Political Space

Restrictions on NGOs and others promoting civil liberties have caused alarm about «shrinking civic space» perpetrated by their domestic regimes. Yet because most camps in the world’s civil societies are left
unmolested (indeed many are growing) and because non-domestic sources of constraint often play decisive roles, there are reasons to re-think the issues and ask how, and for whom, civil spaces are shaped. 
This exploratory article draws attention to forces set in motion from central, transnational levels that affect civic spaces: securitization; constraints on organized labour; marketization; transnational non-state actors; citizen disengagement driven by state retrenchment; and social media. As problematized in most policy, activist and scholarly writings, outside forces affecting civic space for emancipatory camps are often ignored, despite their being more susceptible to counteraction from outside than are repressive regimes. These issues await deeper  investigation and discussion.

Restrictions on NGOs and others promoting civil liberties have caused alarm about «shrinking civic space» perpetrated by their domestic regimes. Yet because most camps in the world's civil societies are left unmolested (indeed many are growing) and because non-domestic sources of constraint often play decisive roles, there are reasons to rethink the issues and ask how, and for whom, civil spaces are shaped. This exploratory article draws attention to forces set in motion from central, transnational levels that affect civic spaces: securitization; constraints on organized labour; marketization; transnational non-state actors; citizen disengagement driven by state retrenchment; and social media. As problematized in most policy, activist and scholarly writings, outside forces affecting civic space for emancipatory camps are often ignored, despite their being more susceptible to counteraction from outside than are repressive regimes. These issues await deeper investigation and discussion.

Don't expect anything more subversive in my discourse than that I do not claim to have a solution. (Lacan 2007: 70) Lacan and the Ontological Turn The irreducible difference between la politique (politics) and le politique (the political) is central to post-foundational thought (Marchart 2007; cf. Swyngedouw 2014). For post-foundational thinkers, 'politics' and 'the political' signify radically different and non-symmetrical instances of political life. Politics refers to the contingent and always incomplete attempt to ground a particular set of power relations and particular forms of social organization on an ultimately absent foundation. It is through politics that society comes into 'being', gains a certain coherence, takes a functional form, distributes a sociospatial order of people, things, and activities, held together through particular modes of institutionalization, representation and symbolization of the social order, and routinized or ritualized practices of encounter and relating (Swyngedouw 2011). The political, however, is nothing but the name for the empty core of politics. The political arises because of the absent ground of the social. In other words, it is based on the fact that there 'is' no ontological foundation (such as ethnicity, nationality, class, religion, or whatever) that grounds the social, and on which a political community or 'people' can be founded. This ineradicable presence of absence, of non-ground, un-ground, continually undermines politics and the social order constructed upon it, always holding open the possibility of radical change (albeit not always in progressive ways). To put it simply, the political is the signifier of an indelible emptiness at the core of any social order. While politics stands for the fullness/wholeness of

Abstract: Political space in democracy provides opportunity to civil societies important roles to play. While this role can strengthen democracy, it can also, at the same time, create certain exclusive space for such civil societies themselves within the larger ambit of political system. Civil societies also influence political authority
and governance for intended benefits. In Manipur’s context, every recognised tribe are befallen with three contestations or conflict of interests. One is the problem of asserting one’s tribe identity within the existing system and another is the exertion put on them toward building a larger indigenous or imagined nationality for better political space, and thirdly, they are under the bondage of their traditional institutions. This is more so amongst the Kuki tribes of Manipur. This article discusses the role of civil societies as manifested by the
assertions of different Kuki tribes and that of the chieftainship in the process of building stronger Kuki nationality and the unfolding conflict of ideas and interests therein.
Key words: political space, civil societies, conflict of interest, tribe, nationality, Kuki

Jurisdictional frontiers were created, contested, and negotiated among a wide range of actors, including native Americans and Europeans, with reference to the cities founded in Castilla del Oro (roughly present-day Panama). This research deals, first, with the reshaping of the concept of a city in the New World, based on its inhabitants’ sense of civitas. It analyses, secondly, the creation and redefinition of jurisdiction during political conflicts and, third, the construction and maintenance of jurisdiction through local relations with indigenous populations described as ‘conversation’. The analysis of the creation and preservation of local jurisdictions allows for an interpretation of the complexities involved in the configuration of political power and political space from below in the territories claimed by the Spanish Monarchy.

