Introduction to the special issue “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives”

Anke Schwarz,Monika Streule

doi:10.5194/gh-75-11-2020

Abstract

Abstract. This paper serves as an introduction to the “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives” special issue. The idea for this issue emerged during our reflections on a socioterritorial perspective, preeminent in the current Latin American analysis of contemporary urban struggles (Schwarz and Streule, 2016). It aims to contribute to these ongoing debates about a specific understanding of urban territories from a postcolonial and decolonized perspective by combining contributions from two paper sessions we organized at the 2017 meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Boston with additional papers by scholars who could not participate in the conference. All seven contributions tackle the question of what a relational and dynamic conceptualization of territory may contribute to current debates in the urban studies field. Put more precisely, to which extent are socioterritorial approaches of value for a further decentering and pluralizing of urban theory? What is their significance to research on urban social movements? And, finally, how does such a socioterritorial perspective nurture and complement an analysis of the social production of space? The present special issue invites the reader to get familiar with new concepts and engage in a critical reflection on the conditions of knowledge production in urban geography and beyond.

Highlights

Introduction to the special issue “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives”Received: 25 June 2019 – Revised: 25 November 2019 – Accepted: 19 December 2019 – Published: 7 February 2020 AbstractThis paper serves as an introduction to the “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives” special issue
Resting on a solid base of mainly Latin American scholarship (e.g., Santos, 1994, 2000; Porto Gonçalves, 2001, 2006; Giménez, 2005; Fernandes, 2009; Saquet and Sposito, 2009; Haesbaert, 2011; Ther Ríos, 2012), this special issue takes the social production of territory into focus
Rather than essentializing the production of urban knowledge in and from Latin America, we suggest engaging with these approaches for their ability to grasp urban territories in the process of their social production

Summary

A socioterritorial approach

Resting on a solid base of mainly Latin American scholarship (e.g., Santos, 1994, 2000; Porto Gonçalves, 2001, 2006; Giménez, 2005; Fernandes, 2009; Saquet and Sposito, 2009; Haesbaert, 2011; Ther Ríos, 2012), this special issue takes the social production of territory into focus. He postulates that it is crucial to conceive of territory “as political calculative space, a technology; as a process rather than as an outcome; and as something continually being made and remade” (Elden, 2019:2174) We found that this echoes decentered socioterritorial approaches long since developed by Latin American scholars that have, not yet fully reached the Anglophone debate. Porto Gonçalves suggests – as highlighted in the epigraph of this introduction – an analytical focus on social relations and power relations that shape territories “rather than idealizing any territoriality” (2006:179) From this perspective, relational territory strongly resonates with conceptualizations of relational space (Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994; dell’Agnese, 2012; Haesbaert, 2012). An emphasis on asymmetrical power relations and historical difference makes this approach a hugely promising contribution towards a more decentered perspective on processes of urbanization worldwide

Overview on contributions

Advancing multilingual dialogues on territory