Die Restrukturierung staatlichen Raums

Abstract

Drawing upon Lefebvre's theory of state space, this essay interprets currently unfolding transformations of state form as a reconfiguration of the spatial scales on which state power is deployed. Various transformations of regional and urban planning policies in the FRG since the early 1970s indicate the state's crucial role in the production and restructuring of social space in an era of intensified globalization. The major role ofregional and local state institutions as both agents and sites of capitalist restructuring suggests that contemporary territorial states are not being eroded or dissolved in the face of globalization but re-scaled and reterritorialized.