Nation states, ideological power and globalisation: can geographers catch the boat? Martin Jones * , Rhys Jones Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK Received 13 February 2003; received in revised form 26 November 2003 Abstract After a period of considerable and sustained hegemony, many commentators have argued that contemporary processes of globalisation are acting as a challenge to nation state sovereignty. The paper argues that geographers need to focus on the ways in which the nation state continues to act, albeit in a modified manner, within the era of globalisation. This might help to position geography within globalisation debates, which––according to Dicken [Geographers and Ôglobalization’: (yet) another missed boat? forthcoming, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2004]––we have not been centrally involved in. Drawing on the work of Michael Mann, we focus on a neglected dimension of state power––namely, its ideological form––as a means of exploring how the nation state is being differentially re-engineered under globalisation. Using Mann’s classification of forms of ideological organisation, we deploy three vignettes in order to demonstrate the evolving nature of ideological power within the contemporary UK State. Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nation state; State power; Ideological power; Globalisation; UK The evidence shows unequivocally that geographers are marginal––at best––to the wider globalization debate. Geography is like the small child in the school playground who always gets missed out when the big children are picking teams. Nobody seems to want to choose us. So, we have a serious case of Ômissing geographers’ on our hands ... [and] globalization could turn out to be yet another one of geography’s Ômissed boats’. Indeed, the hi- story of our discipline is replete with cases where what would seem to be geography’s Ônatural’ terri- tory has been invaded and taken over by other dis- ciplines, often in ways that grossly distort Ôthe geographical view’ (Dicken, 2004, p. 5; see also Angel, 2002, p. 254). 1. Introduction There has been much academic debate, in recent years, concerning the functional and territorial restruc- turing that is affecting the contemporary state. Scholars have argued that the nation state’s prime position as the shaper of economic and political processes, and the anchor for cultural identities is increasingly being chal- lenged by organisations and processes lying within and beyond its boundaries (e.g. Brenner et al., 2003; Fukuyama, 1992; Horsman and Marshall, 1994; Jessop, 1999; Keating, 2001; Mann, 1997; Murphy, 1996). Jessop’s (1994, 2002) now-familiar work on the reorga- nisation of the state has been influential as a way of conceptualising the character of some of these changes. Focusing on the de-statisation of the political system, reflected most clearly in the shift from government to governance; the internationalisation of policy commu- nities and networks; and the denationalisation of the state––as evidenced in the sedimentation of new organ- isations of governance, with their societal effects, at different spatial scales––Jessop’s work has contributed much to our understanding of the contemporary state. Academic attention has also focused on the forces that * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: msj@aber.ac.uk (M. Jones), raj@aber.ac.uk (R. Jones). 0016-7185/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2003.12.002 Geoforum 35 (2004) 409–424 www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum