To Örebro University

One way to analyze globalization is to highlight a reordering of spatial scales. Traditional territorial units such as nation-states are not necessarily replaced but rather complemented by other kinds of units. One such unit that has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of geopolitics is the urban area and the city. The urban space can be both a geopolitically important arena where for instance war takes place, but urban space can also be constructed for various purposes and sometimes has great symbolic value on its own. The purpose of the paper is to explore the geopolitical importance of cities, compared to other territorial entities and to build a bridge between traditional geopolitics and urban studies. The paper explores images of the city as a geopolitical arena and the city as a space for everyday life. The paper furthermore scrutinizes the link between urban politics and identity, drawing from discussions on the city as; 1. a symbolic space, 2. a contested space and, 3. a space for identity politics. Empirical illustrations will be taken from earlier studies within this field but also from a field study performed in Jerusalem 2007. This paper contributes to an ongoing discussion on the gap between more ”traditional” geopolitical analyses and critical-constructivist approaches.