Political geography is the study of the spaces of politics and the politics of space. Our research unit is particularly interested in the political geographies at the margins of a globalizing world. We study the spatial politics of violent conflict, uneven development and state building in Africa and South Asia. SOTOMO is an associated research unit studying Swiss social and political geography.
About us
The Political Geography Unit at the University of Zurich is a group of young scholars engaged in research and teaching around the themes of: violent conflict, politics, territory and the state. Our work is interdisciplinary in scope, drawing on the fields of geography, anthropology, political ecology and international relations. We conduct empirical and qualitative research in different contexts, principally in Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia), Africa (Ethiopia, DR Congo) and Switzerland, as well as in transnational contexts of migration and humanitarian aid. Our research takes us from remote, rural villages to national capitals, from forests to modern office buildings, from markets to temples, and many places in between. The picture below provides a schematic overview of our interests. For more detail about our unit, please click here.
Forthcoming
The Political Geography unit is organising a small workshop on current affairs in Sri Lanka. Jennifer Hyndman (York University, Canada) will be with us as a special guest. The event will take place on 20 June 2013 from 1300 to 1600. Please contact Bart Klem for more information.
April 2013
Deborah Johnson, Bart Klem and Benedikt Korf participated in the Sri Lanka Round Table at London School of Economics (LSE) on 25 and 26 April 2013. The roundtable is a rotating European initiative that was initiated by the Political Geography unit in Zurich along with partner institutions.
March 2013
Bart Klem moderated a public discussion at Movies that Matter, the film festival organised by Amnesty International in The Hague (http://www.moviesthatmatter.nl/english_index). The discussion (25 March 2013) concerned the documentary No Fire Zone by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Callum Macrae, which addresses the gruesome end of the war in Sri Lanka and provides evidence for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the present Sri Lankan government (see trailer: http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/killing-fields-sri-lanka-film-trailer).
February 2013
The magazine of the University of Zurich portrayed PGG's Timothy Raeymaekers and his research in DR Congo in their February issue. The full article can be read here.
January 2013
Timothy Raeymaekers published an article on the recent happenings in DR Congo, titled "Why History Repeats Itself in Eastern DR Congo (PDF, 65 Kb)". This article was originally written for the journal e-International Relations. It can be downloaded here (PDF, 65 Kb).
September 2012
Die Zeit published an article on the Good Jeans Guide by Mark Starmanns:
"Ob maßgeschneidert in Wien, recycelt in Schweden oder komplett gefertigt in Italien: Der "Good Jeans Guide" hilft, fair und umweltschonend produzierte Jeans zu finden."
Read the full article here.
June 2012
Rony Emmenegger, University of Zurich | field research | May-July 2012 “On the urban history and expansion: The case of the capital of the Ethiopian Somali region”, in Jigjiga town, Ethiopia.
Rony Emmenegger, University of Zurich: “The Roads of Decentralisation: The History of Rural Road Construction in Ethiopia”, NCCR North-South Dialogue, No. 39.
Bart Klem: “Evading the teleological trap: reconceptualising war-to-peace-transition”, presentation at GIGA workshop on mediation in Sri Lanka, 14-15 June, Hamburg.
Bart Klem (with Jonathan Goodhand and Gunnar Sorbo): “Evaluating peace mediation Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka (1997-2009)”, 31 May - 1 June, Copenhagen.
Mark Starmanns: Chancen und Grenzen freiwilliger Unternehmensverantwortung. Ökologisches Wirtschaften 2, 2012: 18-20.
May 2012
Bart Klem: “In the eye of the storm: Sri Lanka’s front-line civil servants in transition”, Development and Change, 43(3): 695-717.
March 2012
Seminar organised Bart Klem and Nel Vanderkerckhove: “Politics in the margins: the everyday state, violence and contested rule in South Asia”, preparatory seminar for the ECSAS conference (Lisbon), March 2012, Zurich.
February 2012
Johnson, Deborah (2012): "Sri Lanka – a divided Church in a divided polity: the brokerage of a struggling institution". Contemporary South Asia 20:1, 77-90.
Bart Klem (November 2011): “Small States Mediating Peace in the 2st Century ” presentation at Swisspeace, Berne.
Jonathan Goodhand and Bart Klem: “Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009”, at Chatham House, February 2012, London.
Bart Klem: “The political geography of post-war transition: The case of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka”, presentation at the Annual meeting of the AAG, February 2012, New York.
November 2011
"The World in Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka in the World” The Universities of Utrecht and Zurich are happy to announce a new Sri Lanka roundtable in Zurich on 23 and 24 November 2011.
Rony Emmenegger, Sibilo Keno and Tobias Hagmann | “Decentralization to the Household: Expansion and Limits of State Power in Rural Oromiya”, Vol. 5, No. 4, 733-754.
