Territorialisation: Standing the Test of Time
This paper examines links between time and space and between history and geography by observing the ways in which real and perceived time – which we here call temporality – are central components in the construction of territories and can be used as tools by stakeholders. Two types of environmental events are taken as the starting points of our approach: the ‘return’ of the wolf to the French countryside and Morocco’s country-wide ‘drought.’ Based on these dissimilar situations, a methodological grid is constructed and the epistemological bases of the approach are shown within the context of disagreement over the meaning and function of territory. Conflict between differing concepts of territory over time are at the heart of the problem. To overcome this clash, public action has more or less implicit recourse to the concept of temporality.