Territory, territoriality and territorialization in global production networks

Abstract

Global production networks (GPN) provide a powerful multi-scalar approach for analyzing the organization of production, but lack the means for conceptualizing social-ecological issues. Territory and territoriality underscore the epistemological character of socio-environmental problems. Territoriality is an underdeveloped conceptual resource for analyzing a GPN’s territorial configuration. Discussing different contextual conceptions of territory, territoriality and territorialization (e.g. in the Anglophone, Francophone and Latin American debate), we propose an analytical framework to enable a more structured operationalization in GPN research. As a result, we introduce the five P of territoriality – pluralistic, polysemic, process, power relations and physical space.

Keywords

• territory
• territoriality
• territorialization
• global production networks
• thought styles