This paper introduces a crucial dimension for the spatial and comparative analysis of party systems, cleavages, and the conduct of political campaigns. It presents the concepts of “high” and “low” in politics, and the related high-low dimension. High and low are about ways of appealing, and thus relating, to people in sociologically differentiated ways. Politicians on the high are “well behaved,” more restrained, and proper, both in manners and institutional procedures. Politicians on the low sublimate less and are more down-to-earth, coarser, earthier, and personalistic, both in manners and institutionally. The high-low dimension is fully neutral, or orthogonal, with regard to the left-right axis. We argue that this is in sharp contrast to Kitschelt’s authoritarian/libertarian divide or to Inglehart’s materialist/post-materialist political cleavage. The paper also provides a solid conceptual discussion of the classic and quasi universal polarities of left and right, which (like the high-low axis) is in fact comprised of two subdimensions.
Together, the high-low and left-right dimensions form a two-dimensional space of politics, highly useful for characterizing certain political arenas and political strategies. The concept of “low” moreover provides a much-needed, uncontroversial, and highly intuitive central component of the definition of populism. It also brings to the fore the neglected phenomenon of anti-populism. Finally, the paper illustrates the relevance of the high-low dimension in Argentina, with its “double political spectrum” divided between Peronism and anti-Peronism, Venezuela with Chavismo and anti-Chavismo, and Ecuador.

Al-Tahrir Square, surrounded by commercial crowded streets, financial headquarters, and governmental institutions is one of the most iconic squares in Baghdad. It is part of daily life for many Iraqi people due to its central location, which is characterized by busy roads with honking cars. In this essay, I am going to explore Al-Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq as a venue of rebellion for Iraqi people. Since 2015, Iraqi people from diverse backgrounds have been gathering in the square to protest for their rights every Friday. It has been the site of many historical events in Iraq although it has been established as a social place. I will explore the sociopolitical significance of Al-Tahrir Square by connecting the history of the place with how it has been changed since 1961 when the Freedom Monument was first open to the public. The research addresses the urban landscape of Al-Tahrir Square and its transformation over time, taking into consideration the political issues that affect it. I will analyze policies and regulations that have discouraged people from gathering in the Square to prevent political threats to the government and suggest ways to create safer spaces and mixed used attractions, modify the natural landscape of Al-Ummah Garden to make it more connected to the Square, and revitalize the existing kaleidoscope for closer proximity to Tigris River.

In the article, I compare the political space of the Kremlin and residences outside Moscow and focus on the differences of the tsar’s security, social structures, administrative practices, and symbolic conflicts. Social conflict was connected with different publicity. Administrative conflict pointed to the parallelism in the governence. There were two symbolic conflict in the 17th century. On the one hand, the Kremlin as a spiritual and religious center opposed countryside residences as the place of material, economic interests and “amusing” rest. On the other hand, conflict of two types of residences was the traditional opposition of the city and the “spirit desert”. These differences created the conditions for competition between two political spaces and for Petrine transformations.

This exploratory article attempts to interrogate the emerging responses of the traditionally powerful Singaporean city-state as it is confronted by the upsurge of social media networks. This inquiry is premised on the assertion that Singapore's city-state, historically dominated by the People's Action Party (pap), acts as an overall enforcer by employing tactical globalization. In its drive towards development and nation-building, the city-state has identified protecting social cohesion among its diverse and multicultural population as one of its key vulnerabilities. Globalization, particularly heralded by the increasingly unpredictable electronic media, is anathema to the ethos of a city-state that leaves nothing to chance. The city-state pragmatically and selectively appropriates what it sees as benign aspects while at the same time discarding and de-legitimizing malignant features of the globalization phenomenon as it carries out its dominant role as creator and enforcer of policies. The information age characterized by the Internet provides an interesting case study of how tactical globalization is employed by the city-state. On the one hand, Singapore declares itself an open and wired nation with the goal of being an information hub. On the other hand, it controls social media through a repertoire of dominant party rolemodeling, restrictive communications policies, and harsh legal regulations warning against "crusading journalism" that could lead to political instability and damage the nation-building project. Nonetheless, very recent high-profile and embarrassing events that have tarnished top members of the bureaucracy have been highlighted through social media networks. The Internet chatter caused by the slip-ups of elites associated with the ruling party seems to be a portent of the emergence of a "politics of scandal." Levels of trust in government seem to have been dampened, evidenced by the most recent parliamentary elections that have witnessed an unprecedented defeat of a bailiwick of the ruling pap. The unpredictability and intractability of social media networks poses a serious challenge to the Singaporean city-state that has built an ethos of control and shrewdly applied tactical globalization as it navigates the twenty-first century. This article explores the evolving responses of the city-state as it attempts to manage the potential power wielded by social media.

