Do Territories Compete?

In the reemerging debate an geopolitics and economic competition some scholar hold that “geography matters”. Territory is said to increasingly constitute a defining cleavage of social and international conflict. This papers questions the territorialization of economic competition with reference to the nation-state. The concepts of territory and competitiveness are vaguely defined and often serve a political rather than a serious academic purpose. Neither geographical boundaries nor social cohesion define territory as an entity that can help to explain social action. The paper then suggests to define territories to consist of functional layers that form overlapping communities with loyalties that may vary according to situation. If conceptualized this way, a number of useful hypothesis may derive.