Center-periphery Relations Research Articles

The necessary reorientation of Italian energy policy

ABSTRACT The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered profound changes in European energy policy. This was particularly the case for a country like Italy, highly dependent on Russian gas supplies and traditionally an energy partner of Moscow. In this article, we trace the major policy measures enacted by the Draghi government to address security-of-supply risks and foster the development of renewable energy. Moreover, we highlight a number of continuities and differences that emerged in these areas with the appointment of the new government led by Giorgia Meloni. Finally, we discuss some possible longer-term implications and risks for Italian energy policy in the wake of the innovations introduced after the invasion. These include a return of the state in energy governance, the shift of Italian foreign energy policy towards the Mediterranean and Africa as well as unsolved problems in the management of centre-periphery relations for accelerating the country’s energy transition.

Ethnohistory of the creation of a new religion in multicultural Japan

Japan as a multicultural and polyreligious society is illuminated in this article by reference to the creation of Ijun, which is both a revival of Ryukyuan culture and a new religion of Japan. The similarity between Ijun and Seichō no Ie can be understood by reference to ethnohistoric context, to international activity, and to flows of information, religious ideology and capital. The philosophy, histories of the founders, ritual and Japanese vocabulary are compared in order to show differences and similarities that reflect two cultural contexts, Ryukyuan and Japanese. The personal history of Ijun’s founder adds strength to the conclusion that Ijun is similar to Seichō no Ie, despite differences attributed to Ryukyuan influence on Ijun. Takayasu’s creation of an international organization makes Ijun into a center that replicates and reverses the center-periphery relation between Japan and Okinawa, while also modeling Seichō no Ie’s international organization.

Eisenhower & Cambodia: Diplomacy, Covert Action and the Origins of the Second Indochina War by William J. Rust

<i>Eisenhower &amp; Cambodia: Diplomacy, Covert Action and the Origins of the Second Indochina War</i> by William J. Rust

Henryk Stażewski’s Art in America

This article probes the validity of the center-periphery relation as a model for studying postwar artistic exchange within the idiom of geometric abstraction. Focusing on Polish artist Henryk Stażewski’s later work, the essay reflects on the complex temporal relationship between the avant-garde and the neo avant-garde in the context of transnationalism, exploring the potential of viewing US art through the eyes of a non-American artist.

Renewable energy and the centralisation of power. The case study of Lake Turkana Wind Power, Kenya

The attempt to mitigate climate change has focused much attention on the technical solutions offered by renewable energies (RE). Investing in such infrastructure can illuminate the concrete development and potential prosperity it may provide to the local and global environment. The wind turbine's remote location challenges centre-periphery relations in specific regions and the ability to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While analysing the Lake Turkana Wind Power project (LTWP) establishment in northern Kenya, we focus on the socio-political challenges to local pastoralist populations' relations with the political centre. Encounters between LTWP and the neighbouring local populations occurred at different times and in three different spaces: Sirima village, grazing lands under the turbines, and courthouse corridors. This article demonstrates how the wind farm could have altered the imbalanced relations between the centre and periphery, a change that did not fully materialise. While examining geopolitical centre-periphery relations, we found that land has become a productive resource for the centre, leaving the periphery population socially, economically, and politically neglected. The marginality of the local population may also hinder the inclusive achievement of the SDGs, the very goals which the article aims to achieve.

Spatial Characteristics and the Non-Hierarchical Nature of Regional Religious Systems (RRSs)

Based on the spatial analysis and GIS modeling of the distribution of religious sites in Greater China, we have developed the concept of regional religious systems (RRSs) as a novel way of understanding and studying the spatial distribution patterns of religious sites and their relationship with other social and cultural factors. This essay further explores theoretical issues such as its center–periphery relations in existing administrative and economical hierarchies. Drawing on our current project on RRSs in the Hangzhou region and various available studies about pre-modern Chinese religion, the author explains the spatial characteristics of RRSs, such as the role of transportation, trade and pilgrimage routes in the formation of RRSs. Using Chinese Buddhism as an example, the author argues that RRSs in Greater China should be treated as a spatial formation without an internal hierarchical structure because the political and administrative hierarchy prevents the formation of a strong religious hierarchy.

