Charisma and Space

Abstract This article uses Max Weber's analysis of charisma to differentiate types of symbolic places. Although Weber did not include the role of space in his analysis of charisma, we can construct different types of spatial charisma based on his distinction between traditional and bureaucratic regimes. Heritage sites and monuments are used by traditional regimes to legitimise their rule by looking back to their charismatic origins, while futuristic places are used to convince the population that bureaucratic regimes will provide a brighter future. In reality these ideal types of charismatic places are almost always mixed. Nation-states combine both types of charismatic places. The analysis of the Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany shows that the meaning of a place can change and incorporate both types of spatial charisma at the same time and place. This was the consequence of a deliberate policy to legitimise a new economic regime in Germany's Ruhr area

Branding soft spaces

This paper discusses how newly-conceived soft spaces–typically with fuzzy boundaries and less formally organized institutional structures–are ‘commodified’ through visualizations in promoting practices. By discussing those practices, the article argues that promotion and branding are fundamentally processes where these soft spaces become hardened. This hardening is embedded in branding-related ‘speech acts’ and visual framings in particular. The article states that although new soft spaces are considered highly useful in competitivity-enhancing spatial policies where flexible spaces and fuzzy boundaries are typically emphasized, paradoxically their ‘softness’ gradually decreases as a result of branding process consisting of elements of expressing, mirroring, impressing and reflecting. It thus needs to be asked whether soft spaces can be branded without using framings and speech acts that harden them. The soft regions of the Bothnian Arc, a Swedish-Finnish coastal region around the Gulf of Bothnia, and the Region Foodvalley, an agrarian region in the middle of the Netherlands, are used here as examples to discuss how soft spaces transform in this context

Iconic site development and legitimating policies : The changing role of water in Dutch identity discourses

This paper focusses on the role of iconic sites in the legitimation of policies. Traditionally the legitimation of administrations is based on national communities. The undermining of these territorial communities, through globalisation and individualisation, make iconic sites more important to anchor spatial identities and link these between groups and across scales. Traditional thick spatial identities based on a historically formed nested hierarchy of local, regional and national territorial communities are in decline. Administrations have to rely more on thinner, more forward looking identities. The spatiality of iconic sites makes them useful to communicate a consistent identity discourse linking different types and scales of spatial identities of administrations and populations. This paper differentiates between backward looking heritage sites and forward looking flagship sites previewing an ideal identity to be realised in the future. The ways these types of iconic sites are used in identity discourses by administration to legitimise policies is illustrated by an analysis of how local identity discourses on waterlogged backlands are linked with the changing national policies of water management in the Netherlands. This shows how the administration of the city region of Arnhem-Nijmegen uses a newly constructed park as an iconic site in their spatial identity discourse

Iconic site development and legitimating policies: The changing role of water in Dutch identity discourses

This paper focusses on the role of iconic sites in the legitimation of policies. Traditionally the legitimation of administrations is based on national communities. The undermining of these territorial communities, through globalisation and individualisation, make iconic sites more important to anchor spatial identities and link these between groups and across scales. Traditional thick spatial identities based on a historically formed nested hierarchy of local, regional and national territorial communities are in decline. Administrations have to rely more on thinner, more forward looking identities. The spatiality of iconic sites makes them useful to communicate a consistent identity discourse linking different types and scales of spatial identities of administrations and populations. This paper differentiates between backward looking heritage sites and forward looking flagship sites previewing an ideal identity to be realised in the future. The ways these types of iconic sites are used in identity discourses by administration to legitimise policies is illustrated by an analysis of how local identity discourses on waterlogged backlands are linked with the changing national policies of water management in the Netherlands. This shows how the administration of the city region of Arnhem-Nijmegen uses a newly constructed park as an iconic site in their spatial identity discourse

Is the World-System Approach Just a Global Perspective? The Connection Between Global and Regional Developments in Pre-Industrial France

France is the only state who always belonged to the core of the world-system and never attained hegemony, nor declined into the semi-periphery. This paper focuses on the reasons for this relatively stable position in the pre-industrial world-system. Crucial is France's size and fragmented regional structure. These constraints prevented France from building on its favorable position at the inception of the world-system. France's development within the world-system was further retarded by the shift in the center of gravity and mode of transportation of the world-system. This interplay between general processes, at the level of the entire world-system, and the specific regional structure within France, demonstrates how the general processes of the world-system can be linked to the specific situation in a given country

Five Centuries of Regional Development in Northwest Germany and the Netherlands

Germany and the Netherlands have developed very differently over the centuries. A closeexamination of Dutch and German regions show the differentiated way in which regions profitfrom the changing developmental opportunities of the world-system. This article studies long-term regional development using regional urban population in the Netherlands and NorthwestGermany. Initially the coastal regions profited from the emerging trade based agricultural world-system. Later on, state formation enabled some of the previously developed regions to regaintheir position. Industrialization concentrated the development. In recent times, developmentspreads, giving developmental opportunities to some previously disadvantaged regions that arewell located and well-endowed to profit from the recent developments in the world-system