THE NODES OF THE NETWORK

Argentina - Cordoba

In the last decade a new literature has stressed the role of spatiality for social relations, inaugurating an analytical dimension in social sciences and humanities called ‘the spatial turn’. To stress the role space has for our understanding of society and politics means, according to this new academic trend, that complexity and plurality are constitutive of our contemporary social and political world. The Global Network “The Space of Democracy and the Democracy of Space” ’s strategy of intellectual intervention is precisely to link the way we think our spatial practices with the way we understand the constitution of political subjectivity and the space of democracy today. In this sense the aim of the network is to rearticulate and expand the scope of analysis of the crisscrossing between space, democracy and subjectivity. This matrix triggers new questions and opens new perspectives on a wide range of issues. In the context of our institution and as part of a research program on ‘Contemporary Perspectives on the Political’ we have done specific research on the topic we called ‘Topologies of Space and the Emergence of the Political Subject’. One of the aims of this research program is to scrutinise and develop a set of theoretical categories to deal with the connection between space and political subjectivity. That is exactly the point our research converges with the global network purposes. It is our view that the subject is a subject as space. We affirm that spatiality is constitutive of subjectivity. The multidimensionality (Lacan spoke of ‘dit’-mentions) of the subject and its complexity is correlative with the idea that our identity is constructed and articulated in a certain way. We see this articulatory practice as a ‘knot’. Strictly speaking, the subject is neither transcendental (a regulative idea) nor empirical (an entity determined by positive aspects). It is an empty space in which a complex series of overdeterminations are carried on. This empty space can be viewed neither as an inclusive continent nor as territorial container. Instead, we propose to think the subject topologically as a ‘borromean knot’. Thus, on the one hand, we avoid the pitfalls of re-installing the dualism interior-exterior and, on the other hand, we introduce the ‘three threads’ (the ‘real’ (partial object), the ‘symbolic’(signifiers) and the ‘imaginary’(signifieds)) as constitutive of the subject as knot. To see the political subject as a borromean knot is to introduce contingency and difference as the very kernel of subjectivity because different modalities of the subject emerge according to different patterns of overdetermination of one thread over the others. The Cordoba Node Research Program also intends to carry on substantive research at the empirical level. There is a lively interdisciplinary community of scholars doing research on anthropology, semiotics, political history and sociology within the institute. There is a rich bunch of qualitative research done on modalities of visibility of the political subject that we would like to relate and rearticulate along the aims of the global network. The Universidad Nacional de Córdoba is the second largest in the country. Both the institute and the research program has secure resources and support to carry on the activities and research necessary to maintain the node as institutionally sustainable in the long term. Unidad Ejecutora Conicet - Centro de Estudios Avanzados, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (CEA-UNC). Research: ‘Topologies of Space and the Emergence of the Political Subject’. Node Directors: Dr. Alejandro Groppo, Lic. Emanuel Biset, Lic Roque Farran.

Argentina - Patagonia

In recent years, the spatial aspect of social phenomena has been of increasing concern within the social sciences and humanities. Theoretical and empirical studies of different kind have highlighted and reflected upon the importance of the spatial dimension for social and political analysis. The incorporation of this spatial concern has given place to the so-called "spatial turn" in thinking, which attempts to apprehend this change of attitude regarding space and, as a result, of the general outlook and understanding of our social and political world. "The Space of Democracy and the Democracy of Space" Network has as its main object of study this new mode of thinking about spatial practices and organizations and it attempts to address in particular how this thinking is 'disciplining the very way in which we understand political subjectivity and the space of democracy today'. In view of the importance of this topic, and of the new and challenging questions it triggers for contemporary political and social theory in terms of our understanding of politics, subjectivity and democracy, we aim to become part of this new thought provoking project through the formal inclusion to the Network of the "Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Políticos de la Patagonia", from the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, and colleagues from the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Some of the main objects of study within the "Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Políticos de la Patagonia" have been related to the emergence and constitution of political identities in particular territorial spaces. Patagonia has always been portrayed as an empty and immature space. Through history, this meant that this huge territory had to be military protected by the armed forces. The process of militarisation intensified after oil was found. We are currently studying the spatial circulation and connections of the oil industry technology and its social and subjective effects, the movements of people that this industry provoked, the links between oil industry and the armed forces, and the contamination of a series of social discourses by a geopolitical discourse that had long term authoritarian effects in the region. Colleagues based at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral have been working on topics related to territorialisation and education, paying particular attention to the way in which the configuration of space in a global world has an impact on the constitution of identities through educational processes. Both through theoretical and empirical research, the Patagonia node aims to contribute to the exploration of some of the questions and tensions raised by the spatial turn of thinking outlined by the network vision statements. Particularly, we attempt to contribute to the investigation of the question on territorial and post-territorial politics and educational processes. The Institute counts with an active and vibrant community of academics and young scholars working across the social sciences and humanities and is located at two well established universities. Node Directors: Dr Sebastián Barros (Director) and Dr Mercedes Barros (Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Políticos de la Patagonia, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco), Prof Andrés Pérez, Lic Sandra Roldán, Dr Silvia Grinberg (Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral).

