Thinking through territoriality: introducing Claude Raffestin to Anglophone sociospatial theory

This introductory paper establishes the grounds for a more sustained discussion of Claude Raffestin’s understanding of human territoriality in its contribution to contemporary geographical debates. The purpose is to highlight the broad, and fundamentally interrelated, philosophical, epistemological, and political ambitions of Raffestin’s work, before elucidating some of the key conceptual pillars of his relational thinking through territoriality. In this, particular emphasis will be placed on the concept of mediation. The proposed engagement with Raffestin’s work offers an opportunity not only for revisiting territoriality in its value for contemporary political geography and sociospatial theory, and for rethinking the positioning and contribution of Raffestin’s oeuvre itself, but also for critically reflecting upon the spaces and power relationships of geographical knowledge production today and in the past.