Center-periphery Relations Research Articles

Ukrainian Waste for the Soviet Economy: Shaping the National Narrative

The environmental history of Ukraine in the twentieth century is replete with various and still understudied facets. However, contemporary research predominantly employs imperial narratives, which elucidate it through the prism of Soviet history, depriving it of subjectivity and the uniqueness of the local context. This essay proposes an alternative approach. Through the example of waste recycling in the Ukrainian SSR, which was one of the Soviet republics from 1922 to 1991, we aim to demonstrate the importance of reinterpreting its environmental history by studying multi-vector centre–periphery relations in the Soviet Union. This case seeks to demonstrate not only the formation in the 1920s of Soviet colonial practices of resource extraction, including that of waste, from the periphery – the Soviet republics – but also attempts to resist these in the first decade of the Soviet totalitarian regime’s formation. This essay is based on documents from Ukrainian archives, which are introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time, and on statistical collections of documents from the USSR.

FORMA MILICIANA E SEUS PARADIGMAS NO ESPAÇO-TEMPO DO URBANO NA METRÓPOLE DO RIO DE JANEIRO

The article presents five hypotheses regarding our evaluation of the current emergence of the geographical space of the militia form. To construct this hypothesis, the Metropolitan West of Rio de Janeiro (MWRJ) has been selected as the preferred locus for the rise of this social form. In an exercise of regionalization, we connect the terms of this socio-spatial presence within the scope of the current center-periphery relationships transcribed in the Brazilian urban network. Presenting the hypotheses and weaving them from cartographic data, we bring elements to the understanding of the negative character of the modernization entangled in this fragment of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro in recent decades. Keywords: Metropolitan West of Rio de Janeiro; Milita Form; Regionalization; Center-periphery Relation; Late Modernization

Center–periphery relations in Ethiopia during the Dergue (1974–1991): the case of Afar

ABSTRACT The concept of center–periphery relations extends from the relations of the central government and peoples of not so highly organized peripheries within a state to the relations between developed and developing nations. These relations are dynamic and flexible and can be influenced by national, regional, and international developments such as political changes. The center–periphery relations in Ethiopia are periodically categorized as pre-1974, militaristic period (1974–1991), and post-1991. In this paper, I try to show the change and continuity of the center–periphery relationship of Afar people in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. Using the available sources, I try to demonstrate the nature of center–periphery relationship between the military government and the Afar people as center and periphery, respectively. In addition, I try to show the determining factors that affect the center–periphery relations in the period under study. The Afar Triangle, which is composed of north eastern Ethiopia, south eastern Eritrea, and Djibouti, is the natural border between Africa and the Arab world and the main trade line of Ethiopia to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Afar people of Ethiopia and Eritrea were under the rule of the Dergue government. The ideological change and reforms following the 1974 revolution, insurgencies movement in the region, and foreign relations and external trade determined the relations between the central government and the Afar people. Although there was an attempt to handle the people of Afar through sharing power and resources, the center continued to dominate power and resources in the region.

Center-periphery relations in the system of state farms in the late 1950s–early 1960s (based on materials of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda oblasts)

Center-periphery relations in the system of state farms in the late 1950s–early 1960s (based on materials of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda oblasts)

Beyond the Rhetoric of Revanchism Towards the Metropolitan Core: An Analysis of Symbolic Representations of Milan From Its Peripheries

Socio-political research has shown that in metropolitan peripheries, populist parties have gained significant support. This is because these parties capitalise on a widespread feeling of exclusion, leading to a revanchist social representation of affluent metropolitan centres. This article contributes to the debate on metropolitan dynamics by exploring the social representations of the centre–periphery relationship, showing how symbolic representations play a role in shaping codes of action and revanchism alone is insufficient to understand the core–periphery relationship. Four suburbs with similar socioeconomic characteristics in the functional urban area of Milan were selected. Milan is the most important Italian metropolis, and it has a relevant socio-political fracture. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to analyse the cultural meanings of living on the periphery among local leaders. The metropolitan centre is perceived as necessary, evoking ‘efficient’ representations; however, these peripheral contexts are meaningful places of belonging. This article shows that an analysis of the dynamics at work at the metropolitan level should consider peripheral contexts.

