International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article The territory of a nation is not just a profane part of the earth's surface. It is a constitutive element of nationhood which generates plenty of other concepts and practices directly related to it: for example, the concept of integrity and sovereignty; border control, conflict, invasion and war. It defines and has some control over many other national affairs, such as the national economy, products, industry, trade, education, administration, culture and so on. Unarguably, the territory of a nation is the most concrete feature of a nation for the management of nationhood as a whole. For a theoretical geographer, it is the territoriality of a nation. […] For people of a nation, it is a part of SELF, a collective self. It is a nation's geo - body […] Geographically speaking, the geo-body of a nation occupies a certain portion of the earth's surface which can be easily identified. It seems to be concrete to the eyes and having a long history as if it were natural, and independent from technology or any cultural and social construction. Unfortunately, that is not the case […] the geo-body of a nation is merely the effect of a modern geographical knowledge and its technology of representation, a map. The geo-body, the territoriality of a nation as well as its attributes such as sovereignty and boundary, are not only political but also cultural constructs. ( ... log in or subscribe to read full text