Spatial Entrepreneurs: Actors and Practices of Space-Making Under the Global Condition

 As essential components of globalization, the study of practices and  processes of space formation promotes a nuanced understanding of  globalization. How do people create spaces for social action under the  global condition, especially since the nineteenth century, when global  interconnectedness increased rapidly? We explore the problem through  specific case studies. Anthropologists, historians, geographers,  sociologists, global studies scholars, and cultural studies scholars  examine the agency of, e.g., members and staff of African regional  organizations, Indian migrant workers, female GDR activists, Soviet  planning experts, or US novelists. By studying elites as well as  middle-class and micro-entrepreneurs – i.e. more and less influential  actors – we encourage reflection on the relationship between power and  space and examine how spatial entrepreneurs attempt to influence the  shaping of space and their spatial literacy. The analysis aims at a  better understanding of the different globalization projects, their  crisis-like clashes, and the resulting conflictual development of  spatial orders.