Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion

Excerpt (abstract, table of contents, objectives and structure of the book) of the book, which is publiched by Springer (foreword by Francesco Lo Piccolo). The book can be ordered at www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319439365.

Abstract
Western citizens live in the safest societies ever, and yet are more concerned with crime and violence than ever. What are the relationships between recent socio-spatial phenomena and the growing relevance of discussions about security/safety? Is urban fear an unavoidable consequence of contemporary urban life? Or does some political use of it exist? Are discourses of fear used as instruments of power in urban policy? And how can planning practice act to counter fear? In order to answer these questions, the book explores urban fear, (misinformative) discourses of fear and their relations with space and the practice of urban planning—focussing on Southern European cities and using empirical data from Palermo and Lisbon. The book has two objectives: to set out a comprehensive, critical, exploratory theory of fear, space and urban planning, unravelling the paradoxes of their mutual relations; and to contribute to recent studies about urban geopolitics, taking them from the space of global cities and enriching them from the perspective of ordinary cities. In short, the book debates whether, and to what extent, the production of ‘fearscapes’, the contemporary landscapes of fear, constitutes an (emergent) urban political economy. To do so, it explores the (re)production of urban fear around: (global) misinformation about, and paradoxes of, security (Chap. 2); the role of otherness, together with its political construction (Chap. 3); the spatialisation of fear in urban space (Chap. 4); and the way urban planning, as a practice and a discipline, is informed by, and has been shaping in turn, urban fear (Chap. 5). In conclusion (Chap. 6) the book adopts a forward thinking approach, envisaging how two radically different (if not opposite) futures are embedded in the present: a dystopian city in which the political economies of fear have become dominant; and some seeds for a practice of urban planning/action capable of facing the political economies of fear.

NORDIK XII (2018), Copenhagen University, Denmark. Abstract: Emotions can be physical experiences. They may cause an unpleasant pressure on your shoulders, contract the skin over your collarbones, or make your arms or chest burn. They can fill your body with aggression, cause a pleasant warmth in your abdomen, or obstruct your breathing. This paper discusses emotions as physical and material phenomena—as matter— and the possibility to understand them as an artistic medium that, comparable to clay, plaster or paint, can determine the character of artworks.

To explore emotions as artistic medium, I shall consider art scenes as “emotional communities” structured by systems of feelings (Ahmed, 2004, Rosenwein, 2010, 2002). Such structures prescribe certain relations between a given aesthetic expression and its supposed emotional force in particular settings. One does not have to agree with a system of feelings, or even share its dominant emotions, but within an emotional community it will still bind certain aesthetic gestures to particular emotions. This, in turn, affects inclusions and exclusions, art historiography, and judgements of quality within the community.

In this paper, I will analyse three art performances by Anna Linder, Line Skywalker Karlström and Jenny Grönvall, which use the emotion of shame to problematize art scenes as emotional communities, from queer feminist perspectives.

Publié dans A. Boerger, P. Dubé et P. Mulatris (dir), Transferts des savoirs, savoirs des pratiques : Production et mobilisation des savoirs pour une communauté inclusive, Presses de l'Université Laval, 4e trimestre 2014, pp. 141-170.) La question de l'inclusion politique est l'une de celles qui interpellent les sociétés africaines aujourd'hui parce que, constituées d'ethnies diverses, il s'agit de savoir comment procéder à une recomposition intercommunautaire, puisqu'en elles se déploie, parfois de manière quasi irréductible, la contradiction de l'identité et de l'altérité ou de l'étrangéité. Au Cameroun par exemple, la question du rapport allogène-autochtone se décline comme un problème à la fois communautaire et politique : le premier est considéré comme investissant un milieu qui lui est « étranger » en vue de rechercher de meilleures conditions d'existence, de travail ou de survie ; le second quant à lui dénonce la dénaturation de son « espace vital » traditionnel et de son identité. D'une manière générale, la situation de l'étranger dans la communauté d'accueil (autochtone) s'inscrit dans la dialectique de l'intégration (inclusion) et de l'exclusion alors que pour l'autochtone, l'enjeu est celui de la soumission, de l'émancipation et de la recherche de la suprématie. Dans ce contexte, on assiste à la publication toujours plus nombreuses de textes tels que des memoranda, des livres ou des articles de philosophie politique pour faire la promotion d'une identité collective, la revendication de la reconnaissance de droits prescriptifs, ou l'allocation de biens en fonction de l'appartenance ethnique. Ainsi, les pouvoirs publics sont souvent sollicités pour effectuer des arbitrages ou confirmer des avantages accordés à des catégories de citoyens en fonction de leurs identités.

