From national to post-national territorial identities in Israel-Palestine

Territory remains a central component of national identity in the contemporary political discourse between Israelis and Palestinians, both populations opposing power sharing within the same space, for fear of the other's domination. The contemporary political discourse relates to conflict management and the desire for separate spaces within which national identities are strengthened through territorial/national homogeneity. The Zionist national ideology of most Jewish citizens of Israel has strong territorial roots; hence they reject the post-Zionist post-nationalist ideology, regardless of whether they accept the possibility of change in Israel's territorial configuration or of a diminishment in the importance of the territorial dimension of national struggle. The rights of residency and citizenship even of second and third generation Jewish citizens remain linked with the territorial configurations of a State that will continue to be called Israel and have a national anthem expressing the aspirations of a single, exclusive, national group. But within territorial readjustment, issues of configuration may become less relevant and in it is this sense that post-Zionism focuses on a discourse of territorial pragmatism, rather than the disappearance of territory from the nationality-citizenship debate altogether. It is part of a process of re-territorialization and spatial reconfiguration of political and national identities, not a reversal of territorialization, if only because there is no such thing as a post-territorial notion of the organization of political power. The boundaries of national identity become more permeable, more inclusive, but they do not disappear altogether.     

Territories and identities in Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a city of many contrasts. It is a historical-symbolic city, revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews. However, its citizens segregate ethno-nationally, culturally and socially, into different identity groups: Jews and Arabs, Haredi (`ultra-Orthodox') and secular Jews, and lower and upper class socio-economic groups. This essay focuses on how political and social struggles over territories reshape the nature of the identities of four distinct groups in Jerusalem. These are ethno-national groups (Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs), cultural groups (ultra-Orthodox Jews, in Hebrew Haredim (zealots), and non-Orthodox Jews), ethno-social groups (disadvantaged groups mainly of oriental descent, in Hebrew Mizrahim and advantaged groups) and economic and ecological groups (the business sector and inhabitants of private residential areas of the city). Thus, long-term historical processes have produced distinct ethno-national, cultural and social identity groups, which occupy specific territories within Jerusalem. The different groups have endowed their territory with dissimilar geopolitical, cultural, and economic meanings and played a major role in the reconstruction of national, cultural, social and ecological identities in the city. The city of Jerusalem is not only a spiritual centre associated with age-long dreams for peace and justice, it is also a violent city, rife with tensions and conflicts, a symbol of national, cultural, economic and ecological struggles. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing all those concerned about its future is whether Jerusalem's universal image of a spiritual, tolerant and just city can overcome its current, particularistic and conflict ridden image.     

From thick to thin regional identities?

Regions and regional identity have become more important over the last decades. At the same time regions have become less discernable as distinct historically rooted spatial entities. Globalisation and the decline of collective identities through individualisation transform both this regional reality and how regions are conceptualised. This article analyses the shifts in types of regional identities used by regional administrations in an increasingly competitive environment. It uses the contrast between ‘thick’ traditional and historical rooted well-established regional identities, and ‘thin’ regional identities which are more transitory and focus more on economic competitiveness. These concepts are used to analyse the regional identity of regional administrations in Northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Hybrid regional identities combining a locally specific mix of thick and thin elements of regional identity, and which link up with regional identities at other relevant scales, appear to be the most effective regional identities for regional administrations facing the challenges of both globalisation and the decline in collective identities.     

Comprehensive systematics of tantalum and tantalo-niobium deposits

A comprehensive systematics of tantalum and tantalo-niobium deposits has been elaborated in form of a table, where three granitoid and one syenitoid igneous series crucial for forecasting of rare-metal-bearing territories are displayed in four columns, and mineralized volcanic and plutonic rocks, pegmatites, and placers critical to ore processing technology are shown in rows. The known and inferred geological and economic types of deposits and their mineralogical subtypes are placed in cells at intersections of rows and columns. The proposed systematics, which combines many attributes, contains a new quality and makes it possible to forecast economic mineralization, including new types that correspond to so far empty cells of the table. Ordinary geological maps and maps of mineral resources are used for this purpose.     

