Space, Boundaries, and the Problem of Order

A View from Systems Theory

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2283293
AutoresJan Helmig (0000-0001-6219-8233, Bielefeld University), Oliver Kessler (0000-0002-2159-9804, Bielefeld University)
Ano2007
Volume1
Fascículo3
Páginas240-256
Data de publicação2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
EditoraOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-5687.2007.00016.x
OpenAlexW2051371049
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas60

The idea our global polity is chiefly divided by territorially organized nation-states captures contemporary constellations of power and authority only insufficiently. Through a decoupling of power and the state, political spaces no longer match geographical spaces. Instead of simply acknowledging a challenge to the state, there is the need to rethink the changing meaning of space for political processes. The paper identifies three aspects, a reconceptualization of the spatial assumptions that IR needs to address: the production of space, the constitutive role of boundaries, and the problem of order. With this contribution, we argue that one avenue in understanding the production of space and the following questions of order is by converging systems theory and critical geopolitics. While the latter has already developed a conceptual apparatus to analyze the production of space, the former comes with an encompassing theoretical background, which takes “world society” as the starting point of analysis. In this respect, nation states are understood as a form of internal differentiation of a wider system, namely world society

Epistemology · Library science · Media studies · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Computer Science · Globalization and political ideologies · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Philosophy · World Systems and Global Transformations