Notre‐Dame‐des‐Landesor Redefining the Relationship to Space through the Territorial Embeddedness of a Struggle

Abstract

By using an empirical method to investigate the occupied site of a renowned airport mega‐project near Nantes (so‐called Notre‐Dame‐des‐Landes, France), the paper examines the socio‐spatial effects of territorial mobilisation. We consider how the territorial embeddedness of a struggle helps reshape the relationship to space for the occupants of the contested zone. Starting from an analysis of the forms of “inhabiting” and “cohabitation” of the heterogeneous “occupying‐inhabitants” in the disputed zone, we stress how the relationship with others and to space operates over the long term. More attention is paid to describing the plural representations of the territory, which clash, converge and are unified alternately, ultimately creating a “territory of struggle(s)”, which has become iconic in France.

Beyond the Chokepoint: Blockades as Social Struggles

“…Blockaders oppose not only the forms of capitalist and state violence undergirding infrastructure, but also seek to generate new meaning out of this refusal. For example, the ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes in France is not just a rejection of a proposed airport and its circulations, but a sustained "no to the airport and its world" (Ross 2019), one territorially embedded in spaces that foster strong local connections (Florez et al 2022). Enabling participants to make "regional interventions within global markets", blockades can generate "vast solidarities between anti-capitalist cohabitants" (Scott 2021).…”