Reterritorialization

Contemporary globalization has reconfigured the scalar organization of capital's dynamic of de- and reterritorialization. The process of reterritorialization is defined as the reconfiguration and rescaling of forms of territorial organization such as cities and states, which constitutes an intrinsic moment of the current round of globalization. Reterritorialization describes the processes by which economic or other activities are rearranged in new spatial configurations not necessarily corresponding with established state-centered geographies. During the process the state's role as a form of (re)territorialization tends to be distinct from the structural significance of the national spatial scale in circumscribing capital flows, economic transactions, urban hierarchies, and social relations. The role of the national scale as a level of governance is being radically redefined in response to the current round of capitalist globalization and reterritorialization.