Territory has been increasingly interrogated within Anglophone human geography, yet it has been little examined beyond the context of the modern, Eurocentric state. Developing an open definition of...

Decolonising territory: Dialogues with Latin American knowledges and grassroots strategies

In this paper, I explore the tensions and conflicts arising from the territorial re-organization of western Para state in the Brazilian Amazon associated with the paving of the Santarem–Cuiaba highway (BR-163). I argue that the set of forces, techniques and devices that constitute Ordenamento Territorial, or Territorial Ordering, re-territorialize the region with the spatialized logic of sustainable development, constituting a ‘green grab’, or a new strategy of governance over not only territory but also territoriality – the ways of life of Amazonia's inhabitants. Analyzing the formation of the Movement in Defense of Life and Culture of the Arapiuns River, I explore how social movements are shifting their strategies in relation to these new technologies of ordering.

Ordenamento Territorial: Neo-developmentalism and the struggle for territory in the lower Brazilian Amazon

In this thesis I explore the experiences of, and the attitudes towards, ‘neighbouring migrants’ – immigrants from Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay, as well as certain internal, Argentine migrants – in Buenos Aires. I argue that these experiences and attitudes are shaped by intersectional relationships of class, race (in particular whiteness), and national identity, yet are mediated by territorial identities – themselves constructed by various intersectional processes. The thesis also contrasts the consequences of contemporary flows of immigration with the waves of European immigration that were central to Argentina’s nation-building project, demonstrating the persistent power of these early migratory patterns. 
Drawing on a range of theories influenced by autonomist Marxism, anarchism, and feminism, the thesis demonstrates the importance of reengaging with ideas of class when considering immigrants’ everyday experiences and struggles, and relationships with social/labour movements. However, it argues that while understandings of class must be intersectional, intersectionality has to recognise the unique nature of the class relationship, and how this extends far beyond the workplace and processes of production. The thesis therefore adopts an ‘intersectional class struggle analysis’, which is combined with the autonomist Marxist idea of ‘class composition’ to explore both the difficulties and possibilities of ‘neighbouring migrants’’ political activity. 
In the thesis I also explore the importance of space and territory, arguing that Buenos Aires has seen a rise in ‘territorial subjectivities’. These territorial subjectivities are themselves constructed intersectionally, but can go on to normalise and obfuscate the processes that form them, and thus need unpacking. Through an engagement with radical conceptions of territory – themselves heavily influenced by contemporary Latin American struggles and social movements – the thesis demonstrates how territorial identities, subjectivities, and attachments can both help and hinder intersectional class struggles.
Ultimately this thesis shows that territorial identities, subjectivities, and attitudes cannot be decoupled from intersectional class, and vice versa.

Territory, intersectionality, and class composition: ‘Neighbouring migrants’ in Buenos Aires

Territories in contestation: relational power in Latin America. Territory, Politics, Governance. Situated in geography’s recent territorial (re)turn, and drawing on Latin American theory and research, this paper examines the relational and contested nature of territories and territorial praxis. Engaging with contemporary literatures, we note the centrality of power to territory. However, as we explore in this paper, many analyses of power are too simplistic, with a latent attachment to sovereignty which can marginalize counter-hegemonic territorial politics. To combat this we explore two conceptions of power, as found in open and autonomist Marxism – poder (understood as power over) and potencia (understood as power to) – and how they function territorially. While such an understanding of power frames the complex production of territories, it is important to also reflect on how movements intervene in producing their own territories. Accordingly, the paper examines the territorial struggles of the ...

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Territories in contestation: relational power in Latin America

Why is today's world map filled with uniform states separated by linear boundaries? The answer to this question is central to our understanding of international politics, but the question is at the same time much more complex - and more revealing - than we might first think. This book examines the important but overlooked role played by cartography itself in the development of modern states. Drawing upon evidence from the history of cartography, peace treaties and political practices, the book reveals that early modern mapping dramatically altered key ideas and practices among both rulers and subjects, leading to the implementation of linear boundaries between states and centralized territorial rule within them. In his analysis of early modern innovations in the creation, distribution and use of maps, Branch explains how the relationship between mapping and the development of modern territories shapes our understanding of international politics today.

The Cartographic State: Maps, Territory, and the Origins of Sovereignty

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Mara Kaufman

Papers

Sovereignty, Indigeneity, Territory: Zapatista Autonomy and the New Practices of Decolonization