DECOMPOSING THE CONCEPT OF TERRITORY IN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

doi:10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2019.01.003

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HUMAN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2019, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (1) : 14-19. DOI: 10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2019.01.003

DECOMPOSING THE CONCEPT OF TERRITORY IN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

LIU Yun-gang¹, WANG Feng-long^2,3

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Abstract

As one of the fundamental concepts in political geography, territory is widely used in not only geographical studies but also disciplines such as international relations, political science and even sociology. However, as pointed by many scholars including Stuart Elden, Robert Sack, Joe Painter and Saskia Sassen, the concept of territory has long been considered as unproblematic and received little rigorous investigation. Based on a systematic review of studies on territory in Anglophone political geography, we summarize three major perspectives to interpret the concept of territory. By combining the Marxist studies on production of space, Foucauldian studies of genealogy and power-technology relation, and our previous studies of scale and production of space, we propose a conceptual framework to interpret the different facets of territory. By critically reading Stuart Elden's works on "birth of territory" and based on his concepts of "quality" and "calculation", we highlight the importance of "quality" to interpret the epistemological territory and propose the term "weighing" to interpret the processes of forming territorial notion and making territorial tactics. This study may not only further the academic understanding of concept of territory in both ancient and contemporary China, but also have important implications for making territorial strategies by Chinese government.

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territory / scale / relation / political geography / production of space

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LIU Yun-gang, WANG Feng-long. DECOMPOSING THE CONCEPT OF TERRITORY IN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY[J]. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2019, 34(1): 14-19 https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2019.01.003

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