of cultural wars over transformed nature. Using a theoretically provocative case study that examines the politics of waste management in Ireland, the paper argues that in reflecting upon the role of such culture wars in the constitution of dominant social relations in Tiger states, the concepts of scalar strategies and struggles over scale may prove useful. Whilst social contests over the scaling of governance have tended thus far to focus upon the dialectical relations between scale and political economy, the paper argues that ecological projects too are fundamentally produced by and implicated in the structuration of scale. In calling for dialogue between political ecological studies and recent work in geography that has sought to theorize scale as a social process, the paper hopes to contribute towards the development of a political ecology of Tiger states.     

Reconfigurations of Gender and Class Relations: Class Differences,Class Condescension and the Changing Place of Class Relations

This paper addresses the question of class: its significance, construction, representation in official policies and the changing place and nature of class relations and struggles in contemporary Britain. It argues that both changes in women's labour market participation patterns and a new rhetoric of class condescension and symbolic violence have significant implications both for widening class divisions between women and for the nature of class contacts in contemporary cities. As ties of love and affection and mutual exchange that (purportedly) characterise the home are being transformed by the growing importance of the home as a locus of commodified domestic labour, the home is a new site of inter‐class contact and conflict. Thus “private” households are increasingly becoming the sites of class struggle, adding strength to feminist arguments about the inextricable connections between class and gender relations.     

The state of globalisation and the globalisation of the state

This article examines how to evaluate claims about the extent and impact of globalisation. A focus on the significance of earlier phases of globalisation is essential, but underestimating the importance and scope of recent developments is the wrong lesson to learn from a more historically informed analysis. While it is necessary to maintain a healthy scepticism towards endings, inevitability and irreversibility, it is important to remain open to the possibility that the world political economy has indeed undergone substantial transformation. This article argues that quantitative measures of globalisation need to be supplemented with an analysis of the pivotal role of the state in spurring and sponsoring the process of global economic interaction. State constructions of the imperatives of globalisation have aimed to bolster the acceptance of policy changes that support globalisation and transform domestic political economies. There is continuing potential for state activity to have effects--both positive and negative--on the progress of economic globalisation.     

Convergence space: process geographies of grassroots globalization networks

This paper considers grassroots globalization networks, which comprise a diversity of social movements working in association to engage in multi-scalar political action. Drawing upon David Harvey's notion of militant particularism (regarding the problems of effecting politics between different geographical scales), and recent research on networks and their relationship to places, the paper analyses People's Global Action, an international network of social movements opposing neoliberal globalization. From an analysis of the process geographies of People's Global Action, the paper proposes the notion of convergence space as a conceptual tool by which to understand and critique grassroots globalization networks. The paper argues that contested social relations emerge in such convergence spaces and considers the implications of these for theorizing such networks, and for political action.     

Territory,sovereignty and entitlement: Diplomatic discourses in the United Nations Security Council

This paper builds upon feminist approaches within political science, international relations and geography that study how bodies haunt global politics, by exploring how entitlement to power connects through the scale of the body to that of the state. In a context of rising populism and political bluster, as well as post-#metoo discussions of personal entitlement displayed by well-known political figures, there is a need to take seriously how discourses of statehood within security crises are gendered in specific ways. This paper argues that the concept of entitlement offers potential for geographic enquiry by opening up new perspectives on masculinist framings of territory and state in critical geopolitics and in critical international relations. It considers specifically how diplomatic discourses ground and naturalize claims to territory by showing how states’ entitlement to territory and masculinist forms of personal entitlement are connected. Drawing upon feminist approaches to language, discourse and power, this paper studies diplomatic interventions at the United Nations Security Council in New York in 2014–2017 on the crisis in Ukraine. Methodologically, it analyses diplomatic speeches through the concept of entitlement to show how territorial claims are naturalized through rhetorical devices grounded in hegemonic forms of masculinity. It argues that a clearer understanding of the connections between discourses of personal entitlement and state territorial sovereignty can further our understanding of territory.     

Political animals? On animals as subjects in an enlarged political geography

This paper is positioned within on-going debates about the expansion and re-theorization of political geography's ambit. It argues that animals could and should be included as subjects within sub-disciplinary research. Whilst political ecologists regularly employ animal conservation case studies to detail the complexities of struggles over resource distributions, this work often frames animals as static components of a thoroughly human sociality. This paper draws on conceptual debates within cultural geography, in particular those pertaining to ‘animal’ and ‘hybrid’ geographies. It argues that animals be viewed as dynamic beings, inextricable to political processes, and integral to the formation and operation of the political networks that regulate, protect and exploit them. This assertion is elaborated here through discussions of recent campaigns to end bear bile farming in East Asia, in particular, the work of the Hong Kong-based charity Animals Asia Foundation. This example aims to illuminate the potential strengths and limitations of arguing through a ‘hybrid geography’ lens, and aims to stimulate further debate around the standing of animals within an enlarged and enlarging political geography.     

Geographies of Indigenous Identity: Spatial Imaginaries and Racialised Power Struggles in Bolivia

This article examines racial power struggles in Bolivia through a spatial lens. It analyses the process of resistance to the oligarchic elites mounted by indigenous‐popular sectors in Bolivia in the first decade of the 21^st century as well as the subsequent eruption of conflicts between different indigenous sectors, and argues that political conflicts in Bolivia in the 21^st century are, among other things, also conflicts over spatial imaginaries and the different territorialising and (re)territorialising projects corresponding to them. Social movements against racial neoliberalism challenged the colonial spatial imaginary. The partial success of those struggles brought into relief two distinct indigenous spatial imaginaries, one rooted in the defence of ancestral territory and indigenous autonomy, and the other based on a redefinition of territoriality as centrality within the state and society at large. The article reads contemporary inter‐indigenous conflicts as manifestations of the differences between these two spatial imaginaries.