Terrestrial territories

From the Globe to Gaia, a new ground for territory

Bibliographic Data

ID13007263
AuthorsAlexis Gonin (0000-0001-8541-0735, Université Paris Nanterre, corresponding author), Jeanne Etelain (Université Paris Nanterre), Patrice Maniglier (0000-0002-7210-4760, Université Paris Nanterre), A Mubi Brighenti (0000-0002-7498-9857, University of Trento)
Year2024
Volume15
Issue3
Pages442-460
Publication date2024-03-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDialogues in Human Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2043-8206 • E-ISSN: 2043-8214
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/20438206241240213
OpenAlexW4393232118
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited63

Territory is a central tool for analysing the politics, primarily between nation-states, of the division of a world based on the figure of the Globe. However, with the Anthropocene, the ground of territories has somehow changed, shifting from ‘the Globe’ of the globalisation age, to the Anthropocene, where Gaia, or the earth-system, ‘irrupts’ onto the political scene. Yet, both sovereign territories and critical approaches to territoriality, despite revealing the role of non-human actors in territorial interactions, fail to take into account the issue of the habitability of the Earth. This article advances the notion of ‘terrestrial territories’ as a new descriptive and analytical tool for a Gaia-politics intended to transcend traditional geopolitics by taking into account the dynamics of the planet. Resulting from the original intersection between critical territory studies and the late work of Bruno Latour, it introduces terrestrial territories as an original and much-needed notion that could help to describe new coalitions of actors along new lines of divisions and conflicts based on the logic of Gaia. Beyond the famous but inefficient ‘think global, act local’ scheme, the notion of terrestrial territory tries to reconcile the apparent hyperglobal nature of the planetary and the obviously local nature of action

Biology · Geography · Globe · Physical geography · Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution · Environmental, Ecological, and Cultural Studies · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life

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