Territorio y territorialidad: Teorías en confluencia y refutación

In Ecuador, themes regarding territory and territoriality are nowadays key theoretical and socio-political issues. Nonetheless, whilst they are already considered a priority in a number of institutional management and administration projects, their philosophical and socio-anthropological significance has not been sufficiently pondered. Government entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been working on territorial planning for more than two decades; conversely, the theoretical production on the topics, with adequate scientific usefulness and practicality, is barely in its early stages of development. In such a context, the aim of this paper is to explore a number of epistemological approaches on the issues of territory and territoriality, employing hermeneutical, relational thinking and reflexivity methodologies. The overall picture and the outcomes of the study reveal both confluences and discrepancies between theories which have major epistemological relevance in social matters: Marxism, poststructuralism, and systemic complexity theories. As a general conclusion, it could be contended that while territory is mainly structural, territoriality refers to processes of societal transformation, metamorphosis and socio-natural tuning.