Space, scale, and global politics: Towards a critical approach to space in International Relations
Watch Daniel Lambach discuss his new article from BISA journal Review of International Studies (RIS). This handy eight-minute summary will allow you to digest all the key points.
The article argues for a fuller engagement of IR scholars with sociospatial concepts, and proposes a spatial approach to global politics based on four essential dimensions: a spatial ontology, the constructedness of space, a scalar perspective, and the interaction of materiality and ideas. Daniel uses the example of Arctic Security research to illustrate the upsides of such a spatial approach for IR research.
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Full abstract
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S026021052100036X
Space matters for global politics but the treatment thereof in International Relations (IR) has been uneven. There is broad interest in spatial aspects across many research communities but only a nascent theoretical discussion and little cross-field communication. This article argues for a fuller engagement of IR scholars with sociospatial concepts and proposes a spatial approach to global politics based on four essential dimensions: a spatial ontology, the constructedness of space, a scalar perspective, and the interaction of materiality and ideas. As one possible way of integrating these aspects into a more specific concept, the article elaborates a framework of spatial practices and uses the example of Arctic Security research to illustrate the upsides of such a spatial approach for IR research.
Photo by Nastya Dulhiier on Unsplash