This article adopts an inductive approach to the study of party positions in the Italian Parliament during the centre-left governments of
Enrico Letta (2013–2014) and Matteo Renzi (2014–2016), as they
emerge from the investiture vote. This is a unique moment in the
relationship between Parliament and Government because the parliamentary groups debate the Government’s programme before delivering their first confidence vote. The research aim is to assess the
alignment of the Italian parties in Parliament following the decline of
the traditional left-right cleavage and the rise of populism. A content
analysis of the texts of the speeches delivered during the parliamentary debate before the confidence votes confirming the investiture of
the Letta and Renzi governments provides a survey of the political
themes addressed by the latter and by the main Italian parliamentary
groups. The findings highlight the multidimensional character of the
competition space and show how party alignment is affected by the
interplay between the supranational dimension (European integration)
and the state’s capacity to provide services and guarantee citizens’
rights. It is argued that the emergence of new parties has favoured the
re-establishment of a multi-polar pattern of competition, but without
clear ideological connotations, in contrast with the situation of the
earlier post-war period.

Pendant des siècles, le royaume de France a été défini par quatre rivières frontière : le Rhône, la Saône, la Meuse et l’Escaut. Mais la naissance de la nation France n'a lieu qu'à la fin de la guerre de Cent Ans, au XVe siècle. En ces temps de crise économique et démographique, comment le roi de France parvient-il à remplir le cadre de ces frontières ? Comment peut-il se représenter son royaume et gouverner ces 450 000 km² ?
Fruit d'une méthode originale, ce livre présente une géohistoire politique de la France de la fin du Moyen Âge, illustrée par un atlas de 48 cartes en couleur. Il redonne sa dimension spatiale à l'histoire de la construction nationale en prenant en compte toutes les échelles, pour étudier la formation des frontières ou celle d'une administration territoriale. La culture géographique commune des Français de cette époque se révèle ainsi dans ses spécificités ; leurs façons de se représenter leur pays, de se repérer, de voyager, de communiquer et de gouverner ont eu un impact durable.
Au terme de l'enquête, il est manifeste que la France n'a pas été unifiée par uniformisation ou centralisation, mais par la formation d'espaces sociaux différenciés : des provinces sont gouvernées par le roi, d’autres sont confiées à un gouverneur, à un prince ou à un Parlement. L'unité royale et l'État d’offices se renforcent grâce à l'émergence de pouvoirs locaux fidèles au roi, parallèle à la construction de fortes identités régionales comme en Languedoc ou en Bretagne. Au début du XVIe siècle, la France devient ainsi un État-nation original, État territorial mixte, unitaire et hétérogène. Cette organisation survit jusqu'à la Révolution dans les pays d'Etats et d'élections ; son souvenir structure encore l'identité française.

Анализ посещения царских резиденций позволил выделить зоны внутри них, на основании чего предлагается классификация «государевых дворов».

Analysis of visiting royal residences enables to identify areas within them, on the basis of which the paper proposes the classification of Sovereign’ Courtyards.

Al-Tahrir Square, surrounded by commercial crowded streets, financial headquarters, and governmental institutions is one of the most iconic squares in Baghdad. It is part of daily life for many Iraqi people due to its central location, which is characterized by busy roads with honking cars. In this essay, I am going to explore Al-Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq as a venue of rebellion for Iraqi people. Since 2015, Iraqi people from diverse backgrounds have been gathering in the square to protest for their rights every Friday. It has been the site of many historical events in Iraq although it has been established as a social place. I will explore the sociopolitical significance of Al-Tahrir Square by connecting the history of the place with how it has been changed since 1961 when the Freedom Monument was first open to the public. The research addresses the urban landscape of Al-Tahrir Square and its transformation over time, taking into consideration the political issues that affect i...

The state, institutional pluralism, and development from below : the changing political parameters of State-NGO relations in Indonesia / (1998). Riker, James V. Abstract. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1998.

This dissertation examines the recent reconfiguration of state-society relations in developing countries generally, and specifically examines these dynamics in contemporary Indonesia. It focuses on the emerging role of the voluntary (collective action) sector vis-a-vis the state and private sectors. The increasing importance of this alternative sector in influencing the development agenda, undertaking functions previously performed by the state and, in the process, contributing to political development has broadened the role of citizens in the political process. The prolific growth of Indonesia's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the 1980s and 1990s has created pressures for recasting the objectives of development and the nature of democracy in Indonesia and has led to alternative institutions emerging within civil society which seek to change people's relations with the state.

This study examines the changing political context and the parameters that shape relations between the state and non-governmental organizations. It presents the concept of "political space," the main dimensions that shape political space in a polity, and an analytical framework for interpreting the political dynamics between the state and NGOs. This framework is employed to examine the evolution of state-NGO relations in Indonesia, and to analyze the strategies employed by both actors to shape the political space for autonomous action in Indonesia's authoritarian political system from 1966 to 1997.

Based on empirical analysis of NGO cases in Central Java and Jakarta, this study explains how a growing number of NGOs have created greater political space for their activities through promoting participatory development initiatives from below and by fostering institutional pluralism at multiple levels in Indonesia's emerging civil society. Special attention is given to understanding Indonesian NGOs' international linkages. A select group of international donor agencies, international NGOs, and private foundations have played a pivotal role in supporting Indonesian NGOs vis-a-vis the Suharto government through development aid, technical assistance, and policy guidance and advocacy. In the process, NGOs have become significant actors for advancing sustainable development and strengthening civil society in Indonesia.

