Space, Power, and Locality: the Contemporary Use of Territorio in Latin American Geography

Abstract

This article explores the concepts involved in the term territorio, the nature of its uses and the interpretations given to it by different user groups in Latin America. In so doing, the authors find that despite its ubiquitous nature, polysemic use and its hybrid conceptual construction, territorio is a specific Latin American concept that can shed light on power relationships in space, triggered by the confrontation between global forces on the one hand and local, place-based, or “territorially anchored” groups on the other. The article unfolds across two sections. The first summarizes diverse conceptualizations of space, power, and locality, which are understood to be core elements of territorio, particularly when these are linked through actions, demands, or claims of a collective. The second section approaches the thematic contexts in which territorio and its associated concepts are used: as spatial entities of jurisdictional administration, appropriation by indigenous, afro and peasant communities, political demands and social movements, control-dispossession and reconstruction, spatial entities of assets, and place-based development. We argue that an understanding of the multiple uses and interpretations of territory in Latin America does not just reveal the uniquely nuanced ways of thinking about geography in the region, but it also raises questions over the possibility of a multiple construction of key geographical concepts.