The politics of space and place

What might an analysis of politics which focuses on the operation of power through space and place, and on the spatial structuring of inequality, tell us about the world we make for ourselves and others? From the national border to the wire fence; from the privatisation of land to the exclusion and expulsion of persecuted people; questions of space and place, of who can be where and what they can do there, are at the very heart of the most important political debates of our time. This book responds to the pressing demand to reflect on and engage with these issues. Written by an interdisciplinary collection of authors deploying diverse perspectives and methodological approaches, it offers a collection of critical voices which speak to the heart of the most pressing questions about the politics of space and place. Its chapters chart the ways in which inequality and exclusion are played out in spatial terms, exploring the operations of power and resistance at the micro level of the individual home and small community, analysing modes of securitisation and fortification utilised in the interests of wealth and power, and documenting the ways in which space and place are being transformed by changing socio-economic and cultural demands. And yet forms of exclusion and persecution can also give rise to resistance found in the persistence of those who build and rebuild their homes and communities in a world which seems bent on their exclusion. Life on peripheries can give rise to new conceptions of citizenship and public space and well as to new political demands, and space can be (re)claimed in order to contest the domination of the future. Bringing together the work of scholars working in fields as diverse as political science, geography, international studies, cultural anthropology, architecture, political philosophy and the visual arts, this book offers readers access to a range of contemporary case studies and theoretical perspectives. Relevant, timely and thoroughly accessible, this text offers an integrated approach to what can be a dauntingly diverse area of study and will be of interest not only to those working in fields such as architecture, political theory and geography but also to non-specialists and students.