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- Convenor:
-
Sarah Tynen
(University of Colorado-Boulder)
Send message to Convenor
- Theme:
- GEO
- Location:
- Alcoa Room
- Start time:
- 26 October, 2018 at
Time zone: America/New_York
- Session slots:
- 1
Long Abstract:
In her new book, The Geopolitics of Spectacle: Space, Synecdoche, and the New Capitals of Asia (Cornell University Press 2018), Natalie Koch considers how autocratic rulers use "spectacular" projects to shape state-society relations. Koch uses Astana in Kazakhstan to exemplify her argument, comparing that spectacular city with others from resource-rich, nondemocratic nations in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia. The Geopolitics of Spectacle draws new political-geographic lessons and shows that these spectacles can be understood only from multiple viewpoints, sites, and temporalities. So rather than the standard approach to spectacle-focusing on the project itself-she considers the unspectacular "others." The contrasting views of those from the poorest regions toward these new national capitals help her develop a geographic approach to spectacle. Koch explicitly theorizes spectacle geographically and in so doing extends the analysis of governmentality into new empirical and theoretical terrain. With cases ranging from Azerbaijan to Qatar and Myanmar, combined with an analysis of views of Kazakhstan's new capital from the poverty-stricken Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan, Koch's book engages interdisciplinary scholarship in human geography, anthropology, sociology, urban studies, political science, international affairs, while pushing Central Asian studies into new "inter-Asian" comparative terrain.
The critics for this forum include scholars with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including geography, political science, sociology, and architecture and urban development, and with extensive experience conducting research in Central Asia and the Caucasus:
Chair
Edward Schatz
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Chair, University of Toronto at Mississauga
Critics
Alexander C. Diener
Associate Professor
Department of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Kansas
Eric McGlinchey
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
George Mason University
Diana Kudaibergenova
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Sociology of Law
Lund University
Suzy Harris-Brandts
PhD Candidate, City Design + Development /International Development Group
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper long abstract:
N/A
Paper long abstract:
N/A
Paper long abstract:
The Geopolitics of Spectacle highlights a range of issues that intersect and intermingle within contemporary urban settings. It also represents, through their dynamic and contested nature, how cities are not simply lived in but also lived through. Cities operate as a nexus, in all economic, political, and social senses, for the collection and contestation of capital, for the construction and contestation of national and other identities, and for the juxtaposition of inclusion and exclusion. This book insightfully explores how urban design, architecture, and development become entangled with broader issues of identity, power, and prestige. It also emphasizes that cities are constantly evolving through ongoing processes of construction, destruction, and renewal shaped by complex politics of identity and place. Through deep case studies, the Geopolitics of Spectacle highlights how new construction can serve as an agent for identity restriction and contestation. Security controls, limitation of access, consumption of contested land, and the use of symbolically laden construction materials and styles convey meaning, at times as pointed as removing a statue or changing a street name.
Paper long abstract:
NA
Paper long abstract:
During this author-critic panel I will raise questions and comment on the recent book by Natalie Koch.