The relationship of public space to democracy is dominated by two competing, yet intertwined, theoretical bases: political philosophy and spatial theory. But how does the architect make political space? Can architectural practice create political space through design? In this book, Teresa Hoskyns theorizes that the converging point between theoretical foundations and democratic practices is “participation” within “social production of space.” Therefore, “participation” from joint perspectives of architecture and political philosophy has been studied in two different frameworks: the theoretical and the practical. Unlike most previous works on the relationship between architecture and democracy, Hoskyn’s book transcends the spatial and political interpretation of public space. By incorporating new theoretical approaches to representative democracy, it depicts a complex dialectic and multilayered picture of—“spaces of democracy” and the “democracy of space”—in her phrasing.

The structure of political space of tsar’s residences in the 2nd half of the 17th century complied with the system of access of persons belonged to different social groups. The 1649 Council Code (Sobornoye Ulozheniye) evened up the status of the tsar’s town and country seats. The results of studying the material culture of the residents prove that in practice the tsar family had “sedentary life” in Kremlin and “nomadic” in the country seats. It was due to the norms of security (tsar things could be used for witchcraft and poisoning) and the necessity of distancing the supreme power from its subjects.

Au fond, la stratégie islamiste consiste à nous piéger à même notre propre oscillation (désespérée-désespérante) que fait éclater l'aporie ultralibérale. Profitant d'une vision considérablement plate du politique ne pouvant plus garantir que des droits individuels -c'est-àdire abstraits -, l'islamisme s'affiche par des actes communautaristes pour le moins sinistres mais défendus par une liberté d'expression. Celle-ci ne veille qu'à la bonne tenue des contrats. Or, face à la panoplie politico-juridique d'un ultra-individualisme qui se retourne contre lui-même, on semble ne pouvoir opposer stérilement qu'une indignation toute « morale », c'est-à-dire reléguée, comme les goûts et les couleurs, à la sphère privée. La société ultralibérale oscille ainsi entre la prolifération formaliste (publique et quasi délirante) de droits individuels (en conflit les uns avec les autres) et les passions bridées par leur caractère soi-disant privé et dont les débordements (comme l'islamophobie) seront réprimés soit par le juridisme, soit par la monstruosité que constitue un moralisme politique -mais que sécrète une telle société (qui tente par là, désespérément, de surmonter son oscillation). Devant le spectre du fascisme agité par ledit moralisme, l'opposition invoquera mécaniquement le spectre du marxisme. À cet égard, il est un fait que les attaques contre l'islamisme servent de paravent au racisme. Toutefois, la violence des opinions dites « islamophobes » dissimule également tout autre chose. Elle manifeste l'inhibition de notre métaphysique des moeurs que le moralisme laisse interdite. Or, si cette métaphysique semble tragiquement ethnocentrée, il reste toujours possible d'en relativiser la pathétique relativité -en direction d'une intelligibilité accrue. Si de cette manière on ne se laisse pas trop intimider par le moralisme politique, renvoyer dos à dos le port du burkini et le naturisme (par exemple) devient réellement absurde. En effet, de façon certes outrancière, le naturisme s'inscrit dans une vieille tradition où la sagesse se parodie dans l'illusion d'une sociabilité spontanée, dénuée de conformisme. Mais l'état de nature fantasmé par l'islamisme n'est pas alors le pendant inverse de la radicalité naturiste. Croire que le corps féminin cause, par essence, l'agressivité masculine constitue effectivement la négation de toute sociabilité -dont la texture est originairement composée du croisement et recroisement des regards. Au regard d'une réflexivité de notre métaphysique des moeurs, les deux états de nature ne possèdent donc pas la même valeur -en termes d'élargissement de la vie. La négation (islamiste) du contact avec les autres comme avec soi-mêmeoù se joue l'intelligibilité en guise d'inter-esse -devient l'objet pertinent d'un jugement. C'est de cette métaphysique incarnée par notre tradition qu'il s'agirait de faire davantage la publicité, au sens politiquement noble, en la tirant de son sommeil, -car elle échappe au moins latéralement par son potentiel réflexif au champ sous pression de l'implosion ultralibérale. Telle est la possibilité d'une authentique politique citoyenne.

