Counter-hegemonic strategy from the Global South: A pluri-scalar war of position

Abstract

Within the context of the crisis of capitalist world order (Gills 2020), a resurgent interest in the historical question of strategy in/for progressive transformation against the accumulated power of global capital spans the social sciences and activist camps. Except for human geographers (e.g. Castree, Featherstone and Herod 2008; Sparke 2008), however, neglected in these discussions is the role of socio-spatial theory in engendering structural transformation within the constraints of the prevailing historical structure. To this end, this article integrates neo-Gramscian with human geography theory and method in elaborating the notion of “pluri-scalar war of position”, incipiently defined as “multidimensional struggle over minds and strategic places at and across different interlocking scales simultaneously in the construction of a historic bloc” (Muhr 2013a: 7).