Proximity and Reach: were there Powers at a Distance before Latour?

ch. 6
In Allen, John (2003) Lost Geographies of Power, Malden, MA: Blackwell.

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Proximity and Reach

Domination at a distance: the ability to act at a distance by drawing others into a network of connections designed to realize the will of those holding the arrangement together (p. 130)

Latours account: central bodies establish networks through which resources and information circulate, and are in a position to fix a collective orientation through constructed meanings and strategies.

It is possible thus to replicate the ordered schemas of those in control through translation strategies. Such translation however can be more open than authority suggests, leading to hit-and-miss (Deleuze and Guattari) rather than control

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Proximity and Reach

2 doubts arise:
once authority is devolved, delegates may displace or reinterpret the commands of the centre the more the intersections, the more the possibilities for others to mobilise their own resources and interests and alter the line of judgement

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Proximity and Reach

Nikolas Rose (1999): to a large extent, a legacy of Latour

Power over space works through a network of experts in which rulers align their aims with those of others, opening lines of force across the territory
The

translation of experts if acknowledged by Rose, and thus the need for negotiation to establish common understandings
Authorities

are nevertheless able to promote particular truths and ways of being incorporated by other and which constrain their options and leave them no option but compliance
But what about those at the receiving end? Society in general has grown sceptical of the claims of experts. Therefore there must be more at play than the form of endless authority suggested by Rose

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Proximity and Reach

Indeed, experts also exercise other modalities of power: negotiation, seduction, inducement and persuasion

But what happens with distance?

Authority-recognition is less effective with distance, compared to seduction or manipulation Inducement may operate from afar as long as commitment is sustained through the value of the benefits on offer Coercion at proximity may turn into negotiation with those at a distance

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DOMINATION IN REAL-TIME

Communication technologies have reduced spatial distance and brought home others
Dissolving
A

space is an alternative to traversing it through networks

claim by Saskia Sassen that financial managers in London or NY are command points embedded in electronic networks and able to dominate other and make them comply

But other accounts are possible, such as Nigel Thrifts (1994): the City is more a cultural centre, recognised in its capacity and expertise about financial issues

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Proximity and Reach

DOMINATION IN REAL-TIME
Accounts

of real-time domination forget:

both exercising power over space and in real-time require mediation

power does not transcend space

about effectiveness, simultaneity does not depend on the speed of transmission but on the capacities for decodification of the actors involved the dispersal of power does not require only of communication networks, but also (sometimes predominantly) of physical presence

In account such as Rose or Sassen power tends to be judged by its intended (the City as having the capacities to rule the world) rather than by its actual effects, by the pretension of the centre rather than by reception

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