Search

Practices of spatial representation can be revealing indicators of particular brands of nationalized discourse. In this article, the prevalent use of a comparison between eastern Germany and the Italian Mezzogiorno by a specific set of German elites is examined. Anxieties about Germany's place in the European and global economies are accompanied by a spatial vocabulary that uploads these anxieties onto the ongoing project of German unification. Eastern Germany, painted as a homogenized 'space of backwardness,' is thereby made out as a key factor inhibiting competitiveness and modernization of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]