From England to Italy via Paris: Gino Severini and the Sitwells at Montegufoni

ABSTRACTBy focusing on a specific case study, a commission the Italian modernist artist Gino Severini received in late 1920 from British patrons and collectors Sacheverell and Osbert Sitwell to decorate a room in the family’s castle at Montegufoni, Italy, this article sheds new light on the transnational networks of exchange and circulation characterizing the contemporary art world in the interwar period. Through an examination of unpublished correspondence with Severini’s Parisian dealer, Léonce Rosenberg, the different expectations and agendas at play in this commission are exposed, as well as the artist’s resulting negotiations with national identities and cultural diversity, questioning a paradigm of centre–periphery relations. I suggest leaving behind accepted interpretations of Commedia dell’arte characters in the context of the postwar ‘return to order’ to focus on Sacheverell Sitwell’s taste and his writings on Southern Baroque art. From this perspective, Montegufoni becomes a site of cultural exchange and contamination.

Internationalization as myth, ceremony and doxa in higher education. The case of the Nordic countries between centre and periphery

ABSTRACT The article deals with the validation of the internationalization imperative in higher education institutions (HEIs) of the Nordic countries. I focus on both the goals and motives behind activities supporting internationalization, but also on the manner of their habitualization and institutionalization in the practice of academic administration and organizational management. The issue of legitimization of institutional changes is addressed by means of the rationalized myths that create durable dispositions for specific practices, changes in procedures and attitudes in a given socio-political setting. I draw on empirical examples that include practical solutions and strategies developed under the conditions of semiperipheral positionality of the Nordic states. This perspective makes their internationalization policies an interesting frame of reference for other countries and the paper concludes by pointing to the latest trends that can serve either as an inspiration or a warning for other states. The Nordic countries offer an example of how institutionalizing the ‘strategic gains’ narrative from globalization may lead to a recalibration of an earlier knowledge regime along with attempts to change centre-periphery relations, including the reframing of priorities and rationalities of different stakeholders in higher education.

Economic Crisis, Center–Periphery Relations, and the Political System: The Case of Spain after 2008

The interdependence between the economy and politics is particularly visible during economic crises. The subject of research is the impact of the economic crisis in Spain after 2008 on its political system. And the main aim is to answer the question: what factor had the most important impact on the functioning of the state’s political system. Authors assume that it was the amendment of the Art. 135 of the state constitution. The theoretical framework of the study is the output on the relationship between the economy and politics. The empirical research was based on the analysis of changes in the economic situation in Spain after 2008, and on the analysis of the evolution of the Spanish political system. Obtained results may be useful in the context of the impact of changes in the economic situation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Відносини по лінії центр-периферія в Україні: ресурси підвищення стійкості держави

This article identifies key factors that helped reducing the conflict potential in centre-periphery relations in Ukraine and enabled their contribution to state resilience in 2022–2023. The analytical framework is based on rational choice institutionalism and cleavage theory. The article argues that the conflict potential of center-periphery relations in the past was triggered by political competition between key central political actors for a subordination of subnational political actors, in order to strengthen their own positions in the Center. The article specifies two factors that helped reducing the conflict potential of centre-periphery relations and enabled a positive input from them into Ukraine’s state resilience in 2022–2023. The first factor is an institutional one, i. e. the decentralization reform (2014–2020), which strengthened duties and resources of local self-government rather than regional administrations. The second factor is a non-institutional one; it is a „nationalization” of electoral behaviour in democratic contests that led to the emergence of a dominant central political actor and turn away from competitive struggles between central political actors with the help of subnational actors. A shift in the pattern of center-periphery relations was visible in changing interaction of the dominant central political actor with subnational actors during the 2020 regional elections. Still, the article acknowledges that such institutionalized and non-institutionalized changes cannot automatically neutralize clan or oligarchic structures at the local level. Finally, the article identified three types of concrete contributions of Ukraine's new center-periphery relations to increasing state resilience in 2022–2023. They happened via enabling the input of local self-government into territorial defense, the support of internally displaced persons, and Ukraine’s recovery from the Russia’s war.

ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫЙ ПОТЕНЦИАЛ И ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ БАЗЫ ДАННЫХ И ГИС-СИСТЕМЫ НАСЕЛЕННЫХ ПУНКТОВ ПРИЕНИСЕЙСКОЙ СИБИРИ (СЕРЕДИНА XIX – НАЧАЛО ХХ ВЕКА) В СВЕТЕ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ РЕГИОНАЛИСТИКИ

The paper explores the information potential and capabilities of the database and GIS system for systematic research on the localities of Yenisei Siberia in the mid-19th – early 20th centuries, with a focus on regional studies. The study examines Siberia as a full-fledged part of Russia and its Asian periphery. The Russian government changed the policy towards Siberia from minimal intervention to targeted economic colonization, involving voluntary migrations and the unification of the settlement structures in vast uninhabited spaces. In addition to the so-called river settlement structure (Yenisei region) or the nest settlement one (Priangara), the formation of a planned, geographically closed structure started. The paper highlights the gradual replacement of small settlements such as graveyards (‘pogost’), evictions (‘visel’), and single-yards (‘zaimka’) settlements with ordinary villages, the stratification of old-time residents’ space and the emergence of resettlement settlements, and the division of traditional settlements. This process includes increasingly remote territories of Siberia, such as the Yenisei North. The author demonstrates that the problems of space development and center-periphery relationships are relevant at the present time. The paper employs statistical, historical, geographical, and cartographic methods. Modern statistical analysis techniques reveal the spatial dynamics of the region's development. The reasons for the formation of the structure of the database hierarchy based on the geographical factor and the combination of information with interactive maps are under investigation. The paper describes the attribute tables of settlements, and plotting geodetic and hydrographic networks. The principles of dataset formation based on various reference books are outlined. The author concludes that the dataset has the potential to combine source-oriented and problem-oriented approaches, and it gives the possibility to place both historical and actual relevant data in a comprehensive information resource.

DISCUSSIONS ABOUT TECHNOLOGICAL SOVEREIGNTY: ANALYZING CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES AND JUSTIFICATION STRATEGIES

The paper is devoted to the study of conceptual differences in the interpretation of the concept – «technological sovereignty». In recent years, many states have proclaimed the achievement of technological sovereignty as a strategic priority and one of the goals of long-term development. At the same time, in the scientific literature on this topic, in the presence of review publications and case studies, there is a lack of analysis of conceptual differences. In strategic documents, state concepts and public discourse, the articulation of the concept of «sovereignty» in the technological sphere varies from a variant close to autarky in meaning to a policy of maintaining a competitive environment and diversifying foreign suppliers of critical technologies. As a methodological basis for the study, we chose the concept of problematics developed within the framework of the French tradition of historical epistemology (J. Martin, L. Althusser, D. Lecourt). Its toolkit makes it possible to explicate the internal structure and interconnection of concepts within the framework of individual interpretations and the logic of justification strategies in public policy. On the example of the European Union, a new interpretation of sovereignty as an agency was demonstrated, in addition, its connection with the postulates of German ordoliberalism was investigated. The cases of Brazil and India represent two different models for justifying the policy of technological sovereignty in the context of understanding center-periphery relations in the global economy and postcolonialism.

Do czego literaturze regionalnej potrzebne jest imaginarium grozy? O gotycyzowaniu Dolnego Śląska

Why Does Regional Literature Need an Imaginarium of Horror? On Gothicizing Lower Silesia The article focuses on the relationship between gothicism and regionalism in the literature of Lower Silesia. The author poses a question about the role of the imaginarium of horror in shaping the psychotopography of the region, in which real, spectral and affective topographies converge. An important context is the peripheralization of the region after the political transformation, which resulted in economic regression of Lower Silesia. Gothic regionalism is therefore interpreted as a reaction to social, economic and political processes taking place on a local and global scale, but perceived from a peripheral point of view. As a descriptive term, however, it allows to recognize several aspects: the key role of center-periphery relations, local-global interactions, the influence of late capitalism, the return of repressed events as the uncanny, the horror of everyday life and the exclusion of what exceeds the internal normativity of regional communities. Works of selected authors were analysed, e.g. Joanna Bator, Olga Tokarczuk, Henryk Waniek, Jakub Bielawski, Maciej Bobula.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY AND TRANSNATIONAL MANIFESTATIONS IN OJĀRS FELDBERGS’ ART: THE CONCEPT OF BORDERS

