WP #1/2015 Ben Kamis/ Jannik Pfister/ Philip Wallmeier: The Constitution of Rule in Political Spaces beyond the Nation-State
Recent contributions to theorizing rule beyond the nation-state, mostly focusing on institutionalization through concepts like ‘order’ or ‘regime’, pay little attention to spatialization even though space played such an important role in conceptualizing rule within the nation-state. In this working paper, the authors propose a perspective that shows the concrete benefits of studying rule by looking at space. They argue that existing contributions to theorizing political space beyond the nation-state only cover some of its aspects, focusing on loyalties and identities. The concept of third space can be translated from political geography to account for the constitution of embodied practices in space as an important aspect of rule. The authors show how many aspects of political space defy cartographical mapping, and how similarly many forms of rule defy an easy institution-based description. Only focusing on the constitution of space through practices makes rule visible in its spatialization.