El artículo tiene un doble objetivo: por un lado, dar cuenta del estatuto teórico de la relación entre orden social, poder y espacio. Por el otro, preguntarse sobre cómo se piensa la praxis desde esta relación. Para ello, partiremos de la definición de espacio que propone la geógrafa inglesa Doreen Massey, centrándonos en el concepto de "geometría del poder". Esta revisión nos permitirá especificar los problemas teóricos a los que uno llega si se piensa la práctica política desde el punto de vista del espacio. Si asumimos que el espacio político está compuesto por múltiples relaciones de poder, toda praxis debe pensarse como una transformación del espacio, lo cual nos conduce a ciertas aporías que enfrentan a la práctica con sus propios límites. El artículo reflexiona sobre estos argumentos e intenta abonar a líneas interpretativas que permitan pensar el efecto que la práctica política tiene dentro del espacio en el que surge. Palabras clave: Espacio político, geometría del poder, Doreen Massey, efecto político.

Paper prepared for the 2001 INDEPENDENT SECTOR Spring Research Forum on "The Impact of Information Technology on Civil Society: How will online innovation, philanthropy, and volunteerism serve the common good?" Washington, DC, March 15 – 16, 2001.

, which stemmed from the interrogations he had undergone in Nuremberg -Gespräch über die Macht und den Zugang zum Machthaber (Dialogue on power and the access to the power-holder) and Gespräch über den neuen Raum (Dialogue on the new space). As they have yet to be published in English, to date they have not received substantial attention by Anglo-American scholars. Therefore, this paper examines Schmitt's Dialogues to unveil the fascinating perspective that they develop on the co-implication of order and disorder in the aftermath of World War II. The paper consists of four parts: after a contextualization of the two Gespräche within Schmitt's intellectual trajectory (Part I), the key arguments of Gespräch über die Macht (Part II) and Gespräch über den neuen Raum (Part III) are thoroughly and critically analyzed. Finally (Part IV), their common thread is highlighted: both Gespräche suggest the need to revisit some of the foundational concepts of modern (geo)politics as a basic condition for re-establishing order in a world threatened by new means and forms of disorder.

In recent years the issue of space has returned to arouse the interest of those who
study international politics from various disciplinary perspectives. If during
bipolarity there was little interest in spatiality, both because its dual scheme
was highly evident and because the two ideologies of reference explained
the reality according to factors which were substantially indifferent to space
(the class struggle and popular democracy on the one hand and market laws
and liberal democracy on the other), the end of the Cold War has made it
appropriate once again to wonder about which spatial paradigm lies at the
base of the international system: Unipolar? Bipolar (USA vs. China)?
Multipolar? Apolar? In addition, considerations on political spatiality
become necessarily relevant today in the analysis of the processes of rearticulating
regional areas and new relationships between global and regional
dynamics.
But a new interest in the spatial dimension of politics today pervades the entire,
vast field of Social Sciences, from Political Geography to the Philosophy of
Law and Politics, as well as International Law, History of Political Thought,
History, Economy, Regional Studies and, obviously, International Relations.
This wide-ranging rethink of political space implies a redefinition of the
traditional categories, beginning with that of borders, which in recent years
has aroused the very lively and prolific field of Border Studies.
9
Edoardo Boria
Starting from the observation of this recent evaluation of space as an explanatory
device for the understanding of politics, this research focuses on one specific
aspect: its cartographic representation. The interest in this topic is justified
by the recent critical turn in map studies, which has produced an epistemological
revision and focused attention on the rhetorical power and
performative quality of the map. This provoked a re-examination of the
meaning and political value of cartography, to which this study intends to
make a contribution.
After a close examination of the phenomena which lie at the basis of the research,
it must finally be asked if the novelty of the current political and intellectual
context about the themes of political space have consequently produced
updates, and if so which, in the way of representing political spatiality. The
conclusions of the reflection lead us to believe that there are indeed promising
signs of renewal, however not yet enough to overthrow the primacy of
the cartographic model of modernity in favour of a fully postmodern paradigm.
Keywords: space, cartography, geopolitics, politics

In this paper, I will explore the interpretation of space in Hannah Arendt's thinking. For this purpose, I will examine the narrow relationship between space and power and I will take as an example the occupation and appropriation of People's Park in Berkeley, which Arendt mentioned in On Violence. Afterwards, I will analyse how the reaction of the authorities focused their efforts on the recuperation of the occupied park, which turned into a space of power, and how they tried to reduce the protesters to impotence. In the third section, I will develop what Arendt understands by " desert " and " oasis " and I will explain why, according to this thinker, she considered that our world was threatened by a process of desertification that suppress the political. Finally, I will show that political spaces depend on

Un mayor desarrollo de esta cuestión puede ser leído aquí: https://www.academia.edu/31488906/Hannah_Arendt._Una_lectura_desde_la_autoridad_Tesis_doctoral_.