In this article the author examines the concepts of transdisciplinarity and transnationalism as methodological tools in art analysis. By applying these tools to the case study of Latvian artist Ojārs Feldbergs and addressing the concept of borders in his art, the author questions knowledge production systems, especially in terms of Western art discourse. The author doubts that in our hybrid globalised world it is still possible to look at artists and their oeuvre through a monoethnic perspective. It is important to be aware of parallel processes, intercultural encounters and sources of inspiration beyond the borders of one country or discipline. Yet, in doing so, the centre-periphery relationship should be addressed critically and the dictate of cultural metropolises as centres should be avoided. Given that Feldbergs’ art cannot be seen as a constituent of isolated elements – object (sculpture), space (environment), time, spectatorship – but, indeed, as a complex whole, which is hybrid and synthesised, it is crucial to define Feldbergs’ artistic strategies addressing the concept of borders – both physical and symbolic.

Отношения «центр-периферия» в мир-системном анализе: политические аспекты

The article is devoted to the consideration of the «center-periphery» relations in the world-system analysis. It is considered how one of the founders of the world-system analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein, borrowed the provisions of the dependence theory. Using retrospective and hermeneutic methods, we reproduce the origin and development of center-periphery relations, and with them the entire capitalist world-system. Particular attention is paid to the semi-periphery – the territories located between the center and the periphery. Introducing the concept of a semi-periphery, Wallerstein solves a number of problems associated with his application of the theory of dependence. At the same time, with the introduction of the semi-periphery, a number of problems arise - how to determine the state belonging to the semi-periphery, as well as the problem of the role of the semi-periphery in the functioning of the capitalist world-system. These problems are caused by the absence of intermediate zones in the dependence theory. A separate problem is related to the political status of the periphery and semi-periphery. In the case of the periphery, this is the problem of political subjectivity within the framework of a long historical time (historically, not every state of the periphery is a colony, but the colonies are the periphery) in relation to the semi-periphery - primarily its stabilizing role. This function, as the study showed, is attributed to it erroneously. Based on this, it is necessary to revise the theoretical paradigms of world-system analysis.

Center-Periphery Dichotomy in the System of Spatial Structures of the Globalized World

Decentralization processes are increasingly becoming the driving force of changes in the modern world, and how regional elites use their advantages and minimize their disadvantages depends on whether they will turn out to be a boon or a factor of social destruction. It is extremely important in modern conditions that the social and humanitarian sciences contribute to the conceptualization of system-dynamic interdisciplinary knowledge, the scope of which will cover not only the hierarchy of centers and peripheries within a single country, but also the space «above» state borders, which is amenable to regulation. The article is devoted to highlighting modern methodological approaches to reviewing the concepts of center-periphery relations and developing a new model of regionalism, which is based on the recognition of the freedom of pluralism and the intransitive importance of the ideas of multiculturalism. In this context, all cognitive strategies built on the advantages of the ideas of centralization, and first of all on the traditional model of center-periphery relations and modernization, undergo correction. It has been proven that the postmodern situation in which modern society is located is the least reminiscent of a domineering vertical, built according to the usual canons of center-periphery. Rather, it is associated with a heterogeneous horizon that can be modified in a wide variety of configurations. Reviewing the concepts, models and structure of established center-periphery relations contributes to rethinking the mechanisms and scope of influence of political, economic and cultural centers on the course of social development of spatial structures in the context of new challenges. Built on this foundation, the theory of center-periphery polarity is seen as an innovative operational tool in the entire system of natural and social sciences, which to one degree or another are engaged in the analysis of spatial relations