Trapped between religion and ethnicity: identity politics against the Baloch in Iran and Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article delves into the intricate connection between societal identity markers and the politico-socio-economic conditions of the Baloch people in Pakistan and Iran. It explores the structural conditions of identity that contribute to oppressive dichotomies in centre–periphery relations, ultimately fuelling internal conflicts. Balochistan, historically marginalized and overlooked, endured a complex geopolitical history as it shifted between empires, notably the Persian and British Empires. In the nineteenth century, agreements between the Persian and British Empires outlined the modern-day borders, fragmenting the Baloch nation into regions now administered by Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The aftermath of this partition led to permanent societal tension, impacting the internal security of these states. The article highlights the struggle of the divided Baloch people for equal politico-socio-economic rights, emphasizing the states’ challenges in legitimizing their authority. The Baloch, residing in divided borders, express their grievances against Iran and Pakistan, each grappling with identity-based conflicts rooted in sectarianism (Iran) and ethnicity (Pakistan). The narrative explores the complex relationship between the Baloch people and the respective states, shedding light on diverse perspectives regarding marginalization and discrimination.

Centre-periphery relations in the Ottoman Galilee: the case of Akil Agha al-Hasi, 1840-70

ABSTRACT Akil Agha al-Hasi, a son of a Bedouin family, immigrated into Palestine from Egypt at the start of the 19th century. He was a dominant factor in the history of Galilee from the 1830s to the end of 1860s. His official job was commander of irregular soldiers in the service of the Ottoman governor, although in fact, his job and his status exceeded much, a job in the service of the authorities. Akil Agha knew how to take advantage of the power bases which stood at his disposal: units of irregular soldiers, alliances with Bedouin tribes, villages and townsmen, and the weakness of the Ottoman government in general, and in the region, in particular, in order to become a center of power, indeed a local one, but also worrying at a national level. Sometimes he would overcome this attempt and sometimes he failed, and then he would run rampage against order and security in order to force the authorities to understand that only he was the key to order and security in the region. For the lack of an alternative, they were forced to return him to his job, but not for a long time, and he was again dismissed.

‘Security’ and private governance in São Paulo’s corporate centrality frontier

In the last half-century, the ‘centre–periphery’ model has become insufficient to describe the increasingly fragmented and multicentric Latin American metropolises. Frontiers between central and peripheral areas are shifting, in part, due to the emergence of new corporate centralities, usually located outside historical city centres and heavily equipped with private ‘security’ agents and devices. By examining the evolving governing practices taking place in and around the dynamic frontier of a business centrality in São Paulo, Brazil, this article discusses the connections between the transformation in centre–periphery relations and the reworking of prior forms of socio-spatial control since the ‘security’ turn of the 1990s. More specifically, it explores the effects of the production of securitised corporate centralities on the racialised differential governance of urban space. For this purpose, the article draws from empirical work involving fieldwork, interviews with public and private ‘security’ agents, the observation of meetings of the local Public Security Community Council (CONSEG), and the analysis of police statistics. In sum, the argument presented here is that the evolution of segregation mechanisms and governing practices in Latin-American metropolises reproduces centre–periphery relations under new spatial configurations, and increases the capacity of private agents to subject urban space to their own rules and regulations.

Imperialism and crises of social reproduction in Africa

Gender inequalities feature in the prevailing model of financialised capitalist development, which in the peripheries is increasingly dependent on enclosures of land and nature, unbridled debt that is being shifted onto households, and deepening exploitation of gendered labour for service and industry. These conditions of accumulation generate reproductive crises in the core and peripheries that have serious implications for the survival and sustenance of working people and surplus populations of the global South. This article uses two main arguments to elaborate the nature of these reproductive crises from the vantage point of working people in the peripheries. First, by elaborating the link between land, nature and the commons and social reproduction in the agrarian South, foregrounding an agrarian question of gendered labour which agrarian reforms must address as a condition of national liberation. Second, the ways in which social reproduction is structured by centre–periphery relations of capitalist accumulation are elaborated in relation to the structures of gendered labour under late capitalism, asking how these dynamics shape the conditions of survival and reproduction of working people in Africa. The article highlights the imperative for a social reproduction lens in the analysis of imperialism within the possibility of liberation as well as sovereignty of Third World nations.