This research explores the reflection of the Turk and Turkey in historic board games produced in nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe. It states that the image of the Turk lost its thematic value in board games from the beginning of the nineteenth century and entered a century-long period characterized by a representational decline. During the hype of imperialism, newly colonized territories and peoples took the attention of board game designers, while the Turk and Turkey were no longer a popular entity in games. In the twentieth century, however, this decline turned almost to a total absence of Turkish representation in board games. This inquiry proposes to seek this declining trend in the mutual relationship between game space and political space. In the light of historic board games from Dutch, Flemish, French and British collections, the study revisits Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga’s theories on play and games in culture. Statistical data supporting the proposal here will also be shared with the participants.

Book Review of Adam T. Smith, 2003, The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities, Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Kitap Eleştirisi: Adam T. Smith, 2003, The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities, Los Angeles: University of California Press.

The current growing interest in the concept of “political space” is largely associated with its use within constructivist studies. Adopting this perspective, this article examines the construction of political space in tsarist country residences of the 17th century and identifies two methods employed in the process. The first led to the creation of a hierarchically (vertically) organized political space, the second — to a horizontal space. In the first case, only representatives of the supreme power were endowed with political subjectivity, while in the second every participant in the political communication process was. Both methods were used simultaneously, which was caused not only by the need to satisfy private interests, but also by the need for empowering interaction, when subjects received certain benefi ts in exchange for recognition of the legitimacy of the supreme power.
Современный рост интереса к концепту «политическое пространство» в значительной степени связан с использованием его в рамках конструктивистских исследований. С этих позиций данная статья рассматривает процесс организации политического пространства царских загородных резиденций XVII в. и выявляет два способа его конструирования. Первый вел к созданию иерархически (вертикально) организованного политического пространства, второй — горизонтального пространства. В первом случае политической субъектностью наделялись исключительно представители верховной власти, а во втором — каждый участник политической коммуникации. Оба способа использовались синхронно, что было вызвано не только необходимостью удовлетворить частные интересы, но и потребностью в усиливающем взаимодействии, когда подданные получали те или иные преимущества в обмен на признание легитимности верховной власти. Ключевые слова: политическое пространство, конструктивизм, иерархия, усиливающее взаимодействие.

Сегодня города вместе с другими субъектами политики принимают активное участие в фор-мировании политического пространства ЕС, тем самым повышая жизнеспособность наднацио-нальных институтов. Включение городов в интеграционные процессы способствует снижению дефицита демократии, улучшает качество исполнения решений. Роль городов особенно замет-на в реализации тех проектов, в разработку которых они вносили вклад, – стратегия " Европа 2020 " , политика сплочения и Европейская политика соседства. После подписания в 2007 г. Лис-сабонского договора государства, по настоянию институтов ЕС, в большей мере учитывают мнения представителей городов по вопросам организации местного управления. Вместе с тем уровень вовлеченности городов в европейские интеграционные практики остается невысоким. Это связано как с фундаментальной проблемой участия субнациональных акторов в политичес-ком взаимодействии в рамках ЕС, так и с недостаточной институционализированностью кана-лов представительства городских интересов на европейском уровне.

Local authorities have to deal with a large part of practical work in promotion of the European integration project. Today, cities together with other actors are involved in the EU political process. This involvement leads to modifi cation and enrichment of the European political space and increases the viability of supranational institutions. Cities extend the range of available channels for representation of citizens’ interests. Participation of cities in the decision-making improves the quality of these decisions and the legitimacy of supranational institutions, which is especially important in the context of the debate on the democratic defi cit in the EU. Cities and other subnational actors can be active at the panEuropean level and national levels. They use different “access points” at the European level, such as the Committee of the Regions, the European associations of cities, representations of local authorities in Brussels. The role of cities is especially evident in the Europe 2020 strategy, Cohesion Policy and the European Neighborhood Policy. European cities are involved in the elaboration of national reform programs. Cities and their associations can offer their assessments and visions of development to the Commission. Participating in the elaboration of national reform programs cities get a chance to infl uence the agenda of national development. This can indirectly affect the implementation of the Europe 2020 and dynamics of the European integration process as a whole. The participation of subnational actors – regions and municipalities – is important for realization of the Cohesion Policy objectives. Cities are particularly relevant for this policy, because they can become a ground for social confl icts and unrest. New tools, such as JESSICA and Integrated Territorial Investment, pay signifi cant attention to local level politics in Europe. The European Neighborhood Policy has an important local dimension. There are such city-oriented programs as COMUS, The Covenant of Mayors, CIUDAD and projects of crossborder coordination. Examples show that cooperation between cities is successful, if it is based on the mutual interest in solving common problems. The Treaty of Lisbon has opened new opportunities to cities’ participation. European institutions are now obliged to consult with the Committee of Regions on the issues that have a strong effect at the local and regional level. However, the involvement of cities into integration practices of the EU is still limited. This is due to both, the fundamental problem of the EU organizational design, and the lack of effective channels for representing urban interests at the European level.

