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Spaces of lobbying
Author(s) -
Hofman Annelore,
Aalbers Manuel B.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geography compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 1749-8198
DOI - 10.1111/gec3.12309
Subject(s) - power (physics) , politics , position (finance) , state (computer science) , political science , political mobilization , political economy , economic system , sociology , business , economics , law , computer science , physics , finance , algorithm , quantum mechanics
This paper departs from the observation that a systematic review of the available theories, concepts, and methods and techniques for researching lobbying is lacking. Lobbying is a relational geography of power. And although economic and political geographers study a range of practices that could be considered constitutive to lobbying, they have hitherto largely ignored the spaces of lobbying. We conceptualize lobbying as a practice of 3 flows between spaces of lobbying: the flows of people between organizations, the flows of ideas between these people, and the flows of resources between organizations. Lobbying is fundamental to understand the execution of power by firms towards a range of state actors, and understood as the directed actions of individuals and groups to alter, influence, or hamper the decision‐making process of governments; these actions consist of the mobilization of resources that activate power and enable access to spaces of lobbying. Access to different spaces of lobbying will influence the effectiveness of lobbying practices. Geographers are in a unique position to look at the mobilization of power through access to spaces of lobbying and its resources. We discuss how lobbying is supported by material and immaterial resources for the (re)production of spaces of lobbying. Finally, we present different methods and techniques to research lobbying.