Entwined visions: Capital, Politics and Nature in the production of Trump International - Scotland's Aberdeenshire golf resort

Författare

Erik Jönsson

Summary, in English

With planning application for Trump Golf International Links Scotland's (TIGLS) proposed Golf Resort at Menie Estate outside Aberdeen a site is opened up for development to fulfil visions of producing a world class golf resort. Both a Site of Special Scientific Interest and local inhabitants are affected by this, and various protests have been aired during the process. This paper explores the environmental transformations as a political process mediated by the state (O'Connor 1998) and how the state opens up sites for the circulation of capital (Harvey 2006) within this process. However, this should not be seen as a state simply serving the visions of a company. Rather, the process is one where the visions of the company have combined with other political visions. In short, a vision of a profitable resort with seaside vistas has linked together with pro-growth and Scottish pro-independence visions in creating the preconditions for transforming this site producing a profitable nature mediated by the planning process. TIGLS had to gain acceptance for a development that goes beyond freedom to do what they like with the owned land. The importance of attractive vistas meant that the company has striven to control an area larger than the actual property. TIGLS made this control possible both by threatening to pull out of development and by expressing Donald Trump's Scottish roots, thereby managing to steer the mediations in a way that open up the site for investment and gave control over an broader field than merely their own property.

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