Assignment: Structural Coherence in Political Geography
Answer any three of the following questions in the space provided. Clearly indicate the question you are answering. Each question is worth 20 marks for a total of 60 marks. (each question count as 2 pages double space)
1. What does Harvey mean by ‘structural coherence’? How does structural coherence relate to the State? What are the implications of ‘structural coherence’ for capitalism?
2. Nationalism emphasizes the primacy of the ‘nation’. If the nation is the ideal form of social and political identity, does this mean that every nation should constitute a state?
3. What is the difference between ‘state’ and ‘government’? How relevant is this difference to exploring the purpose and operation of the state?
4. What are the two crises faced by the capitalist state? Is it possible to resolve successfully these crises?
(The textbook chapter1, chapter2 and chapter 5 is what the question include)
In answering the questions, you do not have to provide references for lecture material but you must provide references for any ideas, arguments or wording from the course textbook with in-text citations as follows (author, year of publication and page numbers) for example (Jones, 2014: 17)
PLEASE ONLY USE the material from textbooks or lecture material. Other resources are not allowed.
citation for the textbook is Jones M., Jones R., & M. Woods (2014) An Introduction to Political Geography: Space, Place and Politics, Routledge ISBN 0-415-45797-2.
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Sociology
Question 1: Structural Coherence in Political Geography
According to Harvey, structural coherence consists of three factors: capital, labor, and land. Capitalism is majorly the economic system that involves capital accumulation, pricing, and competitive markets. It promotes innovation by giving endless opportunities. Each individual is given an equal chance despite the class differences, thus the structural coherence part that links to labor. Decision-making is done by wealth owners, which brings in the term power. The idea he gave was of investment, which is significant capital. To him, there was a need for long term investment. He aimed at talking about the production of space.
Uneven geographical development resulted from a lack of capital accumulation. Getting to know the public world without striving to change things as in the capitalist crisis is what Harvey was against. Geographers were advised to change the corporate state within capitalism. The sources of power under capitalism are linked directly to land and territorial factors. Mobility, according to Harvey, is necessary for capital accumulation. Immobility, on the other hand, hinders capital accumulation. Structural coherence, in the end, protects the national economy. Harvey argues that capitalists increase the mass and total value of commodities while trying to gain maximum profits. They try to maximize profits by reducing salaries, which restricts the purchasing power of the people. Transport and communication are stated to be linked by locational decisions, thus affecting the people directly. The infrastructural facilities management is what leads to finding space. Harvey explains their role as fixed investments towards the growth of productions.
Harvey states that trying to fix capital shortcomings through internal transformations reveal the relationship between fixed and mobility capital. To him, capital has to build its fixed space only to destroy or reduce it, thus wasting most of the capital used for it, such as fixed airports. Reconstructions can be costlier than the original plan. Fixed long term investments enable saving for state expansion or developments (Jones, Jones, & Woods 2014:226). Some fixes enhance space to encourage overpopulation that shows structural coherence. Innovations are facilitated by accumulated capital from fixed assets, thus the need to emphasize accumulation. Over-accumulation only occurs when capital and labor can no longer be re-invested at the normal profit levels at their space but require higher rates. That eventually leads to threatening the devaluation of capital and labor to gain the land space. Geographical expansion and restructuring are hence vital factors in maintaining state structure coherence. New methods are needed at the end to accommodate the developments or space. They include developing external markets elsewhere to deal with under consumption, trading with non-capitalist states to create broader markets, and exporting surplus capital to invest in new production facilities. He argues that travel overland time and cost do not necessarily match, which means that there could be more work to do related to space and time to help accumulate more facilities.
2. Nationalism emphasizes the primacy of the 'nation.'
‘Nation’ as an imagined community of people sharing customs and language is a concept founded in nationalism. According to Jones et al. (2014:76), the two significant constructs here are the location and the language. When one is born in a particular region and speaks a given language, an imaginary boundary forms that differentiate that person from others. One's ability or inability to express themselves in a specific language led to their exclusion or inclusion in a nation (Jones et al. (2014:76). These themes are what geographers use to discuss nationalism. Anthony Smith defined a nation as a human population with common myths, one economy, legal rights, and a shared historical past (Jones et al., 2014:77). In using this Smiths definition, nations have geographical qualities that confine them to a particular territory. Meaning, they have to belong to a geographical region. These geographical conditions are summed up as a landscape, a common culture, and historical memory.
The cultural themes that define a nation distinguish it from the state. While states are organizations that control territories, nations also do so except that they do so in an impersonal manner. There is no emphasis on cultural aspects in states as it is the case in nations. The citizens of a nation are more inclined to their cultures compared to those in states (Jones et al., 2014:77). The communities that have close ties of history and culture are confined to a given territorial boundary. Therefore, when these institutions come together, a nation-state is formed. Jones et al. (2014:77) add that there are also legal and economic processes that play out before a nation is formed. Because a nation comes from people who share the same cultural values and belong to a given territory, nati...