Development Identities: Identity, ‘development’ practices, and the (re)creation of power structures

Introduction In this essay I consider the discursive categories of ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ states within the frame of International Political Economy (IPE) taking a poststructuralist theoretical approach. I argue that the discursive construction of developed/underdeveloped identities attempts to depoliticise structural imbalances and inequalities in the global economy and present these identities as pre-existent and natural. […]

Exclusion, Identity and the (re)production of Enmity

Introduction In this essay I wish to reflect upon the concept of the ‘liberal peace’ in (post-)conflict environments, from a purely theoretical perspective, arguing that the liberal peace reinforces social antagonisms by attempting to extend the sovereign project of exclusionary politics, resulting in reified group identities of enmity. The liberal peace, as a form of […]

Urban Surveillance as Bordering: Counter-terrorism and the exclusion of difference in the city

Introduction Since the attacks in the United States on September 11th 2001 there has been a commensurate increase in the use of surveillance practices, applied under the aegis of counter-terrorism. While traditional forms of surveillance such as direct observation have not disappeared, the continued rise of electronic surveillance of public spaces is arguably unique. In […]

Finding the Human in Humanitarianism

Introduction In the following essay I wish to critique the concept of contemporary humanitarianism and suggest that it is predicated on the very basis that it claims to oppose. In the first section I consider the politics of identity that is present in humanitarianism, considering the processes of alterity which construct a ‘self’ and ‘other’ […]

Social Constructions of Arctic Ocean-Space

Introduction In this essay I intend to assess the competing political conceptualisations of the Arctic which exist in the world community today and consider what the implications of these are. There has been intense interest in the region in recent years in the fields of international relations and political geography, with scholars focusing on issues […]