TERRITORY, SOCIAL SPACE AND COMMUNITY IDENTITY. AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This article assumes the form of an essay that comes from a period of nearly twenty months of fieldwork in Manchester, UK. It explores the relationship between territory, social space, place and belonging within the community. It offers a theoretical point of view from a sociocultural and anthropological perspective to understand the relationships between identity and belonging that develop within the local communities, especially in the context of a Council Estate in the United Kingdom. The main argument is developed around the question of how social relationships are embodied in the complex fabric of local territory, social space and shared places. This article establishes a bridge between these ideas that allows to argue that all exist thanks to the collective coexistence and the networks of relations that are constructed historically and that also allow to establish a simultaneity of stories-so-far. Distinctions are made through the histories woven between “we” and “Others”.