2Precious2Mine: Post‐politics,Colonial Imaginary,or Hopeful Political Moment?

Radical democrats and geographers have argued that democracy requires a vibrant contestatory politics to challenge the contemporary “post‐political” conjuncture. Despite suggestions of post‐political processes in Aotearoa New Zealand, there are signs of a more vibrant politics. In 2010 an environmental campaign called “2Precious2Mine” captured the national geographic imaginary. Drawing on this example, we argue that although a space was opened for a vibrant contestatory politics, its effects were paradoxical. The campaign both reinforced the hegemonic narratives of neoliberal (post)colonial Aotearoa New Zealand, and simultaneously produced moments that challenged this apparent post‐politicising trajectory. While we argue that such frameworks are useful, there is a risk that without cognisance of the situated nature of politics and closure, they both lose their political and academic explanatory purchase. Post‐politics becomes at risk of constructing that which it seeks to describe, while radical democracy ends up falling short of its aims.     

Economic crisis in Korea and the degraded developmental state

This article analyses the Korean developmental state since the late 1990s, and argues that the state has continued to play a weighty role in the economy. The state guided industrial and financial restructuring after the Asian economic crisis, and intervened to stimulate the economy during the 2008 global financial crisis. In doing so, state elites have displayed a distinctive form of economic leadership that is largely consistent with the developmental state. Rather than focusing predominantly on performance-related indicators of state strength such as growth rates, this article analyses the deeper aspects of the developmental state, specifically its internal functions and its collaboration with business. The article brings politics back into analysis of the developmental state by questioning the assumption that strong economic performance is necessary for the maintenance of close ties between the state and chaebol. Instead, economic performance is better understood as a predictor of patterns of conflict and cooperation. Long-standing ties between the state and big business have endured two significant economic crises, even if the performance of the developmental state has been degraded compared to earlier decades.     

空间、权力与领域:领域的政治地理研究综述与展望

随着空间的社会转向,权力-空间研究已成为西方人文地理学的重要议题,国内也陆续出现了空间政治的相关讨论。本文通过梳理中西方人文地理学领域研究的相关成果,力图建立以领域为基础的权力-空间分析框架,并将其运用于当下中国的空间政治问题解读。领域是权力赋值于空间的产物,是解读现实世界权力-空间关系的重要视角,也是当代政治地理学区别于其他分支学科的主要概念。地理学对领域概念的运用从生态视角到社会视角、从国家尺度到多维尺度,体现了领域研究的日渐深入与系统化。本文在综合既有研究成果的基础上,提出领域化、去领域化和再领域化的权力-空间分析框架,并期冀其成为进一步相关实证研究的指引。     

Whither the Developmental State in South Korea? Balancing Welfare and Neoliberalism

Abstract

Scholars of political economy have been debating the role of the Korean state in the economic development of the country, as the characteristics of a developmental state, a neoliberal state and/or a welfare state have appeared simultaneously in the various governments’ policies since the 1990s. This paper argues that although the nature, degree and extent of government intervention has varied from administration to administration, the basic stance of a developmental state has been retained while neoliberal and welfare policies have been used concurrently to further economic and social development. This coexistence of contradictory approaches reflecting alternative market economic systems was the product of a combination of government policies that has for the past 20 years provided the Korean government with the ability to deploy flexible policy mixes in response to changes in the political and economic environment and to maximise the outcomes of developmental policies.     

Regional spaces, spaces of regionalism: territory, insurgent politics and the English question

Amid the globalization of economic life and a myriad of powerful challenges to Westphalian traditions of political statehood, it is now routinely contended that regions are 'in resurgence'. Nonetheless, much of the debate on this purported regional renaissance is bedevilled by confusion over what scholars and activists mean by regions and an analogous mystification as to why some regions are 'successful', 'lagging' or 'different'. Our paper aims to instil some coherence to this debate by distinguishing between what we term regional spaces and spaces of regionalism . It then draws on this distinction to explore the institutionalization of England's South West region, highlighting some tensions which prevail over its economic future, its political representation, its territorial shape and cultural vernacular. In undertaking this, we demonstrate how the formation of any given regional map is reflective – and indeed constitutive – of an unevenly developing, often overlapping and superimposing mosaic of economic practices, political mobilizations, cultural performances and institutional accomplishments. This prompts us to question the currently fashionable inclination to fully jettison a scalar and/or territorial approach to the theory and practice of spatiality in favour of relational/topological/non-territorial approaches.     