Canada

The node at Queen's University is housed in the MA/PhD Program in Cultural Studies. The program is interdisciplinary, involving approximately 50 faculty members from across Arts and Sciences and Education. Its four main fields of concentration are:  Communication, Media and Technologies; Globalization, Nationalisms and Cultural Citizenship; Social Movements; Bodies and Identities. Our 50 faculty members will bring a wide range of expertise to the network, with a focus on several fields that are relevant to the Spaces of Democracy vision, such as cultural citizenship and social movements. Our particular strengths are: a. the ways in which radical activists constitute spaces of democratic participation that work outside of, and/or within and against, the dominant neoliberal order b. the contributions of artists in general, and activist artists in particular, to the construction of alternative spaces, and the reform of dominant spaces c. providing links to indigenous communities and nations of the Americas, which are involved in the creation and defense of social, cultural, economic and political spaces that have their own specificity and importance, in both the Canadian/North American contexts, as well as globally. Faculty members in our program are involved in a wide range of initiatives. The following provide a sample of the kinds of research and connections that are relevant to the Spaces of Democracy network: a. Dr Asha Varadharajan has presented talks at a range of institutions in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. These institutions include Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Oxford, Leeds, Edinburgh, Woollongong, Queensland, Western Australia, Toronto, Western Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier, Guelph, York, and Concordia. She has also maintained ties with more “public” forums like Alphabet City in Toronto, Suspect Culture in Glasgow, and the Seminars in Experimental Critical Theory at the University of California, Irvine, entitled “Cartographies of the Theological-Political” (2007) and “Present Tense-Empires, Race, Bio-Politics” (2005). b. Since 2000, Queen's University has offered a course entitled 'Development Ethics’ (DEVS 309*), in which students study at the University of Havana for credit while experiencing life in Cuba. The aim is to introduce students to some of the main events and highlights of Cuban society, history, politics and culture, with a focus on the period from the Cuban revolution (1959) to the present. This course is designed by, and, in 2008, will be taught by an interdisciplinary team of Cultural Studies-associated faculty: Cathie Krull (Sociology) Susan Lord (Film Studies) and Karen Dubinsky (History). c. Dr. Dia Da Costa has done research on the “theatre of the oppressed” as practiced in rural West Bengal, India, by a group called Jana Sanskriti to understand political practices in a state with a democratically elected and pro-poor, left front government since 1977. She has also done research on a group called Janam that has popularized Brechtian street theatre in the context of privatization of public and political space in urban Delhi. d. Dr. Richard JF Day has extensive contacts with anarchist/autonomist marxist scholars, activists and organizations in Greece, Turkey, Argentina, USA, and Italy. Some of these are situated within, or on the margins of the academy, such as Colectivo Situaciones in Argentina, and the Sarai Media Institute, in Delhi. Dr. Day is also the co-editor of the online journal Affinites: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, which is currently producing its second issue, on the theme of anarcha-indigenism. This issue will include contributions from settler and indigenous scholars based in Hawaii, Canada, and the continental US. Node Director: RJF Day, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Cyberspace - New Zealand virtual network

Departing from the institution-based configuration to which nodes appear to be conforming, this New Zealand expression of the network operates in cyberspace only, comprising a cross-university and trans-disciplinary constellation of researchers in the humanities and social sciences. As a consequence of its material form – that is, virtual – it exists in collaboration with an academic institution that operates a video-facility between New Zealand’s universities, the Building Research Capacity in the Social Sciences (BRCSS) consortium. The node was deliberately constructed in this manner so as to stage within itself dynamics which the Spaces of Democracy project seeks to investigate, namely the disciplining effect of emergent conceptions of space upon the meaning and practices of knowledge production and of politics. Moreover, the node exists in part to enable reflective participation by New Zealand academics in what appears to be an emerging location for ideas-work and empirical study within the university context, that being the Anglo-American centred international research network. Providing the node with a sense of empirical purpose is a problematic that is intended to have a sufficiently precise focus so as to signal clarity of intent but with a sufficiently rich intellectual canvas to attract a range of scholarly interest. In its broader address the problematic enables engagement with a range of matters that affect the Pacific region and in its initial and more directed form the problematic centres on the issue of climate change. Elements of the problematic, as configured around the issue of climate change, include the following: the effects of climate change upon the inter-cultural relations, migration patterns, relations of governance, and economic modalities of the Pacific region; the conceptual capital through which academic, governance, and industry-related inquiry into that matter proceeds domestically, the politics which attend those acts of definition, and the analytical strategies preferred within this problematic for public inquiry into the causes and effects of climate change (illustrating such lines of inquiry are the following: the effects upon institutional responses to climate change of discourses that reify sets of historically contingent aspirations associated with economic growth, sustainable development, and so on; the participation and/or representation of varying publics within the construction of knowledge on climate change; possible moral and legal culpabilities of both the newly industrialised and established industrialised societies for climate change and possible mechanisms for the making of such judgements about any such culpability; the conceptions of sovereignty that will be required to make progress on any of these problems and the modes of international democracy and justice that might be brought to bear); the relation between the idea of inter-institutional research and the material (cyber) conditions of its operation (specifically, here, the BRCSS organisation), and the emergent possibilities for ‘research community’ which such a relation creates; the relations between the node’s work programme and thematic development within the Spaces of Democracy and Democracy of Space network; the relation between internationally-networked research and university-located knowledge work in the Asia-Pacific region, the shifting significance of national boundaries and the transfer of knowledge across time and space, and the place of the university within this. Node Directors: Warwick Te, Michael Goldsmith, Nick Lewis, David Thorns.

