ABSTRACT
David Chandler For many critical theorists it is clear that the era of territorialized political community is over. We appear to have no greater sense of political connection to our fellow citizens than we do to the activities and struggles of people elsewhere in the world. In Britain, where I live and work, my colleagues are much more likely to take an interest in or express concern over the political process of the United States, Kenya or Zimbabwe than to become engaged in domestic political contestation. It would appear that even governing elites can muster little interest in traditional territorial politics with little to distinguish the main parties and the business of government increasingly reduced to technocratic administration and managerialism. Even for governing classes it appears that what happens elsewhere, in Africa, the Balkans or the Middle East, is what really matters, or that key policy issues are ones which necessitate new institutional frameworks of post-territorial co-operation, such as the dangers of global warming or the war on terror. Domestic or territorial politics appears to have been reduced to an empty shell, with little meaning or importance attached to traditional contests of political representation.
