Les vertus identitaire, relationnelle et heuristique de la territorialité – D’une conception culturelle à une conceptualisation tripartite

Abstract

Geography has developed the concept of territoriality to apprehend the ins and outs of our relations to territory. However, this concept is so popular, particularly since the fast transformations of those relations and their consequences, that it is usually not very well thought out and precisely or properly used, a troubling fact that undermines its identity vocation and relational function. This is why, after the analysis of the six main geographical definitions of that concept that stand out after a vast recension exploring the identity and imaginary’s types at work and the referential roles given to territory and scale, and after confronting them with the recent refinements made by Klauser and Murphy, this article proposes a conceptual conception and a tripartite conceptualization of that concept to demonstrate its full heuristic potential and, in turn, to better understand and deal with our territorial condition.

Keywords

• territoriality
• concept
• symbol
• place
• values
• geographical imaginary