An atlas of spatial practices subject to power relations as means of self-securitization

Abstract

In the literatures of international relations, anthropology, and architecture, interconnections between possibilities of spatiality and concept of security have been broadly studied. In these studies, spatial settings are often investigated through the lens of the political field. A group of scholars regard the concept of space as a mode of political thinking. Lefebvre states that there is a politics of space, because space is political. Individual(s), populace/subjects, and institutions devised by wo/man-kind are the constituent agents of the world political society. Politics correspond to a field within which struggles for power are exercised through relations established between agents. The need and search for security of the agents stand focal to power relations. Foucault posits the notion of power as inherent in all relationships. In the context of this study, the possibilities of spatiality are considered as among self-securitization tools that are utilized by the constituent agents of the world society in power relations established on varying scales in the political domain. The agents struggle for power in the political domain in order to provide their selves with the conditions of security. The possibilities of spatiality, which are discussed as some created/interpreted/exercised concrete and/or conceptual spatial practices in the context of the study, are denoted among the primal tools utilized in power relations by the constituent agents of the society. The very notion of spatiality in consideration could be either intentionally wo/man-made or coincidentally natural. Whether they are discursive apparatuses utilized by the sovereign in order to establish the conditions of governance or maneuverable exercises utilized by the individual(s) in order to erect the act of resistance, spatial practices are subject to power relations as means of self-securitization. Possibilities of spatiality have been subject to research as among the means of securitization in literature. However, despite researchers' references to spatial practices among the tools of power relationships established between the actors in the pursuit of self-securitization, research has not often focused on the spatial practices specifically. This study attempts to analyze in what manners the possibilities of spatiality are utilized as means of self-securitization. In this context, the aim is to explore and bring into view the spatial practices which are subject to endeavors of self-securitization through the inquiry of power relations from macro to micro scale that are established between actors and deemed to be intricate. To do this, the inquiry concerns, how the needs and the motivations to produce spatial practices, how the capacities and the modalities while producing them, and how the benefits derived from them change, and also how yet all stand interwoven. The main research question is posed as follows: "In which scales of power relations and by what methods are the possibilities of spatiality created and used as means of self-securitization by the parties that make up the society?" In the scope of the study, the phenomenon of security is analyzed with its physical and mental attributes.