Mark Starmanns: Fachkongress "Nicht nur sauber, sondern rein?" Workshop "Sozialstandards: ILO-Verifizierung im Labeldschungel". November 2011. Bremen.
Mark Starmanns: Swiss Fair Trade Forum. _Standards, Multi-Stakeholder- und Business-Initiativen. November 2011. Berne.
Mark Starmanns: CIR Herbsttagung 2011. Ethischer Konsum im Supermarkt? Wege aus dem Labeldschungel. November 2011. Münster.
October 2011
Mark Starmanns: Workshop to present the Report on the feasibility Study regarding a Centre for Multi-Stakeholder Supply Chain Initiatives with Bread for all and Seco. October 2011. Berne.
Mark Starmanns: Challenges to CSR in global supply chains. Beyond Fashion Summit, October 2011. Berlin.
Pia Hollenbach: Symbolic Gestures: The Development Terrain of Post-Tsunami Villages in (Southern). Journal of Development Studies. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220388.2010.527950
Pia Hollenbach: http://www.uzh.ch/news/articles/2011/nach-der-welle.html on UZH News
September 2011
Mark Starmanns: "Differentiating ‘shared responsibility’ for improving working conditions in global supply chains", Royal Geographic Society Annual Conference.
Pia Hollenbach and Sarah Byrne: “The Production and Performance of Shifting Professional Identities: From Development Practitioner to Development Academic" panel and presentation at the Royal Geographic Society Annual Conference
June 2011
Sarah Byrne: “Negotiating Development: Nepalese Community Forest User Groupsʼ Resistance and Compromise During the Maoist Conflict” at Oxford Department of International Development Conference “Democracy, Governance and Development: Between the Institutional and the Political?”
May 2011
Mark Starmanns contributed background information to the art project "Mein Lieblingsteil":
www.ueber-lebenskunst.org/meinlieblingsteil
Guest lecture: Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia | “Fast policy: globalizing policy models in late‐neoliberal times”, at the Zurich Human Geography Colloquium
Pia Hollenbach: “Shifting Positions: In‐between development cooperation and academy” at the Political Geography Research Seminar.
Workshop with Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, LASDEL (Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local), coordinated by Timothy Raeymaekers | “Brokers: theoretical and empirical approaches”
Workshop with Andrea Nightingale, University of Edinburgh, coordinated by Sarah Byrne | ‘Research methods: situated knowledges and mixing methods”
Guest lecture: Andrea Nightingale, University of Edinburgh | “Landscapes of Democracy: the cultural politics of the post‐conflict state in Nepal”, at the Zurich Human Geography Colloquium.
April 2011
ANNUAL BASAS PRIZE AWARDED TO DEBORAH JOHNSON, University of Zurich
Since 2000, the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS) has awarded a prize for the most outstanding paper given by a student at its annual conference. The paper may be on any subject relevant to the conference.
This year's prize was awarded Ms. Deborah Johnson of the University of Zurich who presented the paper "A Divided Church in a Divided Polity; the Brokerage of a Struggling Institution in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka" which was part of a panel "Locating Sri Lankan Politics: Power, Space and Dissent." convened by Tariq Jazeel of the University of Sheffield.
April 2011
Guest lecture: Nick Megoran, University of Newcastle | “Peace and Conflict” at the Political Geography Research Seminar.
March 2011
Mark Starmanns guest lecture with Sonja Dänzer on "Fair Trade" at the University of Berne, Master Political and Economic Philosophie (PEP).
Sarah Byrne: “Beyond Tactics: Community Forest User Groups’ Strategic Negotiations During and After the Maoist Conflict in Nepal” at the Political Geography Research Seminar.
Guest lecture: Ola Söderström, University of Neuchatel | “Traveling injunctions: disciplining urban practices through mobile built”, at the Zurich Human Geography Colloquium.
Deborah Johnson: “Considering the Priest as Broker” at the Political Geography Research Seminar.
Mark Starmanns: SECO funded cooperation project with "Bread for all" started on "Swiss Competence Centre for Multi-Stakeholder Supply Chain Initiatives"
February 2011
Benedikt Korf: Resources, violence and the telluric geographies of small wars. Progress in Human Geography. first published on February 28, 2011.
Benedikt Korf: Moving Gifts, Maison d’Analyse des Processus Sociale, Université Neuchâtel.
Bart Klem: “The risks and illusions of mediation? Norway's experience in Sri Lanka 1991‐2009” at the Political Geography Research Seminar.
Jonathan Goodhand, Benedikt Korf and Jonathan Spencer (2011) Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka: Caught in the peace trap? (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series). London: Routledge.
December 2010
Guest lecture: Jaques Levy, EPFL | Space and Politics.
