Territory as an institution: spatial ideas, practices and technologies

Abstract

ABSTRACTTerritory as an institution: spatial ideas, practices and technologies. Territory, Politics, Governance. Territory is unquestionably central to many topics in international relations: political identity, foreign policy orientations, and political conflict at multiple levels, from disputes over land to civil and interstate wars. But what, exactly, is ‘territory’ in these contexts? This paper argues that territory can be usefully conceptualized as the intersection of a set of ideas, practices and technologies: namely ideas about political space, practices of political authority and rule, and technologies relating to information and infrastructure. Together, these three interrelated fields constitute the institution of territory. Thinking about territory through this particular institutional lens allows insights from a variety of fields – including institutionalist analysis in political science, the history of political thought, science and technology studies, and political geography – to be applied. This makes possible new approaches to issues such as the character and severity of territorial conflicts and the origins and persistence of the territorial state.