Transforming identity discourses to promote local interests during municipal amalgamations

This paper discusses the different ways in which local identities are used in two Dutch municipalities. Like all local administrations these Dutch municipalities have to deal with external forces by plotting their own course between closing-off and opening-up. Local identities are used not only for resisting external threats like municipal amalgamations, but also to attract external resources. It proved useful to distinguish between primary identity discourses based on the widely recognised dominant characteristics of the local community, and secondary identity discourses based on how communities within a municipality have over time learned to deal with these different primary local identities. During an amalgamation this secondary identity discourse disappears with the old municipality. The disappearance of the protective shield of a secondary identity discourse can threaten the underlying primary local identities, and can bring local identities into the centre of the local political debate. A perceived external threat frequently changes the character of these local identities. They can become more inward oriented, focus more on their historical roots and their differences with others; they ‘thicken’ into resistance identity discourses. In other cases the secondary identity discourse of a municipality is too weak and indistinct to support the primary local identities of its communities. Municipal amalgamation can then help to promote a new more attractive secondary, ‘thin’ regional identity discourse based on a selection of characteristics used in established primary local identity discourses.     

The new politics of pastoralism: Identity,justice and global activism

Concerns with the politics and practices of resource rights and access are integral to contemporary debates over environmental justice. Struggles over identity politics, especially the strategic articulation and deployment of particular identities at diverse geographical scales, have recently emerged as important mediators of justice claims in respect of resources rights, but also of recognition and procedural justice. To date, critical, multi-scalar analyses of identity-based claims for environmental justice have focused largely on the indigenous peoples’ movement. In doing so, they have failed to embrace an emergent dimension of identity-based, trans-scalar justice, namely the fledgling global pastoralists’ movement, the empirical focus for this paper. In the early years of the 21st century mobile pastoralists have begun to carve out new global spaces, through which diverse groups have attempted to negotiate common ground and forge common identities in their struggles for justice. In particular, mobile pastoralists have become increasingly visible in conservation politics and contests over land rights as they lay claim to both discursive and material ground as ‘custodians of the commons’ in an era of global climatic change. This paper draws on empirical work amongst pastoralists, NGOs and activists from Kenya, Mongolia and Spain to explore these identities, their implications for resource rights and access and the multi-scalar chains of accountability and legitimacy between global activists and their local constituents.     

Deterritorialisation,reterritorialisation, nations and states: Irish nationalist discourses on nation and territory before and after the Good Friday Agreement

The Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement (GFA) signed in 1998 has been presented by many, including those in Irish nationalist circles, as a sign of a post-national de-territorialisation of Irish national identity, made possible or even necessary by globalisation. Studying the discourses of the main Irish constitutional nationalist parties in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, prior to and after the GFA, this article argues that this process is best understood instead as a dialectical unfolding of deterritorialising and reterritorialising trends. The first section analyses the concepts and theories of the de/reterritorialisation debate and proposes a theoretical framework through which the de/reterritorialisation of national identities might be understood. The second section sets the groundwork for the terms in which such a framework might be applied to the territorial claims advanced by the main Irish nationalist constitutional parties. Finally, the third section examines the complex history of competing claims over the importance of territory in both cultural and political Irish nationalist movements, Specific attention is given to debates over the GFA. It is concluded that Irish nationalism has long been divided on the status of its territorial ambitions. As such recent literature on de/reterritorialism can both inform and be informed by work on Irish nation and state building.     

Neo-assimilationist citizenship and belonging policies in Britain: Meanings for transnational migrants in northern England

The overall aim of this paper is to contribute to debates on the relationships between citizenship and migration in the UK context in the light of recent changes in UK immigration policy. In particular, it focuses on the question of what an increasingly neo-assimilationist state articulation of national belonging means for transnational migrants living in Britain. The paper begins by charting the evolving nature of citizenship conceptualisations in Western neoliberal contexts and illustrates how Britain has responded to this shifting landscape. The context is one of enhanced ‘migration securitization’ wherein the state implies that the integrity of the nation state and its security can only be assured if migration flows and migrants themselves are closely controlled and monitored. This has led to Britain attempting to bolster the formal institution of citizenship (with its attendant rights and responsibilities) and tie it more explicitly to notions of belonging to the nation. Through research with national/regional policy officials and migrant organisations this paper firstly examines the political landscape of citizenship and belonging in Britain as it relates to migrants. Secondly, it draws on research with African transnational migrants in northern England to explore their senses of belonging and ask whether these cohere with the described state discourse or whether their feelings of belonging exist in tension with neo-assimilationist policies designed to promote a core national identity.     

