This innovative Research Agenda draws together discussions on the conceptualization of territory and the ways in which territory and territorial practices are intimately bound with issues of power and control. Expert contributors provide a critical assessment of key areas of scholarship on territory and territoriality across a wide range of spatial scales and with examples drawn from the global landscape.
"Shifting Grounds brings together the existing social constructivist research in International Relations (IR) and political geography, and examines the interactive relationship between territory and war from conceptual, theoretical, and historical perspectives. The central premise is the following: territory is what states and societies make of it. Put differently, states and societies have adhered to different forms of territoriality across time and space, and territory as well as territorial control meant different things in different time periods and regions. Shifting Grounds makes two claims. First, how state elites conceive territory within and beyond their domains affect their military objectives as well as methods and strategies for waging war. Second, adherence to different forms of territoriality lead to different modes and patterns of war, and wars themselves may affect how state elites and societies conceive territories. The impacts of different territorial ideas and practices on war are illustrated through a wide variety of cases including but not limited to Revolutionary France, the Ottoman Empire, British colonial expansion in South Asia, and ISIS. The transformative roles that wars can play in shaping the dominant territorial ideas and geopolitical assumptions, in turn, are examined in the context of "systemic" wars, with an emphasis on the diverging impacts of such wars on Western and non-Western geographies. Shifting Grounds sheds light on the shifting and shifty nature of the relationship between territorial ideas and armed conflict not only in the context of the distant the past, but also in present-day global politics"--
Territories are more than simply bounded spaces; they reflect the ways in which we think of geographic space. Territoriality, or laying claim to territory, can be seen as the spatial expression of power, with borders dividing those inside from those outside. The book provides an introduction to the concept of territory, the ways in which ideologies and social practices are manifested in space, the deployment of territorial strategies and the geographical outcomes of these. This revised and updated third edition focuses on both macro-scale examples and those less obvious micro-scale ones, and it explores how territorial strategies are used in the maintaining of power, or as a means of resistance. Throughout the book, key questions emerge concerning geographic space. Who is "allowed" to be in particular spaces and who is excluded or discouraged from being there? How are territorial practices utilised in conflicts concerned with socio-political power and identity and how are ideologies transposed onto space? Written from a geographical perspective, the book is interdisciplinary, drawing on ideas and material from a range of academic disciplines including history, political science, sociology, international relations, and cultural studies. Theoretical underpinnings are supported by a variety of historical and contemporary examples, drawn from a range of geographic contexts.
This short introduction conveys the complexities associated with the term "territory" in a clear and accessible manner. It surveys the field and brings theory to ground in the case of Palestine. A clear and accessible introduction to the complexities associated with the term "territory". Provides an interdisciplinary survey of the many strands of research in the field. Addresses specific areas including interpretations of territorial structures; the relationship between territoriality and scale; the validity and fluidity of territory; and the practical, social processes associated with territorial re-configurations. Stresses that our understanding of territory is inseparable from our understanding of power. Uses Israel/Palestine as an extended illustrative case study. The author’s strong legal and geographical background gives the work an authoritative perspective.
Territories: Nations, States and the Claiming of Space provides a comprehensive introduction to theories of territoriality and the geographical outcomes of territorial control. Chapter topics cover territory and territoriality, the state, nations and nationalism, nationalism and the importance of place, future of the sovereign state, sub-state territorial divisions, and territory and locality. For individuals with an interest in political geography.
This book provides insight into the topic of place and territorial identity, which involves both the dimension of collective belonging and the politics of territorial planning and enhancement. It considers the social, economic and political effects of territorial identity representations among others in terms of mystification, spatial fetishism, and the creation of place and territorial stereotypes. A mixed methodology is employed to research case studies at diverse territorial scales which are relevant to the impact of a variety of factors on place/territorial identity processes such as migration, political and economic changes, natural disasters, land use changes, etc. Visual imagery, constructing visual discourses and living within visual cultures are placed in the foreground and refer to among others the changes and challenges introduced by the Internet and social networks in place/territory representations and self-representations; identity politics and its impact on place/territorial identity representations; discourses in shaping representations and self-representations of territorial/place-based identities related to collective memory, cultural heritage, invented tradition, imagined communities and other key notions.
This innovative Research Agenda uncovers links between different levels of border-making processes, or bordering, from the political to the cognitive, and connects everyday processes and experiences of border-making to the wider social world. It addresses the question of how everyday bordering practices and discourses can be productively linked to different aspects of social relations.
This timely Research Agenda moves beyond classic approaches that consider the relationship between heritage and tourism either as problematic or as a factor for local development, and instead adopts an understanding of heritage and tourism as two reciprocally supported social phenomena that are co-produced.
First published in 1986, this book demonstrates that territoriality for humans is not an instinct, but a powerful and often indispensable geographical strategy used to control people and things by controlling area. This argument is developed by analysing the possible advantages and disadvantages that territoriality can provide, and by considering why some and not others arise at particular times. Major changes are explored in the relationships between territory and society from primitive times to the present day, with special attention to the distinctions between premodern and modern uses of space and territory. Specific analyses of the pre-modern uses of territoriality are provided by the history of the Catholic Church, and, for the modern context, by study of North American political territorial organization and the organization of factory, office, and home.
Nowadays political territoriality is profoundly put to the test by globalization, the rise of the network-society, international migration and new types of risk that state governments find hard to control. Yet, new political configurations do not invalidate the relevance of territory and territorial identity right away. Moreover, people who want to escape or forget foreign dominace still reach for the traditionally sovereign state (Eastern Europe, Asia). In this book an international group of political geographers analyse the meaning of post-modern transfromation in territoriality at different geographical scales: global, (inter) national and local. They cover such varied topics as the probability of a clash between civilizations, the rise of World-cities, the disintegration of African States, ethnic conflicts and politics in Europe, the meaning of a supranational territorial order (European Union), the end of the welfare state, nation-building and its symbols, Israeli cultural politics, urban regimes and local conflict-defense mechanisms. The perspectives put forward, match more general theoretical geography and political science and involve case studies from different parts of the World. This important new study is of immediate interest to students of all levels of politcial science, sociology, social geography, administrative science, international relations, contermpoary history, and to policy makers and politicians.