THE PAST IS EVIL/EVIL IS PAST: ON RETROSPECTIVE POLITICS,PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY,AND TEMPORAL MANICHAEISM

One of the most remarkable phenomena in current international politics is the increasing attention paid to “historical injustice.” Opinions on this phenomenon strongly differ. For some it stands for a new and noble type of politics based on raised moral standards and helping the cause of peace and democracy. Others are more critical and claim that retrospective politics comes at the cost of present‐ or future‐oriented politics and tends to be anti‐utopian. The warnings about the perils of a retrospective politics outweighing politics directed at contemporary injustices, or strivings for a more just future, should be taken seriously. Yet the alternative of a politics disregarding all historical injustice is not desirable either. We should refuse to choose between restitution for historical injustices and struggle for justice in the present or the future. Rather, we should look for types of retrospective politics that do not oppose but complement or reinforce the emancipatory and utopian elements in present‐ and future‐directed politics. I argue that retrospective politics can indeed have negative effects. Most notably it can lead to a “temporal Manichaeism” that not only posits that the past is evil, but also tends to treat evil as anachronistic or as belonging to the past. Yet I claim that ethical Manichaeism and anti‐utopianism and are not inherent features of all retrospective politics but rather result from an underlying philosophy of history that treats the relation between past, present, and future in antinomic terms and prevents us from understanding “transtemporal” injustices and responsibilities. In order to pinpoint the problem of certain types of retrospective politics and point toward some alternatives, I start out from a criticism formulated by the German philosopher Odo Marquard and originally directed primarily at progressivist philosophies of history.     

幸福地理学研究中的时空间尺度陷阱

尺度是地理学的核心概念,但是在近年兴起的关于幸福地理学研究中对尺度问题的讨论仍属空白。本文在借鉴此前地理学尺度研究成果的基础上,结合现有幸福感的理论和实证研究,分别从现实尺度、分析尺度和实践尺度出发,系统反思了幸福感研究中的尺度陷阱。首先,对区域幸福感水平的度量需要选择汇总尺度和方法,影响幸福感的地理因素本身和地理环境对幸福感的影响也有其特定尺度。第二,分析地理环境对幸福感的影响时,既要合理处理研究结论的尺度变异性和不同时空间尺度上研究结论的整合问题,也要防止出现真实尺度与分析尺度之间出现错位。第三,个人会通过家庭内部成员间取舍、社会比较等尺度重构和尺度政治方式提升幸福感,而政府在试图改善居民幸福感时也需要选择合理的空间干预尺度。幸福感研究必须跳出各类尺度陷阱,探究影响幸福感的地理要素的真实尺度及合理的分析尺度,并妥善解决个人和政府在提升幸福感时面临的尺度政治争端。     

Cultural legacies and electoral performance of ethnic minority parties in post‐communist Europe

Although there are numerous contributions on ethnic electoral politics, relatively little research has been devoted to explain the scope of success of ethnic minority parties. This article addresses the issue within the bounds of post‐communist Europe, paying particular attention to the effect of cultural legacies. It was confirmed, first of all, that ethnic parties are likely to emerge only if their titular minority has a number of voters larger than what is necessary to obtain parliamentary representation. Otherwise, the most successful were the ethnic parties representing the minorities characterised by legacy of regional domination, that is, those whose members had once enjoyed a dominant position as a ruling nation on a given territory (e.g. Hungarians in Slovakia). The second‐successful were the parties representing homeland minorities, that is, those which have resided on a given area for more than two centuries, but have never been members of a ruling nation. The parties representing diaspora or immigrant minorities were the least successful. Further research could assess the importance of these factors in other regions of the world.