State spatiality in an era of global and regional interdependence: The linkage governance approach

Abstract

Since the 1990s, political science has been criticised for its inability to adequately theorise the role and nature of the state in an era of global interdependence. In particular, the discipline is said to have fallen into a 'territorial trap'. It is founded on a territorial conception of space that both reifies and limits debate about the state to whether it is 'obsolete' or 'obstinate' in a world where power is increasingly located in transnational functional space between countries. This article responds to this argument, providing a conception of state spatiality that stresses its contingent and variable nature. It claims that state actors can author functional transnational space by fusing together domestic and international objects into distinct 'linkage governance' (LG) strategies, although such behaviour will have unintended consequences and not always be successful. It is hoped this LG perspective will open up a more fruitful set of research questions concerning the role of the state in the fluid and dynamic world of the twenty-first century.

Distant Interactions, Power, and Environmental Justice in Protected Area Governance: A Telecoupling Perspective

“…Expanding scales of EJ analysis implies redefining the subjects of justice, i.e., those who are considered legitimate in making justice claims in relation with specific social and environmental issues [54]. Globalization, with the prevalence of transborder economic and social relations, challenges the "Westphalian" framing, which has implicitly seen members of a nation or citizens of a modern territorial State as the only relevant subjects of justice [55]. Westphalian framings make invisible injustices that transgress borders, and this invisibility represents in itself an injustice [54].…”

“…Westphalian framings make invisible injustices that transgress borders, and this invisibility represents in itself an injustice [54]. Furthermore and more generally, globalization has also led to question the relevance of territory as the principal space of exercise of political power [55,56]. Replacing national polities with a global polity is nevertheless also problematic, because it gives prevalent power to "the global" over "the local" [57] and is too unspecific to enable actions that address existing relationships between people across distances [54].…”

Estados, espacios y hegemonía en la reestructuración global capitalista. Contribuciones para una perspectiva estructural, histórica y dinámica

“…Otra contribución significativa es la de Jim Buller (2018), quien sostiene que la arraigada presencia de la trampa territorial en las investigaciones de ciencia política y relaciones internacionales arroja una visión limitada del poder estatal. Frente a las transformaciones externas y los desafíos globales, estas exploraciones construyen una representación del Estado como obsoleto u obstinado (Hoffmann, 1966).…”

“…Frente a las transformaciones externas y los desafíos globales, estas exploraciones construyen una representación del Estado como obsoleto u obstinado (Hoffmann, 1966). Por el contrario, Buller (2018) argumenta que los Estados poseen una significativa presencia en el espacio transnacional si este es observado funcionalmente. Desde esta óptica, los actores estatales conservan capacidades para moldear e incluso comandar el espacio mediante diversas fusiones de objetos "internos" e "internacionales", a las cuales denomina casos de gobernanza conjunta (linkage governance).…”