Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging

Davina Cooper explores governing practices and agendas at the end of the twentieth century, focusing on institutional excess and political transgression, inevitable aspects of modern liberal rule. She examines the identity of the nation-state and its relationship to the wider community to consider the boundaries of the way we are governed.How far should state institutions be able to assert and implement their moral, ethical, and religious visions without losing legitimacy? Cooper illustrates the sites of tension that arise through a number of conflicts, applying recent socio-legal and political theory to her own original research. Governing Out of Order examines issues which include the way British courts have facilitated the privatization of local government, the Canada -- Spain fishing wars, how political and civil bodies struggle over national identity, homosexuality, education, hunting, and religious practice.Davina Cooper asks how governing can be both responsible and radical. She argues that governing principles should be ideologically explicit, prepared to contest and transgress divisions of authority to pursue a multi-cultural, egalitarian vision of political responsibility. Governing Out of Order raises questions and concerns echoed throughout liberal states. It will be a key book for students and scholars in political and social theory, law, and cultural studies.