Work

Walking the Mar Menor illegitimately: Paisaje and Territorio in crisis

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: • Tales of crisis of the Mar Menor elide persons in journeys of migratory disbelonging. • The genesis of Territorio and Paisaje in Murcia blocks transformative spatialities. • Agriculture and the lagoon’s juristic personhood structure core narratives of crisis. • Decolonial feminisms from Abya Yala disrupt the prevalent narratives of crisis. • Journeying in disbelonging, walking illegitimately trace contestations to the crisis. This article presents a solidaristic re-reading of the prevalent narratives of crisis woven around the ecological deterioration of the Mar Menor lagoon, as i retrace its borderlands in the register of the op/repressed other. These are oppressions voiced as the elision of persons in journeys of migratory disbelonging from the narratives of crisis. Here, i thematise, complicate, and problematise notions of agency and freedom obliquely juxtaposed to gender and race, apropos of the elision and in the formation of Marmenorean territorialities. i do this by operating decolonial feminist thinking-feeling on tales of the particular, the quotidian, and the inapparent in the waterscapes of South-East Spain. Taking lessons from Gloria Anzaldúa and María Lugones, my own mestiza journey becomes a narrative thread to walk illegitimately into dissident territorialities, so that the elision is no more and the Mar Menor and the Campo de Cartagena can be otherwise than synonymous with crisis.

Source: Geoforum

DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2026.104743

Author: Paula Andrea Zuluaga-Guerra

Institution: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Language: English

Topic: Decolonial Thought and Epistemologies

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Gender equality

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,390