France: University of Nice

Neither state nor market? On the possibilities of something beyond government This research project is based on a question that can be likened to a thought experiment, but it also aims to give it prospects that are not merely speculative and normative. It is wondering if, at the stage of development of contemporary societies, possibilities of organizing and functioning can (still) exist for the collective outside the state and the market? Or, more precisely, how could these possibilities (still) be conceived, conceptualized and articulated in terms of achievement? This research project therefore proposes a rational exploration and logical analysis of theoretical and practical proposals which claim to deal with collective affairs outside of state and market regulations. A strong idea that guides this work is to start doing some form of sorting or classification among a multitude of initiatives that claim to move towards an alternative horizon (Local Exchange Trading Systems, eco-villages, community sharing, etc.). With this ambition of formalization, this reconsideration aims at going beyond collections of stories, on a more or less long term, and at beginning to systematize the already visible directions of action. This study will be close to an ideal-typical approach, such as Max Weber had begun to outline its principles. Several disciplinary angles will be combined for that, mainly from applied political philosophy, history and sociology. The research journey will be marked by a series of steps of thinking, aiming at going back to activities of government to understand how to think beyond, at specifying how to open a space for alternative thinking, at thinking the initial conditions to discern their potential of evolution, at establishing how to identify an ideal-type of intellectual explorations and available practices, and finally at exploring collective ways of coordinating and organizing without market or hierarchical relationships while being attentive to issues of complexity of contemporary social arrangements. Yannick Rumpala is « Maître de conférences » in political science at the University of Nice, where he teaches public policy. He has written in French a book and articles on different aspects of environmental policies and sustainable development. In line with his exploration of the political potentialities of network thinking (see “Knowledge and praxis of networks as a political project”, 21st Century Society (Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences), Volume 4, Issue 3, November 2009), he is working on the ways to rebuild alternative solutions outside market and state regulation.

Greece - Byzantine and Christian Museum and SARCHA (School of ARCHitecture for All).

Both in terms of historical and geographical location Athens constitutes a spatial crossroads at the frontier of the European Union and “at the heart” of South Eastern Europe and the Balkans. At the same time its culture incarnates and continuously renegotiates a constitutive split between tradition and modernization, past and future, inside and outside. These issues and their globalized context are currently debated by a critical mass of researchers in a variety of fields within the Greek academy (in Schools of Architecture and Planning, Politics Departments, etc.) able to facilitate a wider dialogue attracting interest from the whole region. Furthermore, the leading participants of the Athens node include international experts on these issues that have published extensively on these areas of interest and have substantial experience in organizing similar events in the Greek context. The Athens Byzantine and Christian Museum is a long-standing and established institution both in Greece and abroad. Its activities are not restricted within its subject matter, but include a wide range of subjects and events based on international exchanges and collaborations such as exhibitions, seminars, workshops, lectures, European and transnational exchange programmes, research, etc. SARCHA (f.2006) not-for-profit aims to educate and activate the public regarding architecture’s impact on the formation of the ever-changing, life-shaping environment. It promotes research, actions and projects that examine architecture’s relation and connection with the diverse and political aspects of individual and collective activities. SARCHA is officially representing Greece at the European Forum for Architectural Policies and has – and continues to develop – its international connections with institutions, like-minded individuals, groups and initiatives such as the Programme in Hellenic Studies (Princeton), AA (London), An Architecture (Berlin), A-TOPIA (NY), etc. This node is committed to host a number of events through the network in the coming years. SARCHA will undertake the co-ordination and overall organisation. Node Directors: Yannis Stavrakakis, Maria Theodorou.