DEPOT peer group | The PhD students of Political and Human Geography have joined hands to create a peer group on DEvelopment, POlitics and Conflict.
November 2010
Michael Hermann: Einseitigkeit des Wutbürgers. Tagesanzeiger 30.11.2010
Rony Emmenegger presents his PhD research (Moving between Oromia and Somali: Preparation for the field)
Bart Klem: Bart gives a presentation on the situation in post-war Sri Lanka at the Katholische Hochschul- und Universitätsgemeinde (KHG) in Bern
Sarah Byrne: PhD research respentation (Perplexity, Complicity, Reflexivity: Reflections from the Field – Two Months Less a Day in Nepal) @ Political Geography Research Seminar
Research-seminar with Stuart Corbridge
Research seminar on "Anthropology of the state"
Mark Starmanns: The EvB publishes a ranking regarding the social responsinbility of 80 fashion companies and a guest comment by Mark
Benedikt Korf: Geographie des Denkens, Jenaer Geographisches Kolloquium.
Michael Hermann: Ausländer liefern auch Good News, In: Tagesanzeiger
Mark Starmanns: „Zukunftsfähiges Hamburg“ co-presented with the Wuppertal Institute for Environment, Climate and Energy in Hamburg. Chapter 4.1 on social and fair public procurement.
Mark Starmanns: PhD on „Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Garment Production Networks“ published.
October 2010
Mark Starmanns: Fair Fashion & Die Macht der Konsumierenden @ Paulus Akademie Zürich
>Benedikt Korf: Geographie des Zorns, Keynote-Vortrag, Tagung des Arbeitskreises Politische Geographie „Neue Geographien des Politischen!?“, Münster, 23.-24. Oktober.
Michael Hermann: Das Schreckbild eines Alpen-Monaco. In: Tages Anzeiger, 19. Oktober 2010.
Pia Hollenbach: Warum das Paradies verlassen? Sri Lanka und seine Vertriebenen @ Radolfzell Interkulturelles Zentrum
Michael Hermann & Heidi Stutz (2010): Immigration 2030. Szenarien für die Zürcher Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Zürcher Kantonalbank (Hg.)
Tobias Hagmann: Special issue: New avenues for pastoral development in sub-Saharan Africa (PDF, 120 Kb) with European Journal of Development Research
August 2010
Rony Emmenegger: Decentralization to the household in Oromia, Ethiopia: the case of the garee misoma in state-led rural road @ European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).
Bart Klem: Bart is part of a research consortium that won the tender to evaluate “Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka”. August 2010 | publication | Tobias Hagmann | Special issue: Negotiating statehood: dynamics of power and domination in Africa with Development and Change.
July 2010
Sarah Byrne: Local governance practice in Nepal – experiences in community forest user group governance and local development planning @ 21. European Conference on Modern South Asia Studies, Panel 20 “Contours of local governance in South Asia: Legitimacy and Empowerment”.
Tobias Hagmann: on the Ethiopian general elections (PDF, 101 Kb) at Chatham House, London.
Benedikt Korf: Geographie des Denkens, Leipziger Geographisches Kolloquium, 6. Juli.
June 2010
Tobias Hagmann teaches on the 2010 Horn of Africa course of the Rift Valley Institute in Lamu, Kenya (add URL to Rift Valley Institute, http://www.riftvalley.net/?view=about)
May 2010
Mark Starmanns: „Private regulation in global clothing production networks“ @ thekeyto Adacemy in Berlin.
Roundtable "Sri Lanka in Transition" | Jointly organised by Bart Klem and Benedikt Korf and the Unversity of Utrecht | Workshop, presentation and discussions on the present post-war transition on the South Asian island, at the University of Utrecht.
Sarah Byrne: A Conceptual Framework for Thinking About the Interplay of Naya Satta and Purano Satta with Livelihood Strategies in Nepal’s Mid-Western Hills During and After the Maoist Insurgency @ Phd Workshop on Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Study of Local Politics in Developing Countries, Roskilde University.
Mai 2010
Benedikt Korf: The geography of participation. Third World Quarterly 31 (5), 709–720.
March 2010
Benedikt Korf: Die imaginative Geographie von Klimakriegen, Geographisch-Ethnologische Gesellschaft Basel, 11. März.
Benedikt Korf & Tobias Hagmann et al.: The geography of warscape. Third World Quarterly 31 (3), 385-399.
February 2010
Workshop "bringing the border back in" at the University of Ghent | Benedikt Korf & Timothy Raeymaekers | Jointly organized by Political Geography, the Conflict research Group (Belgium) and School of Oriental and African Studies (UK).
January 2010
Korf, Hasbullah, Hollenbach, Klem: The gift of disaster: On the commodification of good intentions in Sri Lanka after the tsunami. Disasters 34(S1): S60−S77.