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Geography Distinguished Seminar Series
Date: 25 February 2022 (Friday)
Time: 19:00 – 20:30 (HKT)
Venue: via Zoom
Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=80307
Zoom link: link will be provided upon successful registration
Title of the talk:
On Subterranean Geopolitics: Relational space, value, and the tunnels of Gibraltar
This paper explores the concept of 'value' as a bridge between economic geography and geopolitics, looking to stratification and de-stratification of assemblages as processes of value-making in both the economic and political sphere. This argument proceeds through an in-depth historical analysis of the tunnel system within the Rock of Gibraltar, a literal case of de-stratification, which has oscillated between having military value of the highest order and being left mostly derelict by the Ministry of Defence of the UK. In recent decades, its value has shifted to an economic register, but the materiality of the tunnels -- and their original military purpose -- haunts their contemporary valuation.
Speaker:
Professor Jason Dittmer
Professor, Political Geography and Head of the Department of Geography, University College London
Jason Dittmer is Professor of Political Geography and Head of the Department of Geography at University College London. His recent books include Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Identity(2019) and Diplomatic Material: Affect, assemblage, and foreign policy (2017). His research explores, materiality, assemblages, and geopolitics.