Mexico

The Programa de Analisis politico de discurso e investigacion (Programme of Discourse political analysis and research) is in the Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas, in the Centro de Investigacion y Estudios Avanzados. The Programa is an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional forum founded by Dr. Rosa Buenfil.  The Programa is well known for innovative theoretical approach in the social sciences research, especially in the educational field. It works on a triple basis of a monthly seminar, an annual academic encounter and a publication. In the last decade it has invited speakers such as Ernesto Laclau, Thomas Popkewitz, Torben Dyrberg, and Latinamerican scholars such as Luis Aguilar Valenzuela, Adriana Puiggros, Benjamin Arditi, Sandra Carli, Raymundo Mier, Leonor Arfuch, on a diverse range of research topics. It has also coordinated theoretical exchanges between different departments and centres of the most important universities of Mexico, Argentina and Chile. Mexico is a country culturally rich and heterogeneous not only in terms of its multiple indigenous traditions but also because it is geographically situated between the United States of America and the economically impoverished countries of the rest of the American continent. This amounts to an interesting contact between intellectual, epistemic and academic traditions and institutional practices, which, no doubt are also permeated by global contemporary trends. In this context our Programa has constructed bridges between different theoretical orientations, especially different geographically situated traditions. Research and academic meetings involve developments in Anglo-American, Continental and the so-called Post Colonial, and Latinamerican theories. Concerning the former we are interested in the pragmatist tradition that goes from Wittgenstein to Rorty; as for the second experts on Lacan, Derrida, Foucault and Heidegger have been invited to the Programa; and as regards Post Colonialism. W.D. Mignolo, Bhabha, and Spivak have been discussed, and the Latinamerican thought of Garcia Canclini, Eliseo Veron, and Maturana. In spite of the increasing presence of interdisciplinary research, disciplinary approaches still produce intellectual friction. The Programa has organised conferences with the specific purpose to bridge those distances too. The Programa has academic links with the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciencesat the University of Essex, and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; in Argentina with the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, in Mexico, with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Pedagogica Nacional, the Universidad Iberoamericana amongst the most important ones. In this regard, the Programa recently coordinated and gathered the institutions, departments and programs that financially supported and academically hosted the Second International Encuentro Giros Teoricos: Dialogos y Debates, in February 2008, in Mexico; and co–chaired the first encounter in November 2006, in Argentina. The Programa has been committed to research integrating abstract theoretical and philosophical discussion in political analysis concerning diverse topics that range from education, to social movements, the use of technology and the media. It is our interest that in addition to theoretical discussion, a space be opened for the discussion of how theories are used (in the Wittgenstenian sense) in research on processes in recent history. Node Director: Dr. Rosa Buenfil.

New Zealand - Wellington

The institutional node for the Space of Democracy Network at Victoria University of Wellington is located in the Philosophy Ethics and Social Theory (PEST) Research Group in the School of Accounting and Commercial Law.  This is an interdisciplinary forum, including members from within the Faculty of Commerce and Administration and across the wider University.  The research group was established, inter alia, by Professor Judy Brown a member of the Advisory Group for the Australasian Summer School in Discourse Analysis held at Victoria University of Wellington (which leading members of the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Essex University have been closely involved with).  The current Convenor of the Research Group is David Carter. The PEST Research Group is committed to host and support the events outlined in the Spaces of Democracy proposal, and to propose other activities that help to develop the network.  The Group can offer facilities (space and equipment), administrative assistance and access to a community of active researchers. It will host Spaces of Democracy and Democracy of Space workshops and collaborate with the network on other related events. The PEST Research Group has a strong interest in research aimed at democratizing accounting and business law, and its interrelationship with "business culture", with a body of emerging research in international academic journals and related post-graduate work.  We seek to politicize aspects of accounting, business law, economics and management which have traditionally been treated as "beyond politics".  In part, this work is inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary. We consider the "business aspect" an important but, to date, underdeveloped aspect of the Spaces of Democracy project, and believe we could contribute something quite distinctive to the wider network. Equally, in both accounting and business law, there is considerable scope to continue to "politicise" what has traditionally been regarded as non-political. We have established some initial links with the Centre for Theoretical Studies at Essex University and are keen to develop these further.  While at an embryonic stage, we believe there is considerable potential for synergies between our work and that of the wider project. The PEST Research Group has established linkages with the Centre for Social and Environment Accounting Research at St Andrews University in the United Kingdom and with leading international researchers such as Professer Peter Söderbaum from Mälardalen University, Sweden and Professor Jesse Dillard from Portland State University in the United States who are heavily involved in calls for more democratic approaches to economics and accounting, and Professor Trevor Hopper at University of Manchester who was a pioneer in politicising accounting particularly in relation to management accounting. In relation to business law and regulation, we have established links with the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics and the Centre for Socio-legal Studies at Oxford University. Node Directors: Judy Brown and David Carter.

South Africa - Stellenbosch

The two members of the Stellenbosch University node are Prof Amanda Gouws (Department of Political Science) and Prof Steven Robins (Department of Social Anthropology and Sociology). Amanda Gouws and Steven Robins have been doing research on citizenship for a long period of time. Their research implicitly deals with spatial dimensions of democracy through their focus on the limits of law reform and how the rights debates may lead to a form of elite politics that can only be accessed in institutional spaces.  Their research makes them suitable candidates to join the “Democracy of Space and the Space of Democracy Network”. Gouws’ research focus has recently shifted to the South African women’s movement and how it has been transformed since 1994, through sectoral constitution but also through global connections.  In new research she wants to look at how democracy translates into meaningful citizenship for women in the rural areas that are excluded from institutional politics.  In the present debate about the power of traditional leaders over their constituencies – a large number who are women - a binary between rights and custom/tradition is created.  This binary is not conducive to understanding how women who live under customary law negotiate their rights and access resources. Her research will investigate women’s understanding of democracy under customary law. Steven Robins has done research on the relationship between rights discourses and popular, community-based forms of political mobilization. Whereas as critics of liberalism  have highlighted the individualizing and depoliticizing consequences of litigation and ‘rights talk’, the three ethnographic case studies that he investigated - which focused on land, housing and AIDS activism respectively - suggested a very different storyline. In all three cases legal activism was accompanied by sustained grassroots political mobilization. Far from producing the kinds of ‘post-political’ scenarios envisaged these cases highlighted the complex relationship between rights-based approaches and forms of collective action. His  new project is concerned tracing how litigation, including land claims court cases and Constitution Court cases, ‘travel’ from courtrooms, judgments and policy documents to a variety of other social spaces. The project will focus on how South African lawyers from organizations such as the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP) understand the relationship between what happens to formal legal processes when they move into everyday social spaces, e.g., community-based political struggles for land, housing and AIDS treatment. He is interested in how legal processes and their effects are diffused (or not) within the broader society. How do community activists and organizations and ordinary citizens interpret and respond to court cases and judgments that impact upon their lives? How are court rulings and ‘rights’ understood, embraced, appropriated, re-interpreted or rejected by political actors in different social spaces? Node Directors: Amanda Gouws and Steven Robins.

