Geographical (Re)presentations in Czech Parliamentary Speeches

Geographical inequalities constitute a core research topic in social geography with far-reaching implications for issues in political science as well. While economic and social forms of such inequalities are widely discussed, spatial inequalities in political representation remain underexplored. This contribution examines the representation of geographical places in parliamentary speeches of the Czech Parliament between 2013 and 2025. It utilizes named entity recognition and geocoding tools together with subsequent thematic analysis, drawing on data from the ParCzech and ParlaMint corpora. This methodological framework enables assessment of both the frequency of Czech placename mentions in parliamentary speeches and the discourse attached to these places. Additionally, the paper explores authorship, with particular focus on partisan and geographical affiliations of speakers, as well as the temporal development of narratives. It discusses spatial inequalities in representation in contrast to classical spatial patterns observed in other forms of territorial differentiation in Czechia, such as the core–periphery distinction or the effects of the Czech Sudetenland “phantom” border. The study offers not only novel empirical findings but also a significant methodological contribution as one of the first works addressing geographical inequalities in political representation. Unlike previous studies, it focuses on places themselves and the inequalities in their representation, rather than on how politicians strategically deploy geographical references. In doing so, the paper bridges geography, computational linguistics, and political science, contributing to the broader "GeoAI" turn in geographical science.