Cartographica – new editor required

Posted on June 29, 2010 by stuartelden

Cartographica requires a new editor – Jeremy Crampton is coming to the end of his term.

CALL FOR EDITOR
Cartographica
The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
 
Applications are invited for the editorship of Cartographica.
The University of Toronto Press – Journals Division is requesting proposals from individuals seeking consideration to become the next editor or co-editor of Cartographica.
 
Cartographica is dedicated to publishing articles on all aspects of cartographic and geovisualization research while maintaining its tradition of publishing material on cartographic thought, the history of cartography, and cartography and society. Cartographica also plans to consolidate its trend towards publishing research contributions that focus primarily on geographic information.
 
Each volume of Cartographica is composed of four issues: two or three regular issues and one or two single-topic monographs. These special monograph issues, accommodating book-length manuscripts, provide an extensive look at one particular area of cartography. The regular issues also include strong reviews of reference books and atlases as well as listings of recent cartographic literature from around the world.
 
Candidates for Editor/Co-Editor should be established scholars in the area of Cartography, Geography, and/or Geographic Information Science. Cartographica encourages applications from potential Editors who have a clear vision for the future of the journal. The Editor is responsible for all aspects of publication associated with maintaining Cartographica as the premier journal of its kind presenting perspectives on all levels of geovisualization research, the history of cartography, cartography and society, and other related fields. The Editor is committed to making sure that the journal maintains its reputation to publish the best manuscripts in these areas.
 
Letter of Intent: All individuals who intend to submit a proposal must send a letter of intent to UTP Journals by July 31, 2010.
 
Cartographica
University of Toronto Press – Journals Division
5201 Dufferin St., Toronto, ON
CanadaM3H 5T8
Tel: (416) 667-7810 Fax: (416) 667-7881
Fax Toll Free in North America 1-800-221-9985
email:acorrigan@utpress.utoronto.ca
http://www.utpjournals.com/carto/carto.html
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Posted in Jeremy Crampton, Publishing | Leave a comment

Terror and Territory reviews

Posted on June 26, 2010 by stuartelden

Some reviews of my book Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty are beginning to be published…

Nisha Shah has a review essay entitled ‘Terra Infirma’ forthcoming in Political Geography which discusses the book in relation to John Agnew’s Globalization and Sovereignty and Lauren Benton’s A Search for Sovereignty. It’s a nuanced and complicated review, but it says some positive things about the book…

Following much of his recent work on territory’s evolution and operation as a technology of power, Elden moves beyond a physicalist understanding of territory, stressing that it is a ‘constitutive dimension’ rather than the ‘static background structure’ of modern politics… Elden’s interesting twist is to relate the preservation of borders to terrorism… The important nuance and implicit critique that Elden puts forward is that territorial integrity – especially its interpretation exclusively as territorial preservation – at once implicates and immunizes the state in and from acts of terrorism.

It’s also reviewed in the new issue of Radical Philosophy by Peter Hitchcock, alongside David Chandler’s Hollow Hegemony and R.B.J. Walker’s After the Globe, Before the World. Some of the nice comments include

The novelty of the text is not necessarily its spirited defence of conceptions of territoriality but the test case it brings to bear on the polemic: an analysis of the spatiality of sovereignty through the recent histories of terror and terrorism… This is a refreshing take on territory because it shows via concrete examples how concepts of territoriality and sovereignty are woven through the most prominent scene of contemporary global politics: the war on terror itself… Elden’s consummate ability to take global politics as itself a dynamic interrogation of his geographic zeal.

Because part of its aim is to set the books in context together, Hitchcock is interested in what they have to say about globality. He ends with the suggestion that “the philosophical disposition of world must be actively contested”. I completely agree, and when the history of territory book is finally done that’s close to what I want to work on next: how thinking the notion of the world changes how we think about spatial categories; and vice versa.

There have also been brief reports on the book in Choice and booknews.com, but these are the first full accounts to be published. James Sidaway has also just sent me his review which is forthcoming in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, but since that isn’t published yet I probably shouldn’t post excerpts. There are also reviews coming in out in Geografiska Annaler B and Geopolitics.

Posted in My Publications, Politics, Territory | Leave a comment

Juan Cole on Iraq and Afghanistan

Posted on June 25, 2010 by stuartelden

Now that Petraeus has been appointed to Afghanistan, inevitable comparisons of his surge ‘success’ in Iraq and what may happen in Afghanistan are being made. The ever-readable Juan Cole has a very good analysis here.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Forthcoming Jakob von Uexküll translation

Posted on June 24, 2010 by stuartelden

Jakob von Uexküll’s A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans (together with his A Theory of Meaning) is coming out in a new English translation. Details here and here

Von Uexküll is probably best known as someone who is read about (in Heidegger, Deleuze and Guattari, Agamben etc.) rather than someone who is read. Joseph D. O’Neil has made the translation and it should be worth reading.

But the problem is that this would seem to be a new translation of a text that has long been in English: “A Stroll through the World of Animals and Men”, in Instinctive Behavior: The Development of a Modern Concept, New York: International Universities Press, 1957, pp. 5-80.

Two major works remain – to my knowledge – untranslated: Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere,Berlin: J. Springer, 1909; and Theoretische Biologie, Berlin: Gebrüder Paetel, 1920.

That really would be something.

Posted in Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Jakob von Uexküll, Martin Heidegger, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Another Althusius passage

Posted on June 24, 2010 by stuartelden

Even though these heads, prefects, and rectors of provinces recognise the supreme magistrate of the realm [summum regni magistratum] as their superior, from whom their administration and power are conceded, nevertheless they have rights of sovereignty in their territory [jura majestatis & principis in suo districtu & territorio], and stand in the place of the supreme prince. They prevail as much in their territory [territorio] as does the emperor or supreme magistrate in the realm [in regno], except for superiority, pre-eminence, and certain other things specifically reserved to the supreme magistrate who does the constituting. Such is the common judgment of jurists… The head of a province therefore has the right of superiority and regal privileges in his territory [jus superioritatis & regalia in suo territorio], but without prejudice to the universal jurisdiction that the supreme prince has… This supreme and universal jurisdiction is itself the form and substantial essence of the sovereignty of the king [majestatis regiae]… which the king by himself cannot abdicate (Politica, VIII, 53-54).

[note that the ellipses do not omit text, but extensive references to jurists.]

 There is so much to be said of this. It’s a reconciliation of the relation between the individual rulers of parts of the empire with the universal power of the Emperor, and, ultimately, the Pope. (Althusius was a Calvinist, and this is in the wake of the Diet of Augsburg.) But it’s the language that he uses to work this through that is so interesting – echoes of Bartolus of Sassoferrato and Jean Bodin, but also the theorists of temporal power from previous struggles between kings, popes and emperors (John of Paris, even a bit of Marsilius of Padua). But those temporal power theorists lacked a vocabulary to articulate clearly what temporal power was exercised over, which Althusius has. The rex imperator in regno suo – the king is an emperor within his kingdom – equation is here, but dressed in a different phrasing: it is within the territorium. But there is also a much clearer division of powers, with certain things reserved for the supreme magistrate, but sovereignty (majesty) is reserved to the king. There are also elements of the King’s two bodies notion. A fundamental passage.

Posted in Johannes Althusius, Territory, The Birth of Territory | 2 Comments

Johannes Althusius, Politica

Posted on June 24, 2010 by stuartelden

I’ve been reading Johannes Althusius, Politica – a text originally published in 1603. I’ve become more and more convinced that there are some really important works between Bodin and Botero and the more familiar 17th century thinkers of Grotius, Hobbes, Filmer and Locke. I’ve already mentioned Richard Hooker here, and a case could be made for Lipsius or Bacon, or some of the works attributed to Walter Ralegh. Althusius is very interesting, especially for the fundamental, yet semi-casual, way he uses the vocabulary of territorium. By this I mean that the terms have fundamental importance, but he doesn’t seem to be going out of his way to clarify their meaning: it’s as if they are obvious. From the 1614 edition:

We now turn to the province, which contains within its territory [territorii] many villages, towns, outposts, and cities united under the communion and administration of one law [jus]. It is also called a region, district, diocese, or community. I identify the territory of a province [territorium provinciae] as whatever is encompassed by the limits or boundaries [fines & terminus] within which its laws are exercised (VI, 1-2).

This is not a particularly common phrasing before this moment. In one fundamental passage, on the notion of territorio regni, he makes reference to, among other texts, Andreae Knichen, De sublimi et regio territorii iure synoptica tractatio, from 1600. That’s been in my ‘to read’ list for ages, and the British Library has it in his Opera. That’s probably where I will go next.

Posted in Andreas Knichen, Johannes Althusius, Territory, The Birth of Territory | Leave a comment

Middlesex update

Posted on June 24, 2010 by stuartelden

According to the report here, the University said it was going to drop the suspensions against Hallward and Osborne in a letter to external examiners. The external examiners confirmed the marking grades, but the two staff are still suspended.

Posted in Universities | Leave a comment

Mapping the Present and Understanding Henri Lefebvre

Posted on June 24, 2010 by stuartelden

It might appear that my first two books – Mapping the Present and Understanding Henri Lefebvre – are out of print. Amazon no longer has copies, and the publisher’s website doesn’t let you buy them.

I’ve checked with the publisher and both should still be available as print-on-demand books. This should be rectified on the Continuum site soon. Apparently Amazon won’t list such books. Amazon marketplace and Abebooks etc. are other ways to get hold of them – although quite expensive.

Apparently Mapping the Present has sold 199 hardback copies and 1073 paperback; Understanding Henri Lefebvre 116 hardback and 978 paperback. From conversations I’ve had with publishers, that is apparently quite good for non-text books.

Posted in Mapping the Present, My Publications, Understanding Henri Lefebvre | Leave a comment

Blind Beggar

Posted on June 23, 2010 by stuartelden

Because I was going to see Derek Gregory give a talk at Queen Mary this evening (which was very good), I decided to get off the tube at Whitechapel and walk towards QM and find a pub to watch the England game. The first interesting looking pub I came across was the Blind Beggar. Sounded familiar, and when I got in I remembered that there was almost certainly a connection with the Kray twins. On returning home after dinner I checked and yes, it was the pub where Ronnie Kray shot someone, and also where the Salvation Army was founded…

Posted in Derek Gregory, Football | Leave a comment

England win!

Posted on June 22, 2010 by stuartelden

… at cricket, against Australia…

Posted in Cricket | Leave a comment