South Asia

The South Asia Node of the Spaces for Democracy Network initiated by Dr. Jonathan Pugh, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, U.K is located in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.  TISS is a well known interdisciplinary Social Science institute in India having an expanded interactive link with several universities and institutes in the country and abroad. The Node is utilising these linkages for its growth. The TISS will also provide its infrastructural facilities and personnel support to the Node for organising programmes and events from time to time. The inaugural workshop of the Network on ‘Urban Neoliberalism: Restructuring South Asian Cities’ took place in late November, 2008 in TISS. The South Asia Node will collaborate with IPSA (Institute for Studies in Place, Society and Alternatives), a newly found institute of research, documentation, dissemination and networking in New Mumbai, for organising selective events and programmes. Depending on the nature of programmes, the Node will also collaborate with academic institutions like the University of Mumbai, Western Regional Centre of the Indian Council of Social Science Research in Mumbai and social organisations like YUVA (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action), Mumbai, TASAM (Teachers and Scientists against mal-development), Kolkata, Equations (Organisation for equitable tourism), Bangalore, for the present.  In course of time the Node will forge alliance with other well meaning organisations in India that will contribute towards fulfilling the objectives of the Node and expand its ideas in the field of spatial turn of events. The South Asia Node is organising its activities in India at the initial phase, to incorporate Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2009 and Sri Lanka and Nepal in 2010. As an initial step it is going to organise the inaugural workshop of the Network on Urban Neoliberalism with delegates from various states of India and from Bangladesh and Pakistan. With the help of the already existing academic interaction of the Node Director with these countries and its further strengthening through the workshop, the Node expects to develop functional / academic collaboration on a regular basis with universities and institutes from Bangladesh and Pakistan. The same will be the case with Sri Lanka and Nepal in near future. The South Asia Node of the Spaces for Democracy Network will, at its initial phase, concentrate on organising academic and public activities like  interdisciplinary workshops, seminars, public lectures and debates, on issues and aspects pertaining to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and gradually establish a cross regional and cross country network first within South Asia and subsequently with other countries through the  widely located Network Nodes of different countries. Swapna Banerjee-Guha, Professor, School of Social Sciences, TISS is the Honorary Director of the South Asia Node of the Spaces for Democracy Network.

Switzerland

Switzerland is an appealing place to locate a node of the Spaces for Democracy Network. Switzerland has a long history of democracy with a very special way of practicing people’s power, e.g. through referenda, decentralized decision-making power and consensus politics. Further, Switzerland is a polity that unites three distinct language communities (German, French, Italian). In the social sciences, these three language communities are also reflected in the particular academic networks that scholars working in different universities in Switzerland develop. Thereby, Swiss academia can be seen as a linking node that brings together different academic traditions, namely France and Germany, and to some extent Italy, and links them with global scholarly debates. The Swiss Node finds its home in two institutions: the Department of Geography at the University of Zurich and the ETH Wohnforum - Centre for Research on Architecture, Society & the Built Environment (ETH CASE) at the ETH Zurich. Zurich as a location provides an exciting platform of different scholarly communities with strong international networks. The research network of excellence NCCR Democracy, hosted at the Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, studies the challenges and opportunities of Swiss democracy in the 21st century. The Political Geography Group at the Department of Geography will act as platform to connect the Network with the multi-lingual world of Swiss human geography and social sciences more broadly (German, French, Italian) with outreach to the respective broader academic language communities in Germany, Austria, France and Italy. Currently, connections are forged with political geographers in French speaking Swiss universities (Fribourg, Geneva). The Group is also linked with the German Association of Geographers’ working group on “Decision-making and participation (AK Entscheidungsfindung der DGfG, see above), providing a good outreach to younger scholars in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A second major interest of the group is in academic networking with universities in the Global South, in particular with Ethiopia (Addis Abeba University, Haramaya University) and Sri Lanka (University of Peradeniya) as well as with partners in the UK (SOAS, Edinburgh) and Germany (HU Berlin, University of Jena). In the initial phase, our core interest is in “post-colonializing” the spatial turn, its implicit tendency towards producing a kind of Eurocentrism (or Western centrism) in, first, the topics that it considers important for spaces of democracy and, second, the spatialities of responsibility that it suggests. What does “the political” mean in different places requires a careful consideration not only of the experiences, practices and performances of democracy and “state” in the West. We are interested in the everyday spaces of democracy in societies of South Asia and Africa, spaces of democracy, which are saturated with “geographies of violence”, tacit and open practices of structural and physical violence that shapes everyday life. Furthermore, in the fields of architecture and planning, there is an increasing use of concepts such as Civic Engagement, Cooperative Planning, Public Participation, Public-Private-Partnerships, or Democratic Design. We are interested in rethinking the ‘res publica’ with regard to territorial development and urban design. In 2009, a joint workshop is taking place with the University of Liverpool (Dr. D. Featherstone) and ETH Zurich on “Space, contestation and the Political” to be held in February 2009 in Zurich. Node Director: Benedikt Korf and Joris Van Wezemael. Joris Van Wezemael's contact details are: Department of Geosciences University of Fribourg 4, chemin du Musée CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland Tel. ++41 26 300 92 55 Fax ++41 26 300 97 46 e-mail: joris.vanwezemael@unifr.ch