Resistance to the deinstitutionalization of a region: Borders,identity and activism in a municipality merger

Regions are contested processes in which various layers of borders become articulated, deconstructed and reconstructed by both activists and advocates. While many scholars currently tend to highlight the relational character of spaces, this study – acknowledging that seeing regions as relational or territorial is a highly contextual matter – emphasizes the territorial approach by stressing the multiple layers of borders and how they help to constitute and nurture regional identity. Focusing on deinstitutionalization of a region, it is argued here that regional restructuring can trigger activism, as proved by the activist movement at issue in the case study. This case study of a merger between two municipalities in Finland illustrates that when threatened with integration, (old) regions seem to be of especial importance as bordered territories of identification.     

From overt rejection to enthusiastic embracement: changing state discourses on Israeli emigration

This paper deploys a critical discourse analysis methodology to examine the emergence of three (sometimes overlapping) discourses on emigration in Israel. It examines the linkages between the various discursive phases and processes of (trans-) national identity formation among emigrants. It argues that emigration discourses have often been strong predictors of subsequent changes in state policies—and other programmatic initiatives—aimed at Israeli citizens abroad. By juxtaposing the discursive construction of emigration (and its linkages to nation-forming political strategies in Israel) and the effects they have had on emigrant identities the paper contributes to the emerging literature on state-diaspora relations and transnational politics.     

Transformation in territorial concepts: from nation building to concessions

The transition to globalization, socio-cultural fragmentation and an era of peace all constrain Zionism to a restructuring in its territorial perspectives. In the nation-building era, Zionism made the territory the focus of Zionist activity, which necessitated seizing territory, controlling it, and creating an affinity and attachment and a bond of identity between the nation and the territory. Pure colonization as a central strategy for realizing these national goals originated mainly from the unique historical circumstances of Zionism and from the adoption of an ethno-national ideology. This also led to the Palestinian-Jewish conflict that concentrated on the control of territory. The national economy regime that influenced Israel in different ways also served the territorial ideology to a great degree. Peace borders will require Israel to cooperate closely with Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon in managing resources, external influences and additional common interests. The peace economy will integrate with the multi-national economy. Furthermore, in the reality of peace, Israel will have to abandon the internal colonization of areas populated by Israeli Arab citizens and give greater legitimation to their more prominent inclusion the Israeli identity. It will also become difficult for any elite group to dictate the national agenda to other marginal groups, such as Israeli Arabs, and Sephardic or Orthodox Jews, each group creates for itself considerable degree of autonomy in its own territory. In the main, the national periphery divides into an Israeli Arab periphery beside the periphery of the traditionally religious Sephardic Jews. The ultra-Orthodox Jews take control of increasingly larger Israeli space and expanding the horizons of their public involvement beyond their traditional ghettos. Each group creates for itself a different symbolic space with differing views concerning the limits of Israeli sovereignty.     

Producing/contesting whiteness: rebellion, anti-slavery and enslavement in Barbados, 1816

The increasing attention paid by geographers to white identities represents a welcome corrective to research on race and ethnicity that focused on non-white subjectivities and promises to deconstruct the purportedly `normal' or `unremarkable' status often afforded to whiteness. Such work is a vital part of a critical geographical agenda. This paper seeks to contribute to such an agenda by responding to Bonnett [Area 29 (1997) 193, White Identities: Historical and International Perspectives, Prentice Hall, 2000] call for a historical geographical engagement with `white studies'. To do so, it begins by considering how such a critical geography might be spatially and theoretically framed. It then introduces a specific context for such an engagement--the revolt of 1816 by enslaved people of African origin in the British Caribbean colony of Barbados. Reading this not as a single event but as a locus of multiple and conflicting narrations, each linked to particular assertions and contestations of whiteness, the paper argues that geographies of white identities must emphasise struggles between `white' subjects, as well as the role of subaltern acts and representations in white racialisation. This is important if postcolonial, and therefore critical, geographies of white identities are to be produced.     

