Virginie Mamadouh

Grid-group cultural theory: an introduction

This article offers an introduction to grid-group cultural theory (also known as grid-group analysis, Cultural Theory or theory of socio-cultural viability), an approach that has been developed over the past thirty years in the work of the British anthropologists Mary Douglas and Michael Thompson, the American political scientist Aaron Wildavsky, and many others. This assessment begins with a presentation of the main claims of the theory, distinguishing two characteristic breads of grid-group cultural theory, in the one it is conceived as a heuristic device, in the other it is seen as a full explanatory theory. This brief is followed by a discussion of the typology generated by the theory. This includes a presentation of the two dimensions of sociality it posits, the cultural map they produce, as well as the four (or five) cultural types derived from them and their designations. The article proceeds with a discussion of key issues including the incorporation of other typologies (such as the one developed to analyse myths of nature), the relations between cultures or rationalities and several methodological issues. Finally the article introduces the contributions to this special issue of the GeoJournal.

The Committee System: Powers, Appointments and Report Allocation

The committee system: powers, appointments and report allocation Skutecznie funkcjonujące komisje są dla Parlamentu Europejskiego niezbedne zarowno ze wzgledu na ich wplyw legislacyjny, jak i na kontrolowanie organow wykonawczych. Wraz ze wzrostem wplywow Parlamentu wzrosla rola komisji w ksztaltowaniu ustawodawstwa Unii Europejskiej (UE) i kontrolowaniu pracy Komisji Europejskiej.

Mapping the political geographies of Europeanization: National discourses, external perceptions and the question of popular culture

Political geographers have significantly contributed to understandings of the spatialities of Europeanization. We review some of this work, while also highlighting research themes where further political-geographic research would be insightful. We note the importance of work that captures both the diverse expressions and meanings attributed to Europe, European integration and ‘European power’ in different places within and beyond the EU, and the variegated manifestations of ‘Europeanizing’ processes across these different spaces. We also suggest that political-geographic research can add crucial input to reconceptualizing European integration as well as Europeanization as it now unfolds in a time of ‘crisis’.

Just War and Extraterritoriality: The Popular Geopolitics of the United States' War on Iraq as Reflected in Newspapers of the Arab World

Abstract As with all wars, the U.S. military invasion of Iraq in 2003 needed to be portrayed as a just war in an attempt to garner support and legitimacy, domestically and internationally. The United States was acting as hegemonic power in the international state-system and, in light of this role, had imperatives and tools in creating the argument for a just war that differed from those used by nonhegemonic states. The United States acted extraterritorially by diffusing a message of moral right. Arab resistance to the war was evident in the construction of the United States and its leadership as immoral, precluding its ability to wage a just war. This article focuses on the Arab response by analyzing the portrayal in Arab newspapers of the imminent war on Iraq. Sixty-five newspapers of the Arabic language (plus the Iraqi news agency), published in seventeen Arab countries, of which four were Iraqi newspapers, were consulted for the purpose of this study. Interpretation of the geopolitical rhetoric within newspaper reports and political cartoons published in Arab newspapers highlights the way that arguments of morality and immorality were connected to understandings of territorial sovereignty and hegemonic extraterritorial influence into territorial sovereign spaces.

The territoriality of European integration and the territorial features of the European Union: the first 50 years

The European Union is generally presented as the most elaborated institutional form of integration ever achieved between democratic states. What the European Union really is or should be is, however, a much debated issue: a (federal) state in formation? or a new form of political governance, very much different from the modern state? Assuming that the later is describing the reality more adequately than the former, this paper explores the territoriality of European integration since the end of the Second World War, in which aftermath Western European states have embarked into the process of peaceful integration. It aims at discussing the specific territoriality of the supranational framework in which Member States partake. To emphasise differences and similarities with modern states, territoriality will be addressed through three main aspects: the territorial dimension of the integration process (e.g. the evolution of the territory under jurisdiction of the supranational authority), the territorial expression of integration in political landscapes typically linked to state territoriality: borders and capital cities.

