Territories in contestation: relational power in Latin America

Nick Clare,Liz Mason-Deese,Victoria Habermehl

doi:10.4324/9781003096306-11

Abstract

Territories in contestation: relational power in Latin America. Territory, Politics, Governance. Situated in geography's recent territorial (re)turn, and drawing on Latin American theory and research, this paper examines the relational and contested nature of territories and territorial praxis. Engaging with contemporary literatures, we note the centrality of power to territory. However, as we explore in this paper, many analyses of power are too simplistic, with a latent attachment to sovereignty which can marginalize counter-hegemonic territorial politics. To combat this we explore two conceptions of power, as found in open and autonomist Marxism - poder (understood as power over) and potenda (understood as power to) - and how they function territorially. While such an understanding of power frames the complex production of territories, it is important to also reflect on how movements intervene in producing their own territories. Accordingly, the paper examines the territorial struggles of the Zapatistas, and, drawing from original research, explores how territorial ideas operate in everyday contexts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Across these examples the paper illustrates the potential of 'territories in resistance', but also engages in how these are also contested. Led by our cases we emphasize the relational and contested construction of territory, ultimately developing a more nuanced understanding of territory and territorial praxis.

Highlights

This paper draws on Latin American territorial literatures and practices to demonstrate how territory can be understood as a ‘political technology’ constituted by more-than-state powers
Situated within a polymorphic spatial debate, it has built on established conceptions of territory and territorial organising to explore territories that are in contestatory relationship with the state
To develop these contested understandings of territories we explored the relational organising of power, engaging in how power is produced differentially in the form of poder and potencia

Summary

Introduction

This paper draws on Latin American territorial literatures and practices to demonstrate how territory can be understood as a ‘political technology’ constituted by more-than-state powers. Understanding power as potencia is the basis for the autonomous politics practiced by many social movements in Latin America (Colectivo Situaciones, 2002; Sitrin, 2012; Zibechi, 2012). This focus on relationality foregrounds an examination of the types of power that are produced through enacting and contesting territories, challenging the dominant idea (explored below) that poder is the only form of power operational in a territory.

Results

Conclusion