This paper analyses spatial conflicts in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (IWP) in South Africa, a state-led ‘development for conservation’ project and UNESCO World Heritage Site. With inspiration from Henri Lefebvre's theory on the production of space, it examines dialectical processes of the production of conservation space empirically. Two arenas of conflict: fencing and punitive actions against conservation transgressors are discussed in terms of state power in its relational engagement with local space. Spatial conflicts emerge through tensions between the imposed objectives for the conservation of ecological World Heritage – and the subjective space of users and inhabitants. Market-based modernisation and economic growth strategies, which view land as a commodity, rather than as a social-ecological resource for livelihood generation, perpetuate historical insecurities through the alienation of local people from both land and management practices. Other alienating effects include the socially differentiated effects of new rules of governance, the reshaping of old ethnic identities as a result of envisaged benefits from ecotourism and the imposition of new social-ecological values.

This paper examines the ambivalent positioning of difference in western multicultural nation-states in the neoliberal moment. It does so by analyzing the multiple and contradictory ways that the figure of Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese Canadian woman, was utilized in the service of Canadian nation-building. Much heralded as the first racialized minority (and second woman) to be appointed to the highest public position in the land, Clarkson was chosen to represent and define the Canadian nation to itself and to the international community because of, and not in spite of, her difference. Drawing on media and government texts, this paper highlights the narratives that shaped the meaning of Clarkson's appointment as well as the narratives that were negated. The author emphasizes how gender, in addition to class, race and ethnicity, was central to Clarkson's appointment by analyzing how the disassociation between women and Asian capital was key to her ability to speak for us as one of us. In addition to Canadian government and corporate elite courting of Asian capital, gender was also key to the other narratives that could not be spoken, Clarkson's interracial marriage and discourses of miscegenation.

The diversity of Delhi is one of a kind. A panoply of collectives inhabits it, sometimes consolidating physically in specific all-inclusive quarters throughout the city with a village-like character to them. As a matter of fact, the city includes a good number of urban villages. It is no coincidence that Meeta Mastani, one of the authors contributing to this volume and a friend living in Delhi, explained to me, while discussing the roots of this project, that only thanks to her experience of living in villages in Rajasthan can she understand the complexities of the quarter just behind the housing-complex in which her house can be found. And that en-ASTRAGALO, 27 (2020) Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike-CC BY-NC-SA Introduction to the issue, ISSN 2469-0503 * The edition of this issue as well as my introduction have been produced in the context of i) the research project Intercultural Understanding, Belonging and Value: Wittgensteinian Approaches" (PGC2018-093982-B-100) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation & Universities, and ii) a research project granted by the Andalusian government (B-HUM-459-UGR18).