United Kingdom - Aberystwyth University

This research node is based on work being conducted as part of a four year European Research Council funded project, ‘Political Economies of Democratisation’ (funded under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme,  grant no 202596). It contributes to the Spaces network by critically examining and rethinking the contemporary democracy promotion agenda in world politics, something which plays a central role in helping to define and structure democracy’s nature and possibilities today. This project starts from the premise that two important underlying conceptual problems have not been adequately taken into account in democracy promotion and analysis thereof. First, the implications for democracy promotion that derive from the essentially contested nature of the idea of democracy have not been fully explored. Second, there has not been adequate recognition of the deeply contextual nature of the models of democracy promoted in the world system; the fact that conceptions of democracy are not universal but emerge in specific circumstances, reflecting particular social, economic and political orders and discourses. The research being conducted thus seeks to pluralise and contextualise conceptions of democracy associated with democracy promotion. As its title suggests, the project engages with these general aims specifically in relation to (politico)economic discourses. It investigates the ways in which models of democracy are conditioned by economic discourses and the range of ‘politico-economic models of democracy’ available for democracy promotion in current world politics. The project research revolves around three sets of issues. Theoretically, (1) the project aims to elucidate the extent to which and the ways in which conceptions of democracy are shaped by different (politico)economic discourses and theories. Empirically, (2) the project asks: which ‘politico-economic models of democracy’ are currently promoted in world politics and with what effect? In terms of policy-design (3) the project seeks to uncover how democracy promotion can be enriched by an awareness and consideration of different politico-economic models of democracy. The aim of the project is to seek an interface between conceptual/theoretical exploration of the idea of democracy and concrete practices and policies of democracy promotion. By opening up debate on conceptions of democracy the project seeks to re-invigorate academic, practitioner and public debate on the nature and aims of democracy promotion. The project involves a number of events seeking to bring together scholars and policymakers from different regions, organisations and perspectives. Many of these will be engaging with themes directly related to the concerns motivating the Spaces network. The project is based in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. Node directors: Milja Kurki and Christopher Hobson For more information click here.

United Kingdom - Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster

The thematic perspectives of the Spaces of Democracy and the Democracy of Space network go to the heart of CSD's work. Geographically, we enjoy a central London location with proximity to other London universities, national and international media organisations, policy think tanks and Westminster Palace. Chantal Mouffe, from CSD, continues to play a central role in the development of the network. This is whilst several otherstaff at CSD are engaged in the critical analysis of recent trends and developments in democratic governance, both at theoretical level and in relation to several recent socio-political phenomena, such as notions international citizenship, new spatial politics and related policy issues (e.g. sutainable development). The acting Head of the Department of International Relations and Politics, David Chandler, also continues to work closely with Jonathan Pugh. Node Director: Chantal Mouffe.

