Public spaces and territories. The relations between space and power in Geography

Abstract

The article discusses the problems in geography to only use the concept of territory to analyze the relations between space and power. Concepts are instruments that guide and delimit the analyses. In the case of the concept of territory, the dynamics generated by the conflicts between different social groups and the mechanisms of spatial appropriation are structuring elements. Nevertheless, there are other forms of analysis that do not require the characterization of such distinct and autonomous social groups and focus processes of a different nature than the mere appropriation of space. The concept of public space, for example, gives rise to other elements essential to the discussion of space and power, such as the coexistence between different individuals who share the same space and establish regulations for it. All the problems and challenges of this social engineering and its spatiality remain little known and studied in part, by the overvaluation of territorial consideration.