Revisiting transnational actors from a spatial perspective

Actor-centred approaches feature prominently in transnational history. Studying transnational actors has helped to better grasp the extent, dynamics and mechanisms of particular cross-border connections, and has highlighted the entanglement and mutual constitution of cultures and societies in a more general sense. While empirical research continues to reveal more forms of their interaction, the general notion of ‘transnational actors’ has been gradually flattened out: the transnational sphere is now often studied in isolation and conceived of as a rather homogeneous space, while transnational actors are largely viewed solely in their border-crossing capacities and activities. The authors argue that while such a focus successfully captures their mobility, it overlooks another important dimension, namely their embeddedness in local, national, imperial or regional contexts. To reconnect these aspects, the authors situate transnational actors in their diverse socio-spatial relations. Investigating them in this way brings out their important role not only as connectors, but also as producers of various kinds of spaces. The contributions to this dossier highlight that transnational fields of activity are heterogeneous and deeply entangled with other spaces of action and belonging.     

Which region to choose for an industrial policy? A research path to highlight restructuring opportunities

Our study explores research avenues that can help policymakers to assess regional capabilities for ‘green’ economic restructuring. After reviewing the relevant literature, and envisioning research paths which consider both market transactions and externalities, we propose possible ways to translate past research findings into novel statistical tools. Our point of departure is the ‘skill relatedness’ among economic sectors in Norway, as inferred from intersectoral labour flows (years 2008–2014). Then, on the basis of the industrial composition in each of the 161 Norwegian labour market areas, candidate regions that could benefit the most from a ‘green’ restructuring policy, aimed at photovoltaics in our empirical example, are brought forward.     

Towards Situated Analyses of Uneven Peri-Urbanisation: An (Urban) Political Ecology Perspective

In this article we develop a novel analytical framework for situated studies of uneven peri-urbanisation that resist further dividing Marxist and Situated (Urban) Political Ecology. We conceptualise uneven peri-urbanisation as a process in which access to the resources mobilised for peri-urban developments, such as water or land, is rendered uneven. In a three-step approach we suggest, first, describing how peri-urbanisation unfolds in the case being studied and distinguish it from other processes, such as suburbanisation. Second, we propose analysing the transformations of nature on which the peri-urbanisation process is based; and third, examining the uneven power relations infusing inequalities into these transformations and consequently into the peri-urbanisation process described. To allow for a situated analysis this approach regards the study of practices as crucial, but they have to be embedded in wider socio-economic, political, and historical processes, since both contribute to transformations of nature and thus shape uneven peri-urbanisation.     

The Making of Mitteldeutschland. On the Function of Implicit and Explicit Symbolic Features for Implementing Regions and Regional Identity

Abstract: According to the theory of 'significative regionalisation' (Werlen), territorial entities may be understood as products of symbolic practices. However, the assumption that regions are not only made but also continuously performed in acts of communication effects the character of substantial research into ostensible and latent spatial imaginations apparent in communication processes. In this article, the reactivation of Mitteldeutschland (literally the 'centre of Germany') in a televisionseries about the region's history is the empirical starting point for conceptualizing contemporary processes of symbolic regionalization. The approach taken covers the entire communication chain from the editorial process to the film material up to everyday language use of the programs target group. Three empirical studies with specific methods of research (hermeneutics, argumentation analysis and semi-structured interviews) illustrate this interlinked process. As an analytical tool, a fundamental distinction between implicit 'common places' of spatial representation and more obvious and thus negotiable explicit features of spatial signification is suggested. The analysis elucidates that — even under conditions of contemporary globalization — the massmedia reproduce traditional practices of spatial representation, as, for instance, a persistent and taken-for-granted use of container images indicates. Regarding the explicit features, however, the medias' influence seems to be quite low. Mitteldeutschland's geography, as proposed by the television program, is questioned and negotiated in everyday symbolic practice. Up until now, the region thus remains continuously 'under construction'.     

„Simulanten des Irrsinns auf dem Vortragspult“: Dada,Krieg und Psychiatrie,eine ‚Aktive Traumadynamik‘

“Simulanten des Irrsinns auf dem Vortragspult”: Dada, War and Psychiatry – ‘Active Dynamics of Trauma’. This paper relates stage performances of dada artists to war neurosis and shell shock as sociocultural phenomena. The leitmotif of this investigation is the notion of simulation, as dada artists were referred to as malingerers (simulators) of madness by the press at the time. I hypothesize that the performers imitate/simulate with drums, shouting and ‘bruitist’ sound poems, the noises of war, staging themselves as war neurotics in a kind of shocking clinical demonstration. Both discourses intersect in the fact that many dadaists try to dodge the draft by simulating madness. The scandalizing anti-art of dada will be understood as contagious anti-pedagogy, trying to vaccinate against the madness of the era.