1st Edition
Questioning Planetary Illiberal Geographies Territory, Space and Power
This book engages with current debates on ‘planetary urbanization’ and the nature of urban political theory but notably considers the implications of illiberalism on space, territory, and power. Such a focus is timely, as illiberalism (across various settings and terrains) is producing, and embedded in, increasingly complex, hybrid, multi-scalar, non-linear, and globally networked flows.
Through ordinary explorations drawn from diverse empirical case studies (China, the United States, India, South Korea, and Singapore) and via mixed methodologies, the chapters in this volume seek to advance theory that moves beyond assumptions and certainties of what illiberalism is, how and where it operates, what it looks like, and how it is experienced and embodied in different contexts, offline and online. Chapters critically reflect upon themes like authoritarianism and the spatialization of illiberal power, from the grassroots up to national governments, and stress the need to move beyond normative understandings and portrayals of these terms and concepts. Presciently, this volume looks back on recent history, pre-dating the Covid-19 pandemic and some of the shocking political transformations now underway: as such, the chapters offer a valuable lens to critically consider issues like public health policies, surveillance and policing, borders and bordering, and activism and resistance.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance.
Preface
Planetary illiberal geographies, accelerated and viral
Jason Luger
Introduction: Questioning planetary illiberal geographies: territory, space and power
Jason Luger
1. State territorialization through shequ community centres: bureaucratic confusion in Xinjiang, China
Sarah Tynen
2. Neoliberal exception to liberal democracy? Entrepreneurial territorial governance in India
Ashima Sood and Loraine Kennedy
3. Countering illiberal geographies through local policy? The political effects of sanctuary cities
Janika Kuge
4. When the illiberal and the neoliberal meet around infectious diseases: an examination of the MERS response in South Korea
So Hyung Lim and Kristin Sziarto
5. Planetary illiberalism and the cybercity-state: in and beyond territory
Jason Luger
Afterword
Comparing and connecting territories of illiberal politics and neoliberal governance
Matthew Sparke
Biography
Jason Luger is Assistant Professor of Human Geography at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His research focuses on the production, experience, and contestation of urban space, especially the relationship between urban space and illiberalism. Jason’s research draws from comparative urbanism, ethnography, and theories from across urban, political, social, and cultural geographies.