State-Territory Dynamics: The Globalization of Local Control

Abstract
On the occasion of this workshop, Joshua B. Forrest presents his most recent research focusing on the re-imagining and globalization of local control. Drawing on examples from rural Guinea-Bissau and rural areas in the US, he highlights the ways in which localities in different parts of the world are reacting to new state-territory dynamics and resultant re-spatializations generated by contestations over natural resources management. Starting from this presentation, the workshop invites participants to engage in a discussion, based on their own research experiences. It aims to elaborate on processes that while occurring on internationally recognized state-territories nevertheless point to complex processes of re-spatialization that involve state actors in different capacities and to varying degrees, as well as local groups, and other global (non-state) actors.

Biographical Note
Prof. Joshua B. Forrest (La Roche College, Pittsburgh, PA)
Joshua B. Forrest holds a PhD in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1987). Since 2004, he is Associate Professor (as well as Department Chair) of History and Political Science at La Roche College in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, US). Before that he taught at the University of Vermont (1989-2002). His research has focused on the politics of local autonomy, sub-nationalism, as well as the history of Guinea-Bissau. Among many others, his publications on these subjects include Namibia’s Post-Apartheid Regional Institutions (1998), Lineages of State Fragility: Rural Civil Society in Guinea-Bissau (2003), and Subnationalism in Africa. Ethnicity, Alliances and Politics (2004).