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Knowledge of the Territory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Jacques Revel
Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales Paris

Abstract

Few spaces have been given such great importance as national space. It is often seen as the fulfillment of a predestination–simultaneously geographical, political, ethnic, and functional – granted affirmation by history. This being especially true for the French territory with its ancient history.

This paper takes a different approach as regards the establishment of knowledge concerning the national territory. Looking at two of the many ways of knowing the territory–proto-statistics and the map–it aims at showing that the acquisition of this knowledge is a discontinuous, partly cumulative process, with social, political, and cognitive rationales, which were heterogeneous and even contradictory for a long period of time.

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Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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