Category Archives: Boundaries

Awkward Seas and Exclusive Economic Zones

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Teo Ballvé

New Left Review‘s new issue has an article by Peter Nolan that surveys the national “territorial” claims over the world’s oceans: “Imperial Archipelagos.” The sea as an awkward political space is one of those hobby interests of mine that may … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Pirates, Post-Colonial, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The Sea, The State | 1 Comment

Medellín: Who’s Afraid of Hip-Hop?

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Teo Ballvé

My article on hip-hop and violence in Medellín is now out: Héctor Pacheco walked down the steep hillsides of his barrio in Medellín, Colombia to wish his aunt a happy birthday. Pacheco—a local rapper nicknamed “Kolacho”—had spoken at a public … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Boundaries, City, Drugs, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Security, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Visualizing Space and Injustice in Palestine

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Teo Ballvé

In an old post about the potential political capacities of the infographic, I wrote: “If Guy Debord was right in highlighting that social relations between people are increasingly mediated by images and representations, then can the infographic be a popular … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Boundaries, City, Critique, Everyday Life, Guy Debord, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Maps, Media, Primitive Accumulation, Scale, Security, Spatiality, Spectacle, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Interweb Motley # 13

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Teo Ballvé

Because I can, I am still on vacation. But ever wonder about why The Netherlands is not Holland? This piece by Jina Moore about the “White Correspondent’s Burden” on representations of Africa reminds me of the Granta essay “How to … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, Interweb Motley, Maps | Comments Off

The New Aesthetic Part I: Seeing Like A Machine

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

You know how sometimes you learn about something you had never heard of before and then you start seeing it everywhere? The New Aesthetic has been one of those things for me since Derek Gregory turned me on to it (sue … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Assemblages, Boundaries, City, Everyday Life, Media, Networks, Science & Tech., Spectacle | 2 Comments

Frontiers and Deadwood as Geography

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

A piece titled “Deadwood as History” by Anne Hyde in Foreign Affairs on the historical content (or lack thereof) of HBO’s Deadwood begins: “All Westerns are stories of people attempting to impose order on a chaotic, lawless, and savage environment.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Boundaries, Frontiers, Henri Lefebvre, Historical-Geographies, Law, Political Ecology, Primitive Accumulation, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Violence | Comments Off

Gregory: The Everywhere War

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

A lecture given by Derek Gregory, a geographer at the University of British Columbia, is now online. Gregory discusses “The Everywhere War.” We now live in a world where death can be delivered across vast distances. Political geographer Derek Gregory examines three … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Peace, Sovereignty, Territory, Terror, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

The Country and the City

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Williams, Raymond. 1973. The Country and the City. Oxford: Oxford University Press. At the end of The Country and the City, Raymond Williams offers the reader an appendix on the origins of the keyword “country.” The word, he writes, “is … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, City, Critique, Land, Marxism, Place | Comments Off

A Genealogy of Sovereignty

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Bartelson, Jens. 1995. A Genealogy of Sovereignty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This was a difficult book so I tried outlining it chapter by chapter: Ch. 1 – Bartelson proposes a genealogy of “sovereignty” and lays out the arguments and methods for … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Niccolo Machiavelli, Power, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The State | Comments Off

Cartographic Mexico

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Craib, Raymond. 2004. Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. I remember my social studies teacher in elementary school using the peel of an orange to show us why most world maps … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, Land, Law, Maps, Michel Foucault, Nation/Nationalism, Place, Post-Colonial, Power, Science & Tech., Spatiality, Territory, The State | Comments Off