Territory as a Psychosomatic Device: Gottmann’s Kinetic Political Geography

Abstract

Without denying the importance of his contributions to regional, economic, historical and urban geography, a rediscovery of Jean Gottmann’s political geography and its current geopolitical relevance has been taking place in Europe since the 1990s. The relative absence of his name in most of the subfield historical accounts, in contrast to the international reputation of his book Megalopolis has inspired this article, which attempts a survey of Gottmann’s key contributions to political geography, with emphasis on those in French. A bio-bibliographical analysis, enhanced by original references to archival source, was necessary for reconstructing the genesis and development of his political geography. Specifically, Gottmann states that territory is a psychosomatic device because its political partitioning is produced by the psychological oscillation in pertinent communities between search for security and search for opportunities. In the conclusions, a few questions are raised about how his theories could be applied to improving our understanding of the contemporary geopolitical scenario. The concept of territory, with its material and psychological components, is a psychosomatic expedient necessary to preserve freedom and the variety of separated communities in an interdependent and accessible space. — Jean Gottmann, ‘The Evolution of the Concept of Territory’, Social Science Information 14/3–4 (1975) pp.29–47.