Data from Indonesia’s Democracy Baseline Survey conducted by Gadjah Mada University and University of Oslo in 2014 reveals that, even though pro-democracy activists has no longer been barred to participate in politics, their engagement has been confined in a relatively thin zone.  The idea of civil society, and the way it frames their participation in public live, sets barriers for their own space of participation. To some extent, the stagnant of democratic movement in the country has been conditioned by discursive design for ensuring, coherent popular control in public live. This paper gears to explain the phenomena by uncovering the embedded discourse of democratization in the country.

Cette petite étude cherche à s'interroger et à interroger l'indignation qui non seulement occupe et préoccupe les médias mais apparaît aujourd'hui, d'une certaine manière, comme le média par excellence de la posture politique dite « engagée ». On pense naturellement au mouvement des Indignés se réclamant du petit pamphlet de Stéphane Hessel et faisant parler d'eux çà et là, de plus en plus fort, à la surface du globe. Indignés « high-tech » s'appuyant sur une large diffusion, via les réseaux sociaux, de leur mot d'ordre : « United for Globalchange ». Nous pensons toutefois que la conscience indignée -signifiant originairement le regard distant de l'âme qui refuse de prendre part à l'injustice -s'est enlisée aujourd'hui dans « un maniérisme » tel que le rapport même de notre être à la cité se voit ébranlé. Maniérisme dont la prose pathétique de Hessel ne serait donc qu'une expression.

In Metapolitics, French philosopher Alain Badiou uses the concept of a Thermidorean to denote a political subjectivity constituted through the termination of a political sequence. For Badiou, the actual Thermidor that followed the Jacobin insurrection of the French Revolution was not just a singular event but is a general type of political reaction. Badiou argues that a Thermidor is a reaction that is based on a corruption of political will and disarticulation of the political demands that inform a sequence of emancipatory politics. This article applies Badiou's concept of Thermidorean politics to show how conservative forces in South Korea have targeted the political spaces of the Korean democracy movement. The afterlife of cold war representations of social space, the role of reform forces in the disarticulation of radical demands of the democracy movements, as well as the role of 'renegade' (formerly oppositional) intellectuals in the creation of a chimera of 'pro-North' Left are analysed here as sources of a Korean Thermidor.

The main purpose of this paper was to analyze the emergence of the Hungarian Media Law debate as a European political issue. The research was based on a dataset that was collected by Gabriella Szabó for her doctoral research on the European public sphere. Using a combination of qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis, I examined how the identities of the actors, the stake of the contestation and the expected political outcome were framed in the course of the debate; and an ‘analytical narrative’ was deployed to provide a constructivist interpretation of the Hungarian Media Law issue. The analysis of the issue showed that the debate had three distinct stages: a low-intensity ‘preliminary’ phase when the European dimension was introduced into the debate; an ‘explosion’ phase when there emerged a higher level of politicization with the intervention of the hitherto passive European Commission; and, finally, a ‘falloff’ phase when the most radical possible political outcomes were smoothed away. In all the three stages of the contestation, the actors spent considerable energy to publicly frame their identities and those of their adversaries (actor and opponent frames), the stakes of the issue (issue and rival explanations frames) and their goals (outcome frames), and when facing new challenges, they keenly changed these frames. The analysis also demonstrated that the emergence of the issue did not follow the logic of ‘Europeanization’, but was a contingent result of a political process that was from the beginning participated both by domestic and genuinely transnational actors.

The paper discusses in-depth new perspectives in the Holocaust studies. It pays special attention to the spatiality of the Nazi camps and analyzes the Holocaust geographies more in general. It conceptualizes the camp as a ‘space of lawlessness’ that was created by political means of terror and exclusion. The specific spatiality of the Nazi camp was constructed by perpetrators with intentions to neglect both juridical law and moral laws of humanity. To prove this point the author analyzes P. Levi, the survivor of Auschwitz, witness and his prominent books “The Drowned and the Saved” and “If This Is a Man”. After reading his witness one can conclude that two spatial characteristics of the camp have been the most fundamental. The first one were the borders that cut the camp’s inmates from the people lived in the outside world and made impossible all human relations like providing help, solidarity, empathy. The second one was ‘the grey zone’ – a spatial metaphor that P. Levi used to explain all forms of collaboration with the camp authorities. The presence of the ‘grey zone’ as a main characteristic of the Nazi camp allows us to conceptualize it as a ‘space’ where ‘the starry heavens and internal moral law’ were no more present. So, the Nazi camp is a ‘place of indistinction’, a ‘spatial threshold’ where ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’, ‘human’ and ‘animal’, ‘drowned’ and ‘saved’ were no more distinguishable. The author analyzes more broaden Holocaust geographies outside the camp. Nazis used extensively occupied territories in Eastern Europe to perpetrate their crimes. The author concludes that the geographical localization of the Holocaust was an expression of Nazi irrational genocidal intentions and spatial imaginations. Eastern territories have been constructed by Nazis as ‘broaden spaces of exception and lawlessness’. That spatial imagination and planning allowed the perpetrators to neglect juridical and moral laws in reality. The paper concludes by insisting on the importance of the Holocaust legacy for modern humanitarian action and thinking. The Holocaust legacy helps us to conceptualize more precisely ‘new spaces of lawlessness’. It provides a base for the concepts of human security and ‘global responsibility’ for saving humanity in the contemporary world.

