On Schmitt and Space

Claudio Minca is Professor and Head of Cultural Geography at Wegeningen University, the Netherlands.Rory Rowan is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geography at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

• Introduction 1. Writing Carl Schmitt 2. The Return of Carl Schmitt 3. Spatializing the Political 4. Liberal Leviathan 5. Nazi Behemoth 6. Groβraum 7. Spatial Histories 8. A New Nomos of the Earth? Conclusion

"Minca and Rowan show in great detail that Schmitt was a deeply spatial thinker and argue very persuasively that his multi-layered spatial understanding of politics remains a source of useful insights in the 21st century. In the process, they also provide a model well worth emulating of how to approach 'tainted' thinkers without either whitewashing their misdeeds or needlessly jettisoning their real contributions."-- Professor Matthew Hannah, Chair of Cultural Geography, Geographic Institute, University of Bayreuth"Carl Schmitt’s writings have had an outsized, and often misunderstood, influence on the spatial turn in political theory, as well as the philosophical turn in political geography. By reading Schmitt’s oeuvre as an ongoing quest for spatial order, Minca and Rowan offer a new and comprehensive entry point for understanding, and critiquing, one of the 20th century’s most important political thinkers."-- Professor Philip Steinberg, Professor of Political Geography and Director of IBRU: Centre for Borders Research, Durham University