Definition

Belonging is defined as the state of being part of something. Territorial belonging implies being part of a territory. The definition of a territory, although it is conditioned by the morphology of space, is essentially a social operation that is connected with the factors that induce the perception of boundaries. These are complex factors that researchers in the "psychology of form" (Gestaltpsychologie) have attempted to specify (Reusch 1956, pp. 340–361). Campbell has identified seven of these factors. Those analytically most relevant to social systems are similarity and shared destiny or "common fate" (Campbell 1958), to which the ecological, economic, and sociological traditions (Hawley 1950, p. 258) add interdependence, which is related to Campbell's (1958) notion of internal diffusion.

Territorial belonging is therefore a form of social belonging (for a detailed treatment, see Pollini 1987) that is displayed by a spatially defined collectivity. Spatial definition more or less precisely and more or less...