Keywords

This book argues for the importance of a territory-oriented approach to understand contemporary democratic politics. Political sociology does not ignore the notions of territory, territorial space and territoriality in topics such as state-building, immigration, nationalism and identity, as highlighted in the recent New Handbook of Political Sociology by Janoski et al. (2020). However, the literature sometimes fails to focus specifically on the conceptual meanings, political relevance and heuristic uses of territory in the understanding of democratic politics (Detterbeck & Hepburn, 2018). Above all, the territory is assumed as a reified, fixed and immobile space (Foucault, 1980: 70). For example, in the case of voting analysis, one of the classic topics in political sociology and political science, it was recently suggested that “public opinion scholars had largely lost sight of the fact that the places where people live, and people’s identification with those places, shape public opinion and political behaviour” (Munis, 2022: 1057).

The book argues that territorial spaces are constantly changing phenomena with more or less contingent or consolidated characteristics. Territory is a complex concept that arises from the ongoing interaction between the natural environment and human actions. For social and political sciences, territory is a space of social, cultural and political practices and representations shaped by institutions, political actors and citizens. It is also a space that contributes to forming political action and its orientations. In other words, territory is a crucial link between society and politics. However, owing to a lack of attention from many scholars and its complex and polysemic meaning, it is essential to thoroughly examine the relevance of the territorial dimensions of politics, as well as the conceptual aspects and analytical strengths of territory-oriented approaches to democratic politics.

The book has three main goals. First, it emphasises the shortcomings of the prevailing unterritorial perspectives and explains why territory is so important to studying contemporary political challenges. Second, it provides a conceptual tool for developing a territory-oriented approach to political analysis. Third, the book provides some examples to illustrate how a territory-oriented approach can be useful in understanding issues like the state-building of liberal democracies and their current transformations, the challenges of democratic rights in a global era, the salience of territorial voting, the linkages between territory and populism and the key role of the territorial dimension in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Complexity and Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Why is territory still relevant in a global era, despite the apparent weakening of the territorial states and the strong influence of changeability and mobility on shaping social relations and political outcomes? For decades, territories have been closely associated with nation-states or national states, but recent changes such as the end of the Cold War, new forms of globalisation, EU supranational integration, institutional decentralisation and the digital revolution, but also securing and protectionist tendencies, have led to a theoretical redefinition of the link between territory and politics. Above all, there is a growing concern about the relationship between states and territory, particularly in light of the decline of the Westphalian state model. Contemporary reflections on territory stem from a recognition that the traditional concept of the territorial state has been surpassed. While territory was once seen as a space somehow corresponding to the perimeter of nation-states, there is now a rising awareness that territory is a more complex and contested concept, having undergone a process of relative emancipation from the state (Agnew, 2005).

New meanings and a common sense have emerged that differ from the traditional understanding of territory. In the past, public institutions associated with territory were primarily the state or nation-state, but this is no longer the case. Today, when we speak of territory in political language, we typically refer to local and regional powers or belonging. This shift in usage entails addressing themes such as the “rediscovery of the territory”, which involves viewing roots and communities as places with strong emotional connotations and rediscovering environmental protection and the enhancement of local heritage. Geographers and urban planners have become experts in advocating for these issues in recent years (Delaney, 2005).

In Europe, the changing nature of territorial states following the processes of decentralisation and devolution, as well as the redefinition of institutional competences following the establishment of supranational bodies like the European Union, have greatly transformed territorial spaces and their uses. Political scientists have argued that this territorial rescaling has transformed the role of nation-state in terms of policy-making and political mobilisations (Keating, 2013). The transformation of territorial states has also been related to the rise and success of regionalist, nationalist and populist actors, who often politicise territorial dimensions in their anti-establishment claims. Meanwhile, environmental issues have become a central part of the political agenda. In general, various aspects of the evolution of contemporary societies and politics seem to be boosting the relevance of territorial aspects, though in a dynamic way.

How can we grasp such diverse topics and questions? This book adopts a strategy of introducing and discussing a configuration of concepts linked to the concept of territory. This approach allows to develop a territory-oriented approach to politics that can adapt to the different research questions. This strategy is based on interdisciplinary dialogue with reflections and debates that have developed over the past few decades in some disciplines, particularly geography, urban studies, philosophy, historiography, political science, international relations, economics and, of course, sociology. Key representatives of this heterogeneous legacy include Jean Gottmann, Michel Foucault, Henry Lefebvre, Robert David Sack, Claude Raffestin and, more recently, Stuart Elden, John Agnew, David Harvey, Jacques Lévy, Saskia Sassen, Neil Brennan, Michael Keating, Charles S. Maier and Paulina Ochoa Espejo. Geographic scholarship has played a crucial role in recent decades by renewing itself and fostering rich interdisciplinary interactions with the humanities (e.g. Storey, 2020). Although the representatives of territorial scholarship are not always consensual or homogenous, they provide the reflections and analysis to better understand territories in their complexity, as both changeable and permanent spaces and as material, practical and symbolic phenomena. This set of concepts, such as borders, place, territorialisation, scale and network, are key elements to understand the concept of territory.

The Chapters

The main goal of this book is to provide an introductory but essential overview. Drawing inspiration from various perspectives, this book explores the sociological and political significance of the concept of territory in understanding democratic politics. It focuses specifically on the state-building process and the territorial rescaling of democratic systems in European countries, democratic rights, voting behaviour and anti-establishment politics.

The chapter addresses the question of why the link between territory and politics has often been overlooked in political studies in recent decades and why there is now a growing interest in territorial issues. The third chapter takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore the polysemic meaning of the concept of territory and how it relates to space, political institutions, strategy, appropriation, place, borders and networks. The fourth chapter deals with the historical sociology of the territorial state by revisiting the Westphalian model and examining how it helps to understand recent challenges. As the paradigmatic example of institutionalised territorial space in modern times is the state, it is important to discuss its connection to ongoing transformations. The fifth chapter focuses on the relationship between citizenship, nationality and territory. It examines how a territorial approach to politics deals with the concepts of population, people and citizenship in an era of global migration and highlights relations and tensions in relation to democratic rights.

The sixth chapter explores how analyses of political divides (e.g. between centres and peripheries or urban and rural areas) continue to shape voting preferences in contemporary democracies. Although globalisation and urbanisation have transformed territorial ties in profound ways, voting behaviour is still influenced by the places where people grow up and live. The seventh chapter discusses the role of territorial dimensions in understanding discourses and success of political parties are often defined as populist, nationalist or sovereignist. It argues that populism and territory are intertwined concepts and goes on to discuss the concept of territorial populism. The eighth chapter contends that the COVID-19 pandemic represents the most significant global territorial crisis of our time and uses conceptual tools to show how a territorial approach to politics can help us understand this crisis, which has shaken the lives of citizens, challenged governments and shaped new patterns in political contention. The final chapter highlights the key features of territory as a key concept that plays an intermediate analytical role between society and political institutions and proposes three ideal types of territory—stability, contingency and politicisation—as a framework for a future research agenda.