In light of his most prominent book Territories in Resistance (Zibechi, 2008), we conducted an interview with the researcher, journalist, and activist Raúl Zibechi. A well-known Uruguayan columnist with various Latin American newspapers, Zibechi was introduced to an English-speaking audience when translations of two of his books were published in 2010 and 2012 (Zibechi, 2010, 2012a). Combining activism and research, he has been working with social movements throughout Latin America since the 1980s. Socioterritorial movements, the key concept around which much of Zibechi’s work revolves, are of particular interest for our theme issue »Contested Urban Territories: Decolonized Perspectives«.
Our interview