What can 'assemblage' thinking contribute to the study of international relations theory? This study seeks to investigate how the various debates on assemblages in social theory can contribute to generating critical considerations on the connections and dissociation of political agency, physical world and international dynamics.

Individual foreign investment in Western nation states is a long-standing geopolitical issue. The expansion of the middle class in BRICS and Asian countries, and their increased activity in Western real estate markets as foreign investors, have introduced new and revived existing cultural and geopolitical sensitivities. In this book, Dallas Rogers develops a new history of foreign real estate investment by mapping the movement of human and financial capital over more than four centuries. The book argues the reconfiguration of Asian geopolitical power has ruptured the conceptual landscape for understanding international land and real estate relations. Drawing on assemblage theories (Latour, Deleuze and Guattari), assemblage analytical tactics (Sassen and Ong) and discursive media theories (Kittler and Foucault) a series of vignettes of land and real estate crisis are presented. The book demonstrates how foreign land claimers and global real estate professionals colonise, subvert and act beyond the governance structures of settler-societies to facilitate new types of capital circulation and accumulation around the world.

This study presents intriguing analysis of the impact of private security companies' practices upon the fields of security and politics in the Czech Republic. It situates cases concerning ABL, the biggest Czech private security company, in the larger social, political, legal and economic contexts of the booming private security business. This company's extensive linkages with Czech politics suggest that the continued absence of specific legislation for the regulation of private security companies' activities is due to too much, rather than too little, political interest in their activities. This is problematic, arguably, because the practices of private security companies have already contributed to a significant transformation of the Czech security field by enhancing the commodification and depoliticization of security, while ABL's use of security methods for political purposes and a business approach to politics have profoundly transformed the field of politics. Reflecting the growing interest in the privatization of security, this timely study unpacks the relationship between politics, business and security in the Czech Republic.

The Anthropocene captures more than a debate over how to address the problems of climate change and global warming. Increasingly, it is seen to signify the end of the modern condition itself and potentially to open up a new era of political possibilities. This is the first book to look at the new forms of governance emerging in the epoch of the Anthropocene. Forms of rule, which seek to govern without the handrails of modernist assumptions of ‘command and control’ from the top-down; taking on board new ontopolitical understandings of the need to govern on the grounds of non-linearity, complexity and entanglement. The book is divided into three parts, each focusing on a distinct mode or understanding of governance: Mapping, Sensing and Hacking. Mapping looks at attempts to govern through designing adaptive interventions into processes of interaction. Sensing considers ways of developing greater real time sensitivity to changes in relations, often deploying new technologies of Big Data and the Internet of Things. Hacking analyses the development of ways of ‘becoming with’, working to recomposition and reassemble relations in new and creative forms. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of international politics, international security and international relations theory and those interested in critical theory and the way this is impacted by contemporary developments.

This book challenges the concept of ‘urban resilience’ by exploring its impact and limitations in three cities. Resilience has become a buzzword in science, industry, and policy, and this volume offers a fresh perspective on urban resilience as a regulatory and constitutive principle of governance in cities. Cities constitute an extremely relevant playground for resilience, as they are exposed to various disruptions, from natural disasters and pandemics to political conflicts and terrorism. This book traces the evolution of urban resilience, from international development organizations to local governments and communities. It explores how this concept was adopted and mobilized by different actors for different purposes, and analyses the resulting resilience momentum in Barcelona, San Francisco, and Santiago. The book outlines the extent to which resilience has become a universal policy tool and a desired end-state, despite its clearly problematic definition. It also contributes to the discussion about contemporary governance, safety and security in times when their very nature and feasibility are being questioned. This book will be of much interest to students of resilience studies, urban studies, development studies, human geography and international relations.

What happens when communication breaks down? Is it the condition for mistakes and errors that is characteristic of digital culture? And if mistakes and errors have a certain power, what stands behind it? To address these questions, this collection assembles a range of cutting-edge philosophical, socio-political, art historical and media theoretical inquiries that address contemporary culture as a terrain of miscommunication. If the period since the industrial revolution can be thought of as marked by the realisation of the possibilities for global communication, in terms of the telephone, telegraph, television, and finally the internet, Miscommunications shows that to think about the contemporary historical moment, a new history and theory of these devices needs to be written, one which illustrates the emergence of the current cultures of miscommunication and the powers of the false. The essays in the book chart the new conditions for discourse in the 21st century and collectively show how studies of communication can be refigured when we focus on the capacity for errors, accidents, mistakes, malfunctions and both intentional and non-intentional miscommunications.

This book is about projectification – a concept that captures the increasing reliance on “the project” in contemporary societies, governance and economies. Despite its significance, this development and transformation, not only of public and private organizations but also our working environment and way of living, has received little scholarly attention compared to other major societal movements. Since its conceptualization in 1995 the phenomena of projectification has grown in scope, and researchers beyond management and organization studies have argued for and applied a broader and critical perspective to what projects are and how we are to understand the term. This volume gathers researchers who critically examine the function and effects of “the project”, and analyzes the logic, politics, discursive practices and contexts of projectification. The book consolidates this research field by illustrating theoretical perspectives on, and empirical implications of, projectification. It also highlights the need for more research, and provides encouragements for other disciplines to scrutinize this phenomenon from other perspectives.

This book examines the politics of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in Namibia. CBNRM and similar forms of conservation across southern Africa have long been studied for their potential benefits as domestic policy tools to help improve sustainable development. However, they have often failed to achieve their stated goals. By assessing the initiation, design, implementation and outcomes of CBNRM, the book argues that communities are often unable to attain the degree of empowerment that these forms of resource governance promise. It also considers the impact of climate change on CBNRM programmes, and the responses of international actors involved in their governance. In doing so, the book demonstrates how the power imbalances that are built into the global political economy have ensured that those most marginalized in society are no better off as a result of this new form of resource governance. It will appeal to all those interested in CBNRM, conservation studies and environmental governance in Africa, as well political economy and international relations.

Across Africa, growing economic inequality, instability and urbanization have led to the rapid spread of private security providers. While these PSPs have already had a significant impact on African societies, their impact has so far received little in the way of comprehensive analysis. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary approaches, and encompassing anthropology, sociology and political science, Private Security in Africa offers unique insight into the lives and experiences of security providers and those affected by them, as well as into the fragile state context which has allowed them to thrive. Featuring original empirical research and case studies ranging from private policing in South Africa to the recruitment of Sierra Leoneans for private security work in Iraq, the book considers the full implications of PSPs for security and the state, not only for Africa but for the world as a whole.

With the interest in practice theory and praxeology on the rise, praxeology can be considered an emerging new methodological as well as theoretical paradigm which successfully overcomes epistemological dichotomies of conventional approaches. The articles in this volume serve as starting points for rendering contemporary practice theory approaches useful for the analysis of political events and processes, without reducing the political aspect a priori to the formal policy sphere. In this context, Praxeological Political Analysis demonstrates that praxeological research is now increasingly addressing issues which are considered virulent in, for instance, the consumer, sustainability or political spheres. Following on from this key focus on political analysis, this title also seeks to expand the current status of primarily political science adaptions of practice theory approaches to the analysis of predominantly narrowly defined political practices. Written with an explicit focus on diverse political aspects and dimensions in the performative enactment of social practices, this title will appeal to post-graduate students and scholars interested in sociology of politics, social and public policy, development in social theory and political research methods.