Work

Unbounded boundary studies and collapsed categories: rethinking spatial objects

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: This paper is a response to Reece Jones’ ‘Categories, borders and boundaries’ (2009) that aims to give an alternate proposal to rethink geographical categories and boundary studies. First, it examines the various meanings of the word ‘category’ as used in Jones’ paper. We then stress the importance of the processes involved in constructing spatialized and unspatialized categories as a central issue for social sciences. Using different examples such as the city and the nation state, we finally argue that the triad of reification—naturalization—fetishization is a good tool to analyse the social construction of geographical categories and boundaries.

Source: Progress in Human Geography

DOI: 10.1177/0309132509105009

Authors: Marius Schaffter, Juliet J. Fall, Bernard Debarbieux

Institution: University of Geneva

Language: English

Topic: Historical Geography and Geographical Thought

Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

OpenAlex ID: W2116781345

FWCI: 18.34

Cites: 44

Cited by: 31

Related to: 10