Borders and Fields

Borders and Fields

The item considered by all of us to be particularly significant in interpreting social realities, but also ourness-otherness, is space and especially its corresponding social concepts of territoriality. Undertaking an analysis of territoriality, we should not assume that it is a crucial component in the construction of any notion of social differentiation. Without a doubt, however, a denial of territoriality as an organizing principle in social order, and the concept of non-territoriality of cultural differences suggest an important role played by space in constructing the social world. These concepts thus uphold the importance of this category in scholarly discourse. Our discussion of the role of space and territoriality in constructing cultural interpretations of social realities may be divided into two main perspectives as reflected in the volume's two parts. First, space is an element of a social conception of the world. This perspective permits studying its various understandings by contemporaries. [...] Part II addresses the problem of multiple symbolic orders and their superimposition as experienced by territory-bound communities as well as immigrants. Here the concept of social field is suggested as a theoretical tool permitting effective description of the symbolic entanglements resulting from such multiplicity.
Introduction, pp. 8-9