United Kingdom - Essex University

The institutional node for the Space of Democracy Network at the University of Essex is located in the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Centre is an interdisciplinary forum, which was founded more than twenty years ago by Professor Ernesto Laclau and other leading social, political and philosophical theorists. The subsequent directors of the Centre were Professors Simon Critchley and Sheldon Leader. The current directors are Dr David Howarth and Dr Aletta Norval. The Centre for Theoretical Studies is committed to host and support the events, and to propose complimentary activities that can help to develop the network in innovative ways. The Centre offers infrastructural and human capital to the programme, offering its facilities (space, equipment and technical support), administrative and organizational expertise (an administrator, plus two co-directors of the Centre), as well as a community of active social scientists and theorists, who have been at the forefront of new theoretical developments for over twenty years. It has already funded one Space of Democracy and Democracy of Space early career workshop in 2008. The Centre for Theoretical Studies has established an international reputation for innovative theoretical research in the social sciences and humanities. It has convened a weekly seminar programme of invited speakers on a diverse range of research topics; hosted an annual distinguished lecture (whose past speakers include Jacques Derrida, Agnes Heller, Nancy Fraser, Richard Rorty, William Connolly, Bhikhu Parekh, Onora O’Neil, Richard Bernstein, Michael Walzer); and helps organize an annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory (with keynote speakers including Wendy Brown, Michael Hardt, Bonnie Honig, James Tully, David Owen, Fred Dallmayr, Joan Copjec, Étienne Balibar, Alain Badiou). It also coordinates a range of theoretical exchanges between different departments and centres within the University of Essex itself. Of particular importance here has been the development of a critical discourse analysis seminar; explorations in the intersection between science, ethics and nature; and the role of rhetoric, politics and subjectivity. The current theme for the Centre’s yearly activities is “Theorizing Representation: Identities, Space and Faith.” Since its foundation, the Centre has endeavoured to construct bridges between different theoretical orientations, especially different geographically situated traditions, seeing itself as a mediator between developments in Anglo-American and so-called Continental theory and philosophy. But while explicitly adopting a European outlook, it has consistently sought to connect with other geographical and cultural contexts. This is reflected in the ethnic and national character of its Directors - an Argentinean, an Englishmen, an American, and two South Africans - and its strong connections to the cosmopolitan Ideology and Discourse Analysis programme at the University of Essex, with its strong links to Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. The European and cosmopolitan focus of the Centre has resulted in a number of international linkages. The Centre has strong institutional ties with the Danish Centre for Discourse Theory and the Centre for Democratic Network Governance at Roskilde University in Denmark. Via its strong roots in the Ideology and Discourse Analysis Programme at the University of Essex, the Centre also hosts the IDA World Network, along with specific connections to a series of universities in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil in Latin America. Of particular importance with respect to the latter is a linkage with the Argentinean Centre for Ideology and Discourse Analysis, which has been established in the Centro de Estudios de Identidades Sociales y Politicas at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin. The Centre also has links to universities and centres in Basel, Lucerne, Roskilde, and Vienna, and a host of UK universities (including Birmingham, Exeter, Goldsmiths, Queen Mary’s and Cambridge). Via its previous directors, especially Professors Laclau and Critchley, the Centre has important links with the New School for Social Research, Northwestern University, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. The Centre also has important links with the Critical Management Studies and the Interpretive Policy Analysis groups. In this regard, the Centre will host the Third Annual Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis in June 2008, and hosted a meeting of the Critical Management Studies group in May 2007. Leading members of the Centre have been strongly associated with the Australasian Summer School in Discourse Analysis, which convenes seminars and workshops in Wellington, New Zealand on discourse analysis on an annual basis. Node Directors: Aletta Norval and David Howarth.

United Kingdom - University of London, Royal Holloway

The Centre for Global and Transnational Politics recently established in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), draws together members of the Department, including PhD students, post-doctoral fellows and early-career scholars, and has developed linkages with other RHUL centres, departments, and schools, with interests relevant to the network. The Centre is devoted to pursuit of a multi-disciplinary exploration of global and transnational processes and is concerned, in particular, to focus on the theoretical cutting-edge of research and writing on multi-level/macro-social change. The central concern of the Centre is with how to understand the substance of, and connections between and among, political processes that operate at all levels or scales: the local, national, international, trans-national, and global; theorise and conceptualise these processes; and understand how normative recommendations about what sort of world we should aspire to achieve are affected by them. Centre members are professionally active researchers from both sides of the Atlantic who have published widely on a range of issues central to the core concerns of 'The Space of Democracy and the Democracy of Space' network, including work on macro-political economy, the historical sociology of global relations, global development, cosmopolitanism, globalization, borders, theories of contemporary social and political transformation; how identity, difference, space and time link to issues in ‘radical democracy’; and imigration politics, 'open borders',  and global distributive justice. The Centre has five principal aims: (1) to further our understanding of the nature and direction of current trends of change by promoting greater theoretical innovation and inter-disciplinarity in International Relations and Global Politics; (2) to further our understanding of connections between and among political processes that operate across levels or scales of analysis, to contribute to the theorisation and conceptualisation of these connections and further our understanding of how normative recommendations about what sort of world we should aspire to achieve are affected by them; (3) to provide a forum for scholars who create connections as an intrinsic result of the kinds of research they do; (4) to establish a forum for open and critical debate; (5) to build a network of scholars from around the world whose work transects the boundaries conventionally drawn between and within disciplines The Centre Co-Directors are actively engaged with scholars in Europe, N. America, and Australasia. Sandra Halperin is active in the International Studies Association (ISA) and has been nominated by its Nominating Committee to be ISA Vice-President beginning in 2009 (election pending). She was a fellow of the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University in 2003-2004, and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005-2006. The NORFACE-funded project of Centre Co-Director, Chris Rumford – a seminar series on the subject of ‘Globalization and the transformation of Europe’s borders,  brings together researchers from Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Portugal, and Norway. Chris is also working closely with Stjepan Mestrovic, of Texas A&M University in the US on a project studying the radicalisation of the US and British armed forces in Iraq. Both directors have been invited to give papers or talks at universities in the US, Canada, and various European countries. Nathan Widder has links to a number of the scholars associated with ‘radical democracy’ debates in the US (e.g., William Connolly most prominently, but a lot of others, as well). These links are providing the basis for developing the Centre’s connections with institutions in other countries and regions. Node Director: Sandra Halperin.