Democracy and inequality in Latin America: revisiting the intellectual legacy of Guillermo O’Donnell

ABSTRACT This article revisits the work of the Argentine political scientist Guillermo O’Donnell (1936–2011), one of Latin America’s leading intellectual figures of the twentieth century. While previous analyses have concentrated on his legacy in the social sciences, this study offers an intellectual history of O’Donnell’s ideas on democracy and inequality. It traces O’Donnell’s shifting perspectives, from a structuralist view of global centre-periphery relationships to an emphasis on individual agency concerning inequalities. The article presents, first, an analysis of his early work, in particular his conceptualization of the “Bureaucratic-Authoritarian” State, which was connected to a specific view of inequality characteristic of the 1960s and 1970s. Second, the article focuses on his second major work, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, in relation to the most important political event in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, namely the various transitions from dictatorship to democracy. Thirdly, the article examines in detail O’Donnell’s ideas on the quality of democracy, the state, and inequality in Latin America in the 1990s and 2000s. By exploring O’Donnell’s intellectual journey chronologically, the article illuminates the shifts and continuities in his work, thereby highlighting the evolving perspectives on inequality of one of Latin America’s foremost intellectuals.

Rogelio Salmona Award: a vision of latin american architecture?

In 2014 the Latin American Rogelio Salmona Award was launched in response to an international valuation system that used to marginalize Latin America architecture in competitions. Therefore, the award was an attempt to consider the Latin American territory by its own criteria with a selection of 60 buildings. Those buildings, however, also reproduced a relationship of domination between the center and the periphery. Considering the three editions promoted by the award, this paper discusses the center-periphery relationships into the region. Some buildings were analyzed by categories such as place, scale, use, and materials. As a result, one could perceive the sliding boundaries between the center and periphery, and also the significant role played by some buildings in the periphery.

Decorative Art of the Latvian SSR, Searching the Way Between Party-Mindedness and National-Mindedness

The basic principle of socialist realism was the belief in the political ideals proposed by the ruling Communist party (party-mindedness) of the Soviet Union, enriched by national-mindedness and ideinost (ideological-content). Already since the early 1930s, in the Soviet Union every single cultural worker in every single discipline of art had to strictly follow the method of socialist realism. The canon of socialist realism was equally applicable to fine art as well as applied art, the specific function of which was supposed to be purely utilitarian use. Decorative art in the national republics of the Soviet Union usually took the forms of folk art, and decorative art since the beginning of the 1960s was perceived as an integral component of Soviet culture. The essence of Soviet culture had already been formulated several decades earlier, and it had to be socialist in content and national in form, emphasizing the importance of national traditions.
 It was possible to treat this principle in various, even very disparate ways, so the problem of adherence to the party principles and the manifestastion of national distinctiveness was an inexhaustible topic of theoretical and practical discussions. Conceptual ambiguity, as well as very different visions among artists, theoreticians, as well as party officials, did not allow to develop a unified theory of applied art. Due to the afore mentioned ambiguity and the pluralism of opinions artists of applied art could enjoy some space of freedom for creativity, without directly violating the canons of socialist realism.
 The author of the paper examines and analyzes the development of professional decorative art in the Latvian SSR of that time, ideological currents in art theory, and center–periphery relationship.

The Past 100 Years of Knowledge Production in Central Asia

ABSTRACT The authors provide an introduction to the special issue and the Central Asia Research Cluster project. This transnational project brought together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to examine the roots of knowledge production and preservation in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia, recontextualizing cultural heritage, histories, and memory that illuminate and complicate the many layers of center-periphery relations at local, national, and regional levels.

