Deterritorialization

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A process in which cultural, social, or economic structures lose their fixed geographical ties, leading to a reconfiguration of identity and belonging
2. The phenomenon of breaking down the attachment between specific identities and their traditional places, often resulting in new forms of social organization
3. The act of disassociating identities and practices from their original locations, enabling them to exist in varied contexts and spaces

Etymology: Deterritorialization is a deliberately built term, and its real story lies in the philosophy it came from. The prefix "de-" (from Latin, meaning "reverse" or "away from") is attached to "territorialization," so the whole word means the undoing of territorial attachment: a process that removes something from its established place, boundaries, or home ground. The stem itself comes from "territory," which traces back to Latin "territorium," a word for land belonging to a town or district. The word's modern prominence owes much to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who used "deterritorialization" in their 1972 work "Anti-Oedipus" and later books to describe how capitalism, culture, and desire constantly break things loose from their fixed contexts. In their usage the term is not simply negative: a movement that uproots something can open new possibilities, and the opposite process, reterritorialization, describes things settling into new forms.

Synonyms: displacement, dislocation, detachment

Antonyms: territorialization, attachment, localization