United States of America - California

California State Long Beach is uniquely positioned to be a scholarly and community node for the Network. We have established global professional relationships with research centers across the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, India, Russia, New Zealand, and Australia. In southern California we have ties to dynamic geography programs at the University of California, Los Angeles; University of Southern California; San Diego State; California State University, Fullerton; and California State University, Northridge. Extending just a bit further, we are easily accessible (1.5-2.5 hour flights) from the University of Arizona; Arizona State University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Oregon; and University of Washington. Indeed, the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG) region is home to a large number of critical geographers, all of whom can potentially contribute to the network. Even closer to home, critical geographers at CSULB work in Sociology, Asian and Asian-American Studies, and Chicano and Latino Studies, as well as in Geography. And, we have strong community connections through our ongoing research relationships with our University's Center for Behavioral Research and Services and the Center for the Study of Metropolitan Issues. Additionally, a member of the Long Beach City Council has expressed interest in our work as a node, facilitating our community connections in the City. In August 2008, CSULB hosted a successful series of workshop events jointly funded by CSULB College of Liberal Arts and the ESRC. In the longer term, we anticipate active participation in the scholarly and community activities of the Network, including hosting future local events; advancing scholarship on radical & spatial politics; and contributing to strong university-community links in the Long Beach area. Node Directors: Deborah Thien and Vincent del Casino.

United States of America – Rutgers University, New Jersey

The Rutgers University node is a collaboration between the Vice President’s Office of International Programs, the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and faculty in related departments. Faculty and graduate students in these programs have a long and continuing record of research and outreach on citizenship, civic participation, participatory planning, and democratic practice stretching from local New Jersey municipalities to emerging regions of Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. While encompassing considerable diversity in substantive focus and geographic location, these initiatives share a common concern with clarifying opportunities for and barriers to the establishment of inclusive participatory mechanisms for policy and political decision making. At issue are enduring questions involving the structural, institutional, and political limitations on democratic practice; transcending and engaging ethnic, gender, and other dimensions of difference within the democratic ideal; encompassing variously situated knowledges within political discourse; designing and implementing institutional practices conducive to political participation; identifying and addressing the epistemological and methodological challenges of engaged, participatory (i.e., democratic) inquiry; and related themes. Of particular concern throughout these initiatives is that the conduct of research should itself embody the democratic ideal that is the object of the inquiry. Faculty in the School of Planning and Public Policy and the Vice President’s Office of International Programs have extensive ties to researchers throughout the university and to nearby institutions throughout the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania metropolitan area, and Rutgers serves as a major east coast node in the region stretching from New England to Washington, DC. Numerous Rutgers faculty pursue research interests that coincide with the Space of Democracy/Democracy of Space agenda, for example Joanna Regulska’s work on gender and local democracy; Robert Lake’s research on civic engagement and participatory planning; Kathe Newman’s research and outreach on community involvement in local housing markets and foreclosure prevention; James DeFilippis’s analyses of immigration and unregulated work; Gabriella Carolini’s research on international development planning; and Frank Fischer’s extensive writing on citizenship and environmental policy. These faculty also work closely with colleagues in geography, history, political science, human ecology, women’s and gender studies, and related disciplines. Joanna Regulska Professor of Women's Studies and Geography Dean of International Programs School of Arts and Sciences Rutgers University 77 Hamilton Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA tel 1-732-932-2699 ext 159 fax 1-732-932-1226 regulska@rci.rutgers.edu Robert W. Lake Professor and Graduate Director Director of the Doctoral Program Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy Rutgers University 33 Livingston Avenue, Suite 400 New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA tel 1-732-932-3133 ext 521 fax 1-732-932-2363 rlake@rutgers.edu

United States of America - Washington

The Geography Department at the University of Washington is highly interdisciplinary and humanities oriented, and many of the faculty have half-time appointments or adjunct status in other departments and units on campus, such as the Jackson School of International Studies, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement. The Geography Department is committed to hosting an academic symposium on the theme of Democracy, Citizenship and Poverty in 2009-2010, and to proposing complementary activities related to the network and to departmental strengths. The Geography Department is well known for its research and teaching in the areas of transnational migration, education and youth, critical development, global health, urban studies, and the political economy of globalization. The Department is also committed to public engagement, and has built up an extensive set of contacts in the greater Seattle area. The Geography Department at the University of Washington is located in the Pacific Northwest, and is a key West Coast node in a set of strong geography departments stretching from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver down to U.C. Berkeley and U.C.L.A. in California. There are long-standing ties between these departments as a result of shared research interests and personal connections, and faculty often work together on various research and teaching programs. The intellectual interests of most geography faculty are in strong alliance with stated Network goals. To give a few examples: Vicky Lawson, Kim England, and Michael Brown’s research on the geography of care extends and deepens understandings of feminist theories of relationality and democratic recognition by adding a spatial component to this body of thought. Sarah Elwood and Craig Jeffrey’s work on democracy and ethnography explores the conditions under which researchers can identify and further democratization processes utilizing the tools of participatory research. Katharyne Mitchell’s work on public scholarship highlights the importance of breaching town-gown divides and creating the spaces in which democratic engagement beyond the academy can occur. And Matt Sparke’s research on borders and on global health highlights the ways that the neoliberalization of citizenship has gone hand in hand with the reterritorialization and reconceptualization of the spaces of citizenship. Node Director: Katheryne Mitchell.