Making European Space Mobility, Power and Territorial Identity [Paperback]

Making European Spaceexplores how future visions of Europe's physical space are being decisively shaped by transnational politics and power struggles, which are being played out in new multi-level arenas of governance across the European Union. At stake are big ideas about mobility and friction, about relations between core and peripheral regions, and about the future Europe's cities and countryside. The book builds a critical narrative of the emergence of a new discourse of Europe as 'monotopia', revealing a very real project to shape European space in line with visions of high speed, frictionless mobility, the transgression of borders, and the creation of city networks. The narrative explores in depth how the particular ideas of mobility and space which underpin this discourse are being constructed in policy making, and reflects on the legitimacy of these policy processes. In particular, it shows how spatial ideas are becoming embedded in the everyday practices of the social and political organisation of space, in ways that make a frictionless Europe seem natural, and part of a common European territorial identity.Part I: Introducing the Construction Sites of European Space 1. Introduction 2. European Integration and the Emergence of European Spatial Policy 3. Linking Discourse and Space Part II:Analysing the Discourse of Monotopia 4. Languages of European Space 5. Being on the Map: the New Iconographies of Power Over European Space Part III: Spatial Practices 6. Shaping a Pan-European Spatial Planning System? 7. Creating New Knowledges of Europe 8. The Europeanisation of Spatial Planning Part IV: Power, Rationalities and Knowledge 9. A Europe of Flows: Creating the Preconditions for Monotopia 10. Dimensions of Monotopia: Exploring the ^D<'Magnetic Triangle^D>' 11. Conclusions: Making European Space?