Social value of Spanish among transnational Latin American families in Italy

The aim of this paper is to explore the value of Spanish through the study of the ideologies and subjectivities represented in the discursive practices of some transnational Latin American families that underwent processes of diaspora to Italy. In particular, the goal is to focus on their family language policies by exploring the relationship between linguistic uses, identities, and ideologies. In the current context of neoliberalism, many scholars have highlighted how language has become a commodity (Holborow, 2007; Block, Gray, and Holborow, 2012; Heller and Duchêne, 2012) or, in terms of Bourdieu (1991), a symbolic capital, i.e., a system of values that social actors associate with a particular linguistic use in a specific economic and political context, determined by certain power relations. In global contemporary diasporas, in line with the colonial era (Mignolo, 1992; Heller and McElhinny, 2017), the perceptual and evaluation schemes of linguistic practices continue to be strongly determined by the centre-periphery relationship. This same language regime is reflected in the social value of Spanish that emerges in the discursive practices of Hispanic families in Italy. The data, in effect, demonstrate a clear perceptual inequality between the Spanish of the diaspora, marginalised by its condition of minority language and delegitimised for representing a deviation from the monoglossic norm (Silverstein, 1996), and the central languages (‘standard’ varieties of Spanish and Italian), understood as convertible resources in the global linguistic market and more desirable in terms of social mobility.

Regional Literary Tradition in Modern World Literature: The Allegorization of Democracy in Yano Ryūkei’s Beautiful Story of Statesmanship and Its Chinese and Korean Translations

ABSTRACT Yano Ryūkei’s popular political novel Keikoku bidan (The Beautiful Story of Statesmanship, 1883-84) is a fictionalization of the dramatic victory of the democrats over the oligarchs in ancient Thebes, and is among the first modern Japanese literary works to be translated into Chinese and Korean. As such, this work may be construed as a typical case of the translation of modern ideas from the European center into an East Asian periphery. But in playing that function, it notably makes an anachronistic use of a style of classical Japanese fiction that, along with its Korean counterpart, had developed in tight relationship to late-imperial Chinese vernacular fiction. The adoption of the classical narrative form of regional provenance allowed Ryūkei to create a political allegorization of democracy whose legitimacy is not just ideologically imposed but indigenously grounded on history, and facilitated its translation into Chinese and Korean. By examining these texts, this article considers an interperipheral structure of literary exchanges that helped enable a transposition of democracy into the region. It thus illuminates a palimpsestic construct of textual circulation in turn-of-the-century East Asia where the modern center-periphery relationship is intersected with the interperipheral dynamics activated by the afterlives of a classical transnational cultural tradition.

All geopolitics is local: the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor amidst overlapping centre–periphery relations

Pakistan occupies an elevated role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and hosts its so-called flagship project, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Existing literature has often interpreted this project from a geopolitical perspective, as a vehicle through which a rising China projects influence on a peripheral country and advances its own centrality in international affairs. While such motivations certainly played a major role in getting the project off the ground, they are not the sole determinant of its design, or the heated controversies it triggered within Pakistan. This paper seeks to capture both dimensions by analysing the development of CPEC, and the handling of the conflicts it sparked, through a lens of overlapping centre–periphery relations: one between China and Pakistan at the international level, and one between Islamabad and peripheral regions and groups within the country. I argue that this model best captures the pivotal position and resulting agency of national governments in shaping local BRI implementations. It also shows how the BRI is not a straight case of Chinese influence radiating outwards; rather, contestation by local actors in turn forces adaptations in Chinese foreign and security policy.

Teorizando o Caribe a contrapelo. Como cientistas sociais do Caribe anglófono estabeleceram o Caribe como espaço de produção de conhecimento nos anos 1950

Abstract This paper examines the foundational and formative period of interdisciplinary social thought in the anglophone Caribbean to critically engage with hypothesis of academic dependency and shed further light on how West Indian scholars in the 1950s resisted institutional and epistemic structures of dominance. Manifold contributions outline the colonial and imperial legacy and entanglement of social sciences knowledge production, however often focus on macro-historical and epistemic discussions. To enhance these, I argue, concrete empirical case studies of social knowledge production in the Global South can be productive to elaborate and learn from non-hegemonic traditions of theorising and researching. Conducting a reconstruction of the institutional context of knowledge production and its interaction with each other, it will be shown that West Indian social scientists represent an inspiring example of how social theorising was practiced against the grain of centre-periphery relations.