ÖT KELET-KÖZÉP-EURÓPAI FŐVÁROS KÖZPONTRENDSZERÉNEK ÖSSZEVETÉSE FEJLESZTÉSI TERVEIK ALAPJÁN

Focusing on capital cities of Central and Eastern Europe with different urban development traditions, this study compares the urban development plans in force in Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Belgrade, and Bucharest. The plan analysis is complemented by population and spatial data for cities to help understand center-periphery relations. These five cities share an important common characteristic: in the 20th century they have undergone planned expansion in the wake of rapid urbanisation and nation-state aspirations. In the process, former independent settle- ments, including urban, suburban, and rural areas, were annexed to the capital, and continued to exist as part of a metropolis. The analysis is based on the understanding of the terminology and methodology of the structure plans, but the fundamental question is how these plans deal with the local centers within the expansion area. By comparing the historical system of centers with the current structure plans, it is possible to determine the extent to which local centers within the annexed area are involved in the functioning of the ‘compact city.’ The result of the research is that the delimitation of the area of the compact city and the periphery in a suffici- ently distinctive way is crucial, thus integrating centers with appropriate connectivity into the overall urban operation.

THE ROLE OF TOURISM IN THE REGENERATION OF PERIPHERAL NEIGHBOURHOODS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN ALCÂNTARA (LISBON) AND BAGNOLI (NAPLES)

The urban geography of tourism destinations is always changing. These changes are part of a process of polarization in which some neighborhoods become increasingly popular, while others start to decline. We may observe these facts in such cities as Lisbon and Naples, two destinations that benefit from a strong tourism dynamism, mainly cultural. Despite the millions of visitors every year, both supply and demand are not homogeneous in these cities, concentrating demand in the Historical centres. It is undeniable that both Lisbon and Naples have more to offer, with a vast and differentiated heritage throughout all parts of the city. Despite being recognized as quality destinations, the polarization of supply and demand must be fought, allowing the sustainable growth of the Historic Centres and other urban areas. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the way in which peripheral neighborhoods are transformed following the advance of tourism, in the context of the centre-periphery relationship on an urban scale and in the light of the functional rearrangement that accompanies the processes of urban regeneration. A comparison will be made between two former industrial peripheries: Alcântara (Lisbon) and Bagnoli (Naples). In addition to the bibliographic and documentary analysis, the authors have carried out an intense fieldwork, aimed at the census of the tourist facilities and their comparison. The results of the research show that Alcântara has undergone a process of urban regeneration in recent years which fostered tourist development, while Bagnoli seems to be stuck in a state of incapacity to develop a systemic regional planning, which also affects the pace of a possible tourist prospect.

Post-Colonial Consumer Respect and the Framing of Neocolonial Consumption in Advertising

Abstract This study of the production, representation, and reception of post-colonial advertising in India reveals a politics of consumer respectability. The post-colonial politics of consumer respectability is located at the intersection of center–periphery relations, class divisions, and colorism in a way that it frames neocolonial consumption. Advertisers depict middle-class consumer respectability by asserting Indian nationalism and by degrading the West as a symbol of colonialism. Such depictions are class- and color-based and show under-class and dark-skinned consumers in subordinate positions. Furthering such neocolonial frames of consumption, Indian advertising advances the middle-class desire for Eurocentric modernity by reinforcing the colonial trope of India as temporally lagging behind the West. Finally, middle-class consumer respectability involves a neocolonial whitening of self with epidermalized shaping of inter-corporeality and agency. In uncovering the theoretical implications of advertising as a site of avenging degradation, desiring modernity, and whitening of self, this study contributes by offering insights into how the politics of post-colonial consumer respectability furthers neocolonial frames of consumption.

