At the root of our understanding of territory is the concept of terra-land-a surface of fixed points with stable features that can be calculated, categorised, and controlled. But what of the many spaces on Earth that defy this simplistic characterisation: Oceans in which 'places' are continuously re-formed? Air that can never be fully contained? Watercourses that obtain their value by transcending boundaries?
This book examines the politics of these spaces to shed light on the challenges of our increasingly dynamic world. Through a focus on the planet's elements, environments, and edges, the contributors to Territory beyond Terra extend our understanding of territory to the dynamic, contentious spaces of contemporary politics.
Foreword, Stuart Elden / 1. Introduction, Kimberley Peters, Philip Steinberg, Elaine Stratford / PART I: Elements / 2. Earth: A grain of sand against a world of territory: experiences of sand and sandscapes in China, Marijn Nieuwenhuis / 3. Air: Spacing the atmosphere: the politics of territorialising air, Weiqiang Lin / 4. Water: Order and the offshore: the territories of deep-water oil production, Jon Phillips / 5. Fire: Pyropolitics for a world of fire, Nigel Clark / PART II: Environments / 6. Mudflats: Fluid terrain: climate contestations in the mudflats of the Bolivian highlands, Clayton Whitt / 7. Floodplains: Where sheets of water intersect: infrastructural culture from flooding to hydropower in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Stephanie C. Kane / 8. Cities: Mare-Magnum: urbanisation of land and sea, Ross Exo Adams / 9. Ice: Placing territory on ice: militarisation, measurement and murder in the High Arctic, Johanne Bruun, Philip Steinberg / PART III: Edges / 10. Bodies: The body of the drowned: convicts and shipwrecks, Elaine Stratford, Thérèse Murray / 11. Boats: Settler colonial territorial imaginaries: maritime mobilities and the 'tow-backs' of asylum seekers, Kate Coddington / 12. Shores: Sharks, nets and more-than-human territory in eastern Australia, Leah Gibbs / 13. Seabeds: Sub-marine territory: living and working on the seafloor during the Sealab II experiment, Rachael Squire
