State / Space - by Neil Brenner & Bob Jessop & Martin Jones & Gordon MacLeod (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This groundbreaking, interdisciplinary volume brings together diverse analyses of state space in historical and contemporary capitalism.

• The first volume to present an accessible yet challenging overview of the changing geographies of state power under capitalism.
  
• A unique, interdisciplinary collection of contributions by major theorists and analysts of state spatial restructuring in the current era.
  
• Investigates some of the new political spaces that are emerging under contemporary conditions of 'globalization'.
  
• Explores state restructuring on multiple spatial scales, and from a range of theoretical, methodological and empirical perspectives.
  
• Covers a range of topical issues in contemporary geographical political economy.
  
• Contains case study material on Western Europe, North America and East Asia, as well as parts of Africa and South America.

From the Back Cover

During the last three decades, inherited geographies of state power have been significantly unsettled. The primacy of forms of government organized along traditional, Westphalian lines has been undermined by the unprecedented rise of supranational and subnational levels of state power and by the proliferation of new forms of governance. This groundbreaking, interdisciplinary volume brings together diverse analyses of these ongoing transformations of state space. The contributions explore state restructuring on multiple spatial scales, and from a wide range of theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives. They provide innovative analyses of key theoretical and topical issues, including:

• The nature of state space under modern capitalism


• The historical geographies of the Westphalian interstate system


• The transformation of state territoriality under conditions of 'globalization'


• The changing roles of national states in socioeconomic regulation


• The governance of cross-border regions, global cities, and offshore financial centers


• The consolidation of new supranational regulatory arrangements


• The geographical rearticulating of struggles over citizenship and democracy

Analyses are supported by case study material covering Western Europe, North America, and East Asia, as well as parts of Africa and South America. The volume will be welcomed by students seeking an overview of this new field of inquiry, and by scholars concerned to decode contemporary patterns of state restructuring.

Review Quotes

"This useful and interesting reader addresses an emergent research agenda on the production and transformation of state space" Johanna Kantola, Univeristy of Bristol

About the Author

Neil Brenner is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies at New York University.

Bob Jessop is Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University.

Martin Jones is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.Gordon MacLeod is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Durham.