Justice in energy transformations as a spatial phenomenon: A framework for analyzing multi-dimensional justice claims

Energy transformations not only evoke multi-dimensional claims for just distribution, recognition, and procedures, but also reveal how these claims depend on and shape the spatial context that they address. The aim of this contribution is to provide a framework that connects spatial and multi-dimensional aspects of justice in energy transition research. It builds on literature in the fields of just transition studies and energy justice. While the relevance of considering space and scale in socio-technical transitions is widely acknowledged, a conceptual framework can help to connect justice and spatiality in transitions and support scrutiny of their interconnections. The present work seeks to address this gap by incorporating contributions from the fields of political geography and political theory. Accordingly, it discusses central intersections in the moral–spatial tension field. Spatial justice claims are conceptualized as referring at the same time to moral (substance-related) and spatial dimensions of (in)justice and relating both to each other. The paper conceptualizes how justice claims refer to multiple scales, center-periphery relations, interterritorial and infrastructure-related concerns as well as to place-based attachments. It discusses the positioning of actors in this moral-spatial field as well as the reference to directional patterns of responsibility and effect. Attention to spatial justice claims further discloses processes of boundary construction, perpetuation, and contestation as well as the regional entrenchment of widely shared justice claims. Transformation-related political institutions and processes in affected regions reveal how various spatial justice claims are publicly related to each other.

Diplomats as Skilful Bricoleurs of the Digital Age: EU Foreign Policy Communications from the COREU to WhatsApp

Summary The article analyses how and to what effect diplomats navigate a landscape in which the physical and the digital have become inextricably intertwined, with emphasis on written communications in the European Union (EU) foreign policy system from the 1970s to the present. Putting International Relations literature into dialogue with Management Studies (particularly media richness theory and sense-making), it looks at how diplomats work their way through different forms of digital written communications. It addresses the effects of diplomacy’s digitalisation in terms of time, space and confidentiality. Digital tools have hastened diplomacy’s tempo and affected security considerations, while they have had mixed effects in terms of centre–periphery relations in diplomatic conversations, particularly for gender and wealth. The EU foreign policy system exemplifies these dynamics, from the spectacular rise of the COREU system to its decline in favour of faster, easier-to-use technologies such as e-mail and texting.

Co‐temporality and Sovremennost': Late Imperial and Early Soviet Photographs

Co‐temporality and <i>Sovremennost'</i>: Late Imperial and Early Soviet Photographs

«Жесткая» и «гибкая» власть континентальной империи: реминисценции на историческую тему

In this paper, the author attempts to apply the concept of ‘soft power’ developed by J. Nye, which has been established in the field of international relations and political science, to the historical domain, and specifically to the analysis of basic trends in the development of the Russian Empire and the USSR. The peculiarities of the balance of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power tools are identified with regards to the totalitarian (authoritarian) and democratic regimes. The concept of ‘smart power’ is placed into the context of historical research. The author points out the connection between the mechanisms of ‘soft power’ and the development of civil society. Russia and the USSR are presented as continental empires of the colonial type, which possessed internal colonies and dependent territories. Against the background of the general patterns of development of continental empires, which include territorial expansion, the specifics of the USSR are shown. It is determined that expanding the resource base under the dominance of the vector of extensive development, ensuring ‘security’ of the imperial ‘heartland’ at the expense of peripheral territories, and maintaining the geopolitical status have been the key drivers of development of continental empires. In relation to the USSR, the specific function of the metropolis, or capital city of the empire, is underlined. The author pays particular attention to the development of the eastern territories, and Siberia as an internal colony, that was based on the principle of ‘a region for the country’ while ignoring its own interests and internal needs. This has formed a stable matrix of suboptimal centre-periphery relations in the country. It is noted that the empire preserved itself as a single state based on the synergy of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power, projected both into the intra-imperial space and outside. The gradual degradation of the ‘smart power’ tools used by the Soviet regime is shown. It is concluded that the collapse of the USSR meant an imbalance and loss of efficiency in the use of factors and tools of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power, and now Russia is still experiencing a post-imperial syndrome. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of satellite countries made it necessary to shift the emphasis to internal stabilization. However, the influence of two key arguments: nuclear weapons and huge resources and territory, ensured the preservation of the previous ambitions.