Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

The concept of territoriality has a complex history in a wide range of literature sources. Scholars from different disciplines view the construct within their limited disciplinary lenses. The present paper attempts to understand the different theoretical constructions of territoriality in social sciences texts. Relevant text was identified and subjected to Foucauldian discourse analysis. Discursive analysis of the concept of human territoriality has identified two major constructions. The first is historical construction with three embedded discourses, ‘Biological’ ‘Pre-Modern’ and ‘Modernity, which inform the progressive development of the concept over the course of human history. The second is definitional construction, which contains shared discourses of human territoriality in all social science disciplines. Definitional construction contains ‘Place-specificity Discourse’ ‘Power Discourse’ and ‘Discourse of Identity’. Results indicate that massive socio-spatial transformations associated with, for example, processes of local wars, urbanization, modernity, globalization, and the unending revolutions in communication and transportation, pretty much guarantee continuous territorial reconfigurations at all scales of experience and analysis. These seem to require continual reflection and rethinking. It is clear from the present analysis that the concept of human territoriality is not at all simple. Rather, it is a complex and dynamic phenomenon that occurs uniquely on different scales (macro and micro territories) and in different spatio-physical, cultural and social contexts.