Territory, Agency, and Inhabiting Space

Objetivo

Lived, embodied, experienced territory is distinct from formal jurisdictional territory. We all know what it feels like to be in a place where we belong, or to step into a place where we don’t belong. We are adept at recognizing territorial boundaries and distinguishing insiders from outsiders. Territories support our identities and communities. There are many kinds of territories involving different kinds of belonging: homes, workplaces, local bars, neighbourhoods, campuses, gyms, and more. Our spatial agency—our ability to navigate and adjust space in ways that are self-determining and self-expressive—depends on our territorial location. Our position within a territory shapes our attention, perception, and social authority, and our experiences of comfort, safety, and competence.

But what is lived territory and how do we recognize it? Neither philosophy nor other relevant disciplines such as geography have offered a systematic theory of this kind of territory. I will develop an ontology and epistemology of lived territory and spatial agency. I will determine their importance in people’s lives, and how they are related to well-being and flourishing. I will use these ontological, epistemological, and existential results to reconfigure vital political debates concerning mobility and spatial belonging, including debates over gentrification, migration, occupation, and homelessness. Achieving these goals requires an innovative interdisciplinary toolbox and innovative methodologies. Questions about the nature, importance, and political significance of territory and spatial agency are both conceptual and empirical. Answering them requires synthesizing resources and perspectives from philosophy, geography, ethnography, disability studies, and geographic information science. TERRAINS will help forge a unified multidisciplinary field—humanistic and qualitative studies of territory and place.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

Este proyecto aún no se ha clasificado con EuroSciVoc.
Sugiera los ámbitos científicos que considere más relevantes y ayúdenos a mejorar nuestro servicio de clasificación.