A political-cultural map of Europe: family structures and the origin of differences between national political cultures in the European Union

Differences between the national political cultures of the European states are puzzling. They are too often taken for granted or treated as an elusive explanation for residual differences that can not be accounted for in comparative politics. Here they are put at the core of a comparative analysis. This article explores the origins of differences between national political cultures. It deals with national political cultures from the perspective of Cultural Theory or grid-group analysis. A national political culture is conceived as a ‘conversation’ between subcultures associated to national political institutions and practices (and not as an aggregated pattern of individual orientations toward political objects). National political cultures can be characterised on the basis of ideal typical patterns of relations between the basic cultures or rationalities distinguished by Cultural Theory. After an assessment of the differences between the national political cultures of the Member States of the European Union, the paper considers traditional family structures as possible sources of differentiation, elaborating upon the work of the French political historian Emmanuel Todd who has documented the correspondence between the geography of traditional family structures and the geography of ideologies in Europe.

11 September and popular geopolitics: a study of websites run for and by Dutch Moroccans

In the eyes of many, the events of 11 September have validated Huntingtons prediction of a ‘clash of civilizations’ between the Islam and the West. Accordingly, the Muslims communities in the West are seen as vanguards of a hostile civilization. The essay aims at exploring the significance of such a geopolitical script in popular geopolitics. It deals with the position of Muslim communities in Western Europe. The analysis focuses on Moroccans in the Netherlands, a Muslim community resulting from recent immigration and on the new media. The empirical section examines how the events and their aftermath were presented and represented on websites run for and by young Dutch Moroccans (websites that have became key public places for this first generation of Muslims born in the Netherlands), and aims at assessing to what extent the ‘clash of civilizations’ script inform their understanding of the events.

Dealing with multilingualism in the European Union; cultural theory rationalities and language policies

The EU currently has 11 official and working languages. There is a considerable amount of dissatisfaction regarding both the practicalities and the costs of institutional multilingualism and the ongoing linguistic homogenization through the informal use of international English, but politicians are careful to avoid this sensitive issue because there seems to be no possible compromise between improving EU-wide communication and respecting national linguistic identities. This article applies grid-group cultural theory to reveal alternative ways to conceptualize communication between individuals who speak different languages, and consequently to identify strategies to overcome linguistic barriers and to justify linguistic policies for supranational institutions and transnational encounters.

The regions in Brussels: subnational actors in the supranational arena

Discusses political, economic, and financial aspects of regions in European Union member states, focusing on the EU political arena in Brussels, Belgium. Highlights the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and representational offices in Brussels

An introduction to institutional transplantation

In the aftermath of 11 September, Western television publics got to know Al-Jazeera, a satellite television channel based in Doha, Qatar, because national and international television stations broadcasted exclusive images from this Arab channel. It was the only channel with an office in Taliban’s Kabul and it took delivery of several video statements by America’s most wanted: Osama bin Laden. Long before the attacks on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, Al-Jazeera was already famous under the Arab public and students of the Arab World. It owed its reputation to its editorial freedom and its legendary controversial broadcasts, a unique phenomenon in the media landscape of the Arab World. National (state) channels and other pan-Arab (private) channels hardly meet free press criteria. News and politics are reduced to propaganda broadcasts for those in power. In contrast to these practices, Al-Jazeera gives a voice to opponents to the regimes in power and organise round tables and public debates. It is often called ‘The Arabic CNN’ to underline that Al-Jazeera and CNN share common characteristics: an international audience (although through a different world language, but Al-Jazeera’s global audience includes the Arabic speaking diasporas in Europe and North America), a reputation established by the news coverage of a war (the 1991 Gulf War for CNN, the 2001 Afghanistan War for Al-Jazeera) and last but not least similarities in form and presentation. However, if Al-Jazeera can be described as the Arab CNN, the reverse (CNN as the American Al-Jazeera) is not true. This is because CNN has been a model for Al-Jazeera’, for example one of the most popular shows ‘The opposite direction’ was modelled after ‘Crossfire’, and not the other way around1.