U tekstu se razmatra pojam ekološkog građanstva, kao i različiti argumenti kojima se opravdava njegovo zasnivanje, ali i kritikuje ideja da je reč o novom obliku građanstva i političke zajednice koja ga konstituiše. Konačno, izneće se predlog da potragu za novim konceptom zamenimo usvajanjem drugačije perspektive iz koje pojmovi građanske akcije i političkog prostora u kome se ona zbiva ne gube eksplanatorni kapacitet u kontekstu savremenih globalnih ekoloških problema.

This exploratory article attempts to interrogate the emerging responses of the traditionally powerful Singaporean city-state as it is confronted by the upsurge of social media networks. This inquiry is premised on the assertion that Singapore's city-state, historically dominated by the People's Action Party (pap), acts as an overall enforcer by employing tactical globalization. In its drive towards development and nation-building, the city-state has identified protecting social cohesion among its diverse and multicultural population as one of its key vulnerabilities. Globalization, particularly heralded by the increasingly unpredictable electronic media, is anathema to the ethos of a city-state that leaves nothing to chance. The city-state pragmatically and selectively appropriates what it sees as benign aspects while at the same time discarding and de-legitimizing malignant features of the globalization phenomenon as it carries out its dominant role as creator and enforcer of policies. The information age characterized by the Internet provides an interesting case study of how tactical globalization is employed by the city-state. On the one hand, Singapore declares itself an open and wired nation with the goal of being an information hub. On the other hand, it controls social media through a repertoire of dominant party rolemodeling, restrictive communications policies, and harsh legal regulations warning against "crusading journalism" that could lead to political instability and damage the nation-building project. Nonetheless, very recent high-profile and embarrassing events that have tarnished top members of the bureaucracy have been highlighted through social media networks. The Internet chatter caused by the slip-ups of elites associated with the ruling party seems to be a portent of the emergence of a "politics of scandal." Levels of trust in government seem to have been dampened, evidenced by the most recent parliamentary elections that have witnessed an unprecedented defeat of a bailiwick of the ruling pap. The unpredictability and intractability of social media networks poses a serious challenge to the Singaporean city-state that has built an ethos of control and shrewdly applied tactical globalization as it navigates the twenty-first century. This article explores the evolving responses of the city-state as it attempts to manage the potential power wielded by social media.

This article examines Machiavelli’s writings on fortresses as a new starting point for a genealogy of urban fortification. In contrast to theorists of Machiavelli who approach fortresses as defensive structures that preserve the present political order, this article considers fortresses as weapons to privatize civic life. It explores the significance of fortresses for democratic readings of Machiavelli, suggesting that Machiavelli offers a careful analysis of the spatial organization of power and its implications for popular self-government. This reconsideration of fortresses in Machiavelli brings his political thought into conversation with contemporary urban theorists critical of the enclosure of public space. The article argues that Machiavelli seeks to resignify notions of fortification and replace the construction of fortresses with practices of fortifying publics. Such practices find ways to strengthen public spaces and envision durable democracy.

Dans Nabil Hajji et Odette Lescarret (dir.), Les mouvements sociaux à l’épreuve de l’interculturel, Paris, L'Harmattan, p. 73-84.

Le cycle de lutte qui suit la crise économique de 2008 prend une forme singulièrement différente, la course aux sommets internationaux étant remplacée par les révoltes des places. De la place Tarhir, à Occupy Wall Street en passant par les Indignés espagnols, des places sont occupées pour dénoncer les dérives économiques et politiques des États et de la finance. Contrairement à la vague alter-mondialiste, les révoltes prennent racine dans des espaces restreints aux frontières des États-nations traditionnels. Malgré le discours local - contre les politiques d'austérité ou l'autoritarisme du gouvernement - qui touche cette nouvelle vague de mobilisation, une conscience globale demeure.
Dans le cadre de ce texte nous effectuerons une analyse comparative des espaces de mobilisations et des aspects transnationaux de la grève étudiante québécoise de 2012 (aussi connue sous le terme Printemps Erable) et de l'occupation de la place Taksim à Istanbul en 2013.