National identity in South Africa: the search for harmony

The history of South Africa shows that different approaches have been employed to develop South African national identities. These approaches, however, could not produce a single national identity. When the Government of National Unity (GNU) came to power after the first democratic national elections in April 1994, a new chapter was opened for the country to search for a new South Africanism. This paper attempts to give an overview of the nationalisms which dominated the politics of the Union and the Republic of South Africa. The overview is intended to provide the reader with the background for understanding the efforts by the GNU to build a new post-apartheid national identity. The central focus of the paper is the changing bases on which a South African nationhood was/is built.     

‘Our city is our identity!’: a field study on Kurdish local government experiences in Diyarbakır

In this paper, I analysed the neoliberal and socio-spatial transformations occurring in Diyarbak?r, the largest Kurdish city of Turkey. Rather than discussing the involvement of various national and international actors in those transformation processes, I tried to focus on the attitudes of the local social and political dynamics that create strong discursive counter-arguments against these processes. The study aims to demonstrate that dissident libertarian and egalitarian local groups can also become the supporters of and the actors in the neoliberal space strategies. In this regard, I examined the transformation of space in Diyarbak?r considering the tense and opposed relationship between neoliberal strategies and the local political formations mobilized by the demands for collective identity. Data acquired from the field study on the local governance experience in Diyarbak?r demonstrate that populist calls based on cultural existence became the focal point of local government. The slogan of “Our city is our identity!” functions as a meta-narrative that articulates the different class identities into neoliberal urban reality and becomes a discursive centre which normalizes the exclusive occupations over space.

     

Palestinians and pragmatic citizenship: Negotiating relationships between citizenship and national identity in diaspora

This paper puts forward the notion of pragmatic citizenship and forms part of the ongoing re-appraisals of citizenship in relation to national identity in an attempt to make it more relevant and inclusive for those with complex identities, legal status and, in particular, the stateless. Using the case study of Palestinians in Athens to discuss relationships between citizenship, identity and statehood, this paper argues that the notion of pragmatic citizenship can be useful in such re-conceptualisations as it can take into account the potentially ambivalent and multiple feelings of belonging that migrants and those in diaspora may have. In the process it stresses that strong notions of belonging and attachment to a territorialised homeland do not have to be exclusive or problematic. The paper outlines the complexity of Palestinian legal status in Athens and the feelings of injustice statelessness can provoke; it then describes the process of Palestinian acquisition of pragmatic citizenship in Greece. However, the final section of the paper highlights that such a notion of citizenship can have positive repercussions in terms of inclusive visions of a future one-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.     

Trans-scalar embeddedness and governance deficits in global production networks: Crisis in South African fruit

The governance of labour in global production networks (GPNs) has become a critical area of concern amongst academics and policymakers alike. To date, GPN research has focused on the role of private company codes and multi-stakeholder ethical initiatives primarily driven by lead-firms. Other GPN studies highlight the critical role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in challenging lead-firm purchasing practices and shaping regulatory outcomes at local production sites. However, GPN research has not sufficiently incorporated the role of nation states in regulating work through legislative frameworks and enforcement regimes, often referred to in the literature as ‘state’ or ‘public’ governance. This is despite a ‘regulatory renaissance’ taking place across certain developing countries, seeking to strengthen their national regulatory labour institutions (Piore and Schrank, 2008:1).The GPN framework provides an analytical lens through which to conceptualise cross-cutting strands of trans-scalar governance regimes, involving complex networks of state, private and civil society actors operating at multiple scales. Notions of territorial and societal embeddedness are used to elucidate how global ethical standards derived from particular country contexts become enmeshed in national regulatory frameworks and local societal relations, shaping governance outcomes for precarious workers incorporated into GPNs. The paper draws attention to the ‘trans-scalar embeddedness’ of labour governance regimes which interact across geographical scales and, in the case of South African fruit, reflect a ‘trans-scalar governance deficit’ for precarious workers. It is argued that the influence of national regulatory regimes should be more fully incorporated into analytical frameworks for understanding governance outcomes in GPNs.     

弹塑性应力-应变曲线的斜率恒等式及其验证和应用

斜率是描述本构关系曲线特征的重要参数。弹塑性应力-应变关系曲线中涉及到应力-应变曲线的切线、卸载曲线以及塑性-弹性应变曲线的3个重要斜率,这些斜率在塑性和损伤本构理论以及弹塑性变形相互关系的研究中均有重要应用。从理论上找到了这3个斜率之间关系的微分型和差分型两类恒等式,并用煤岩较高应力下的加卸载应力-应变数据对其进行了验证。结果表明,这两类恒等式均是完全成立的。最后给出了斜率恒等式在弹塑性变形相互关系研究中的一个应用,即证明了李铀提出的弹性-塑性应变曲线在 - 空间的平移关系等价于塑性应变相等点的斜率比值应相等。     

The national atlases of Finland

The first edition of Atlas of Finland was published in 1899, and since then four more editions have appeared, the fifth started in 1977. The two first editions (the second appeared in 1910) were published in order to define the identity of the nation during a time of Russian political opression and a nationalistic awakening. During the same period, in 1901 J. Gebhard published a social-statistical atlas of Finland, likewise a work of scholarly pioneering. The third edition of Atlas of Finland appeared in 1925, here the geographical analysis was much enhanced thanks to the editorial work of J.G. Granö. At this time Finland was still predominately an agrarian state, however, when the forth edition of the Finnish national atlas was published in 1960, the wind of change had set in. Prof. Leo Aario was the leader of this edition, where the deep changes after WW II were documentated,3also the beginning of the rapi d industrialization of the country.The fifth edition is published in separate thematic folios of some 25 pages each. The first folio on Forestry was published in 1977, and so far 4 folios have appeared of a total of 25. In each folio the graphic material and the text are integrated. There will be some 1 500 statistical maps, most of them on the scale of 1:8 mill., about 10 maps on the scale of 1:1 mill. will be included. The editorial work is organized in connection with the National Board of Survey of Finland, which has also the responsibility for the printing and marketing of the atlas. The fifth edition should be finished in 1986. At the same time the work on the next edition should be on its way.     

Music and moral geographies: Constructions of “nation” and identity in Singapore

In this paper, I attempt to pull together sociological and geographical perspectives in the study of music to understand the ways in which pop and rock music are socio-cultural products with political and moral meanings and implications. I examine state engineering of moral panics, focusing on a case study of pop and rock music in post-independence Singapore. Such engineering is aimed at political and ideological ends, in particular, “nation”-building outcomes. In engineering moral panics through both discursive and legislative acts, the contours of a moral geography are delineated at various spatial scales. First, at the scale of the national and global, moral geographies are inscribed by the state, with the demarcation of national boundaries as the boundaries within which morality resides and beyond which belong negative decadent forces. Second, at the scale of the local and everyday, moral geographies are constructed in terms of certain nightspots, which are thought to be morally damaging, and to be contained. Third, at the spatial scale of the individual self, the body becomes the site of moral judgement. Through the policing of all these scales, moral geographies contribute to the construction of desired “Singaporean” identities. Inasmuch as geographies are inscribed with moralities, so too music. The “new” “western” sounds of particular historical times, and more especially, the performative aspects of music embodying the sensual and the violent, are imputed with moral meaning.     

Sophistication at a country pace: community sustainability and amenity-based development

There is a lot at stake in the control of landscapes; not only rights and access to resources, but also the symbolic construction of community identities. Having one’s identity represented in the landscape is critical to understanding one’s position within that community—either as an insider or outsider. This paper examines Great Barrington, Massachusetts as a case study of the links between discourses of landscape and community and their relations to processes of social exclusion during amenity-based development. Building upon conceptions of community as a process of creating boundaries between insiders and outsiders, this paper argues that the sustainability of a town cannot be assessed merely from inside a particular community identity but must situate that town within complex multi-scalar processes to determine if it is merely externalizing its unsustainable aspects, people and practices. I extend this argument by examining the ways to concept of multifunctionality has been used both in Great Barrington and in international discourses to promote sustainability through processes of exclusion. The research for this paper was done in collaboration with the Alliance for a Healthier Great Barrington.