Political Geography
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- Thinking about borders
Political geography is the study of the co-production of space and power. Our research unit is particularly interested in this dynamics at the margins of a globalizing world. We study the spatial production of political order, uneven development and governance through specific discursive practices and places in Africa, South East Asia and Europe.
The political geography unit offers courses, supervises theses at both Bachelor and Master levels, and organizes field trips. For an overview over the lectures, seminars and tutorials offered, please consult Department of Geography / Studying and the electronic university calendar.
News
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Muriel Côte at the “Political Ecology” doctoral course in Lausanne
On 14-16 May the Institut de Géographie et Durabilité at the University of Lausanne organises a 3-day doctoral seminar on “Political ecology of forest”. Muriel Côte will be guest lecturer on the course, and will give a lecture entitled “Tropical forest from the edge: finding and governing forest in Burkina Faso”. The course is sponsored by the IGS and CUSO.
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New paper: “Fuelwood Territorialities” in Geographica Helvetica
Muriel Côte and Denis Gautier published a paper entitled “Fuelwood territorialities: Chantier d’Aménagement Forestier and the reproduction of “political forests” in Burkina Faso”. The paper analyses the endurance of the national sustainable fuelwood production policy despite its shortcomings.
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Rory Rowan on “Enclosing the cosmos” at the ZHdK
Rory Rowan will give a public lecture at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) on Monday May 14, 18:00, entitled ‘Enclosing the Cosmos: Neoliberalism, Extraction & Colonization in the Age of 'NewSpace’.
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Christoph Vogel at the Congo Research Network conference at Oxford University
On 26 and 27 April, Christoph Vogel participated in the bi-annual Congo Research Network conference at St. Anthony’s College where he convened a two-session panel on "rebel governmentalities" with Judith Verweijen from Ghent University, and presented a paper on the "ethics and positionalities of doing research in the eastern Congo”.
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Daniel Wolfe on Post-Olympic Sochi at the AAG
Daniel Wolfe organized a three-panels session entitled “Flattened Scale Beyond the Second World” at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting (New Orleans, 10-15 April). Within this session he presented a paper entitled “Post-Olympic Sochi: legacies of uneven development in an aspiring consumption paradise”.
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Muriel Côte on goldmining frontier at the AAG
Muriel Côte presented a paper entitled “At the double edge of the state: formalisation producing “hyperprecarity” on the goldmining frontier in Burkina Faso” as part of a session entitled “Frontiers in the Contemporary Moment” at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting (New Orleans, 10-15 April).
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Benedikt Korf at D-ARCH “Territory: Urbanism Beyond Neoliberalism”
Benedikt Korf will give an input on Michael Dear’s talk in the “Sessions on Territory: Urbanism Beyond Neoliberalism” organised by the ETH Zurich D-ARCH on Mai 14, 2018.
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New paper: Ontology and integrative global change science
Rony Emmenegger and Rory Rowan et al. have published an article on “Ontology and Integrative Global Change Science”. The article provides some leading questions that integrative research initiatives can use to guide self-reflexive research practices.
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Reading session on the “ontological turns”
Members of the political geography unit met on April 17th to discuss and debate the strengths and weaknesses of the various “ontological turns” across a variety of disciplines.
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Rory Rowan will give an e-flux lecture
Rory Rowan will be giving a lecture entitled “Beyond Colonial Futurism: Portugal’s Atlantic Spaceport and the Neoliberalization of Outer Space”.