State, power and space

Abstract

may take many different significations of which, however, two are paramount for human geogra- phy: Space as a part of the world with specific character- istics and with activities located in or on it (object-space), and space as a frame of reference, used to locate and thereby order the relations among persons, things, activities and im- material items (space as locational scheme). This paper ar- gues that, from the viewpoint of an observer, every object- space presupposes a locational scheme, but not vice versa. Spaces as locational schemes are discussed as instruments, which individuals and organizations use to co-ordinate their activities. Therefore, space is a constitutive element of the reproduction of the social and is not something external to the social, as most geographies and social theories would have it. Under modern conditions, it is, above all, the meta- institution of the state that has the power to define interpre- tative schemes, thereby constituting entities and controlling their interactions. The discussion of the mutual constitution of spaces and institutions reveals that, from a methodologi- cal point of view, in the end the analysis of space, society and power coalesce. By disclosing the constitutive conditions of institutions and power structures, the analysis of spaces as locational schemes turns out to also be a deconstructive prac- tice.

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