How are territories and subjects entwined in a state of becoming-rather-than-being? So delighted that ‘Territorial subjectivities. The missing link between political subjectivity and territorialization‘, a major paper by Monika and me, has just been published in Progress in Human Geography!
In recent debates in Political Geography, Urban Studies and related fields, conceptualizations of political subjectivity and territorialization often appear somewhat disconnected. In our paper, we propose a fresh approach based on Latin American scholarship to understand subjects and territories as relational: Subjects are (de)stabilized in processes of territorialization, while territories are (de)stabilized in processes of subject formation. We introduce the concept of territorial subjectivities and use three examples from the literature to show how these emerge in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Dresden. Placing an analytical focus on becoming rather than being, the contingency of territorial subjectivities is key to this novel conceptual link that supports a differentiated reading of socio-territorial struggles in diverse geographical contexts.
Online first and Open Access published at https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325241228600