IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v39y2021i5p879-899.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contiguity, constituencies, and the political representation of minorities

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Forest

    (5620McGill University, Canada)

  • Mike Medeiros

Abstract

Contiguity is commonly treated as an essential, albeit noncontroversial quality of electoral districts. In contrast, we argue that the virtues ascribed to contiguity – discouraging gerrymandering, facilitating democratic deliberation, and mirroring political communities – either have weak justifications in practice or do not have a clear association with contiguity per se . Moreover, contiguity can impose significant constraints on minority representation when minorities live in segregated, widely separated settlements. We use examples from Canada to demonstrate the effects of contiguity on minority representation by creating sets of non-contiguous constituencies that substantially increase the number of districts with minority majorities. More generally, we argue that scholars should pay more attention to how the conflation of contiguity and political community are woven into state practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Forest & Mike Medeiros, 2021. "Contiguity, constituencies, and the political representation of minorities," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(5), pages 879-899, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:879-899
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654420972401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654420972401
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654420972401?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richa Nagar & Victoria Lawson & Linda McDowell & Susan Hanson, 2002. "Locating Globalization: Feminist (Re)readings of the Subjects and Spaces of Globalization," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(3), pages 257-284, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. J. Devika, 2019. "Women’s Labour, Patriarchy and Feminism in Twenty-first Century Kerala: Reflections on the Glocal Present," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 24(1), pages 79-99, June.
    2. Annelies Goger, 2013. "From Disposable to Empowered: Rearticulating Labor in Sri Lankan Apparel Factories," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2628-2645, November.
    3. Caitlin Cahill & Cindi Katz, 2008. "Young Americans: Geographies at the Crossroads," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(12), pages 2809-2813, December.
    4. Ding Fei & Abdi Ismail Samatar & Chuan Liao, 2018. "Chinese–African encounters in high†tech sectors: Comparative investigation of Chinese workplace regimes in Ethiopia," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 455-475, March.
    5. Madhumita Dutta, 2020. "Workplace, emotional bonds and agency: Everyday gendered experiences of work in an export processing zone in Tamil Nadu, India," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1357-1374, October.
    6. Maria Daskalaki & Marianna Fotaki & Maria Simosi, 2021. "The gendered impact of the financial crisis: Struggles over social reproduction in Greece," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(4), pages 741-762, June.
    7. Sohyun Lee, 2024. "The specific visuality of women of the global South in the media of the global North," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Araby Smyth, 2022. "Challenging the financialization of remittances agenda through Indigenous women’s practices in Oaxaca," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 761-778, June.
    9. Paul Routledge & Andrew Cumbers & Corinne Nativel, 2007. "Grassrooting Network Imaginaries: Relationality, Power, and Mutual Solidarity in Global Justice Networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(11), pages 2575-2592, November.
    10. Denise L. Spitzer & Theodora Lam & Kellynn Wee & Brenda S. A. Yeoh, 2022. "Close encounters: Migrant bodies, workplace, and intimate labor in Asia," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 897-905, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:879-899. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.