The Post-cold War international regime has accentuated the convergence of sovereign states as a desideratum for their continued relevance within the locus of contemporary global political economy. Hence, the relative gains derived by a particular state are largely dependent on the structure, content and effective implementation of its economic diplomacy. Nigeria's economic diplomacy is fundamentally aimed at the diversification of its economic base, expansion of its international market, attraction of foreign capital and the management of debt. Essentially, this paper examined how Nigeria's economic diplomatic engagements had engendered or otherwise undermined its development imperatives. Using the qualitative descriptive method of data analysis, the paper implicated the management of Nigeria's external economic relations on the prevailing crisis of development within the country. Consequently, it recommended the active involvement of relevant bodies especially the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, Ministry of National Planning, the National Planning Commission and the Debt Management Office in the formulation and implementation of appropriate domestic policies that would make both manufactured and semi-manufactured products more competitive in the global market; making the economy more attractive to local investors first as the most effective strategy for attracting foreign capital; and the efficient management of debt in order to ensure national development.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) experiments in municipalities across the world have yielded varied results as there are municipalities. The Kenyan experience of participatory experiments has not fared any better. Following the 2013 elections, which initiated county governments in line with the 2010 constitution, Makueni County emerged as a unique case for study having experimented with its very own participatory budgeting mechanism. The qualitative study reported in this article examined how Makueni’sPB framework is designed and implemented. The emerging outcomes of institutional design and implementation are then contextualised to Makueni’s socio-political and cultural setting. The study discusses two sets of PB outcomes: outcomes on public participation (questions of inclusion, exclusion and quality of participation in PB) and outcomes of PB (concerned with the end- line developmental products of the PB process). The purpose of this article is to recentre the often-ignored considerations on the socio-political and cultural in PB experiments in Kenya’s devolved governance structures and beyond.

The Post-cold War international regime has accentuated the convergence of sovereign states as a desideratum for their continued relevance within the locus of contemporary global political economy. Hence, the relative gains derived by a particular state are largely dependent on the structure, content and effective implementation of its economic diplomacy. Nigeria's economic diplomacy is fundamentally aimed at the diversification of its economic base, expansion of its international market, attraction of foreign capital and the management of debt. Essentially, this paper examined how Nigeria's economic diplomatic engagements had engendered or otherwise undermined its development imperatives. Using the qualitative descriptive method of data analysis, the paper implicated the management of Nigeria's external economic relations on the prevailing crisis of development within the country. Consequently, it recommended the active involvement of relevant bodies especially the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, Ministry of National Planning, the National Planning Commission and the Debt Management Office in the formulation and implementation of appropriate domestic policies that would make both manufactured and semi-manufactured products more competitive in the global market; making the economy more attractive to local investors first as the most effective strategy for attracting foreign capital; and the efficient management of debt in order to ensure national development.

This volume aims at shedding light on the city of Delhi and its surroundings by looking closely at the different architectures of the city. Architecture here is broadly understood. It includes places of worship and street bazaars; slums, housing developments, skyscrapers and five-star hotels; the busy street, the vehicle-jammed highway and the museum; gardens, hospitals and the sidewalk; but above all, how people live and interact with each other, creating collective habitats and surroundings, which have both hermeneutical as well as physical dimensions. In a nutshell, how the city is lived as well as interpreted.

In this work we discuss the Italian guidelines for Special Educational Needs (ministerial directive of 27 December 2012) taking into consideration their repercussions and implementations on the group of students with a migrant background. For the first time, through this directive, Italian education considers the linguistic and socio-cultural diversity as an educational disadvantage, to an equal extent to disadvantages such as disabilities and developmental disorders. In this work, after a short introduction on the Special Educational Needs typologies considered by the Italian guidelines, we will focus on the category of students with a migrant background. In details, we will highlight the relation between linguistic diversity, integration and discrimination, and the learning specificities of students with a migrant background. Students with a migrant background are a particular typology of students that can potentially have various peculiarities, and suffer from difficulties due to their life path. Learning repercussions are hence not limited to their linguistic and cultural knowledge, but could affect different learning aspects. Nevertheless, when talking about this group of students, the attention habitually falls on their linguistic skills in the language of instruction. In this regard, we emphasize that considering their linguistic diversity as a disadvantage could be discriminatory, especially considering that linguistic diversity should be instead thought of as an enriching factor.