This paper argues for a sustained study of knowledge-intensive or liberal professions in geography. I review existing work in political geography and related fields to identify a gap in the study of ...knowledge-intensive professions, especially those that are popularly associated with elites. I draw from sociology, anthropology, and international relations to explain why we need to better understand such professions. By the geographical study of professions and their expertise I mean the examination of the places, spatial networks, and travels of ideas that shape these professions and the expertise created therein.
Political geography I: Agency Kuus, Merje
Progress in human geography,
02/2019, Letnik:
43, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This report focuses on human agency – the capacity to act in a given context – as it is studied and reflected upon in political geographic research. I first discuss the investigations of agency in ...the wide-ranging work on political subjectivity and identity formation. The report then turns to the efforts to trace ideas and things in political processes. I showcase the attention to transnational networks and fields as well as the work inspired by the concepts of assemblage and actor-network. The analysis finally turns to questions of method in the study of political agency as I foreground the growing interest in ethnography, emotions, and ethics in the sub-discipline. No amount of conceptual innovation, I conclude in the final section, can substitute for the careful study of inherently difficult political issues in specific social settings. In order to effectively problematize the boundaries between politics and culture, subject and object, state and non-state institutions, or public and private spheres, research must closely consider the contingent and situational character of these categories.
This report focuses on the imaginaries and practices that demarcate space at the international and supranational scale. I will first review political geographic scholarship on region-making and ...regionalism, using the studies of Europe and the Belt and Road Initiative as examples, and I will then highlight some central themes in the current research on international borders. The report highlights the flexibility of bounding practices and the polymorphic character of borders. It underscores the resilience of state power and the transformations of sovereignty currently under way. It concludes by underscoring the interdisciplinary character of the relevant work.
Modern power is bureaucratized power, institutionalized formally through governmental and non-governmental structures and informally through unwritten social conventions. This report reviews recent ...political geographic work on the institutional arrangements that enable and constrain all political practice. Institutions here refer to organizations as well as looser semi-institutionalized patterns in public and private life. The report will first examine the scholarship on formal organizations and it will then review the research on professional fields and popular culture. The conclusion highlights the transnationalization and neoliberalization of institutions as a theme that runs through much of contemporary political geography.
Geopolitics and Expertise is an in-depth exploration of how expert knowledge is created and exercised in the external relations machinery of the European Union. * Provides a rare, full-length work on ...transnational diplomatic practice * Based on a rigorous and empirical study, involving over 100 interviews with policy professionals over seven years * Focuses on the qualitative and contextual, rather than the quantitative and uniform * Moves beyond traditional political science to blend human geography, international relations, anthropology, and sociology
This commentary foregrounds the import of regulatory power in region-making practices in the Arctic. I note the increasing interest in Arctic governance from China in the context of its Belt and Road ...Initiative and from the European Union in the context of its overall political agenda. I discuss what regulatory power means, why it matters, and what greater attention to it would add to our understanding of Arctic regionalism. My goal is to highlight the standard-making practices that may remain invisible on the ground but govern economic and political life from a distance.
This paper examines and theorises sociability-'the play-form of association'-in diplomatic settings. I highlight the workings of sociable interaction in diplomacy and I explain how we can better ...discern its broader role in bureaucratic processes. Empirically, I use virtual diplomacy during the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate the difference that in-person sociability makes in diplomatic practice. The second half of the paper title references a comment by Michael Clauss, Germany's ambassador to the European Union. Asked about virtual diplomacy, Clauss said that Zoom diplomacy is '20% as effective' as the in-person kind. Conceptually, I use contemporary political geography and international relations as well as two thinkers of earlier decades-sociologists Georg Simmel and Erving Goffman-to theorise sociability. Methodologically, I advocate a more playful approach to sources in our study of professional practice. My objective is to prompt further study of sociability in bureaucratic settings.
Abstract This article explores the potential of Okanagan Valley as a place of distinctive wines and the tourism experiences that match these wines. By “distinctive” I mean wines with a sense of place ...woven into their production and marketing—wines that are called “terroir‐driven” in the wine world. My focus is not on wine production, but on place‐making and regional planning. The article is informed by geographical and sociological work on wine, but it accentuates the empirical over the conceptual to explore the long‐term potential of the Okanagan as a wine destination. Methodologically, the paper synthesizes academic and trade sources with primary fieldwork material, including participant observation in the region and interviews with wine professionals in British Columbia. It contributes to the efforts to forge an authentic narrative for the Okanagan as a place of wine.
Résumé Cet article explore le potentiel de la Vallée de l'Okanagan comme un lieu de vins distinctifs et d'expériences touristiques qui correspondent à ces vins. Par « distinctifs », nous voulons dire des vins avec un ancrage au lieu en termes de production et de commercialisation, c'est‐à‐dire des vins qualifiés de « produit du terroir » dans le monde viticole. Notre attention n'est pas tant portée sur la production du vin mais sur la création d'une identité du lieu à travers la planification régionale. Le texte se base ainsi sur des travaux géographiques et sociologiques sur le vin, mais il se concentre sur les aspects empiriques plutôt que sur les dimensions conceptuelles afin d'explorer le potentiel à long terme de l'Okanagan comme destination vinicole. Sur le plan méthodologique, la recherche combine des sources universitaires et des documents de promotion touristique avec du matériel de terrain primaire, incluant des observations de participants dans la région et des entrevues avec des professionnels du vin de la Colombie‐Britannique. Au final, l'article contribue à l'analyse des efforts visant à forger une image authentique pour l'Okanagan en tant que haut‐lieu de la viticulture.
Key messages Okanagan Valley has high potential for place‐driven wines and the tourism experiences that match these wines. This potential can be cultivated by linking wine to place through collective narratives and regulatory measures. The experience of Europe's premium wine regions can be used to craft such narratives and measures in the Okanagan.
This paper investigates boundary spaces and agents in one social field: the socialization of diplomatic and European Union (EU) professionals in Europe. Theoretically, I combine the geographical work ...on boundary practices in diplomacy with the Bourdieusian scholarship on transnational fields in sociology and international relations. Empirically, I examine the institutional settings in which the professionals who move in EU diplomacy are trained and socialized. I theorize such settings as interstitial fields to highlight their ambiguous and in-between character. The professionals who move in such fields are nomadic figures who link and mediate multiple national, institutional, and cultural settings: they are both diplomats and Eurocrats at the same time. The paper foregrounds the hinge-like spaces and practices that regulate the production of diplomatic and EU-related expertise in contemporary Europe. It thereby contributes to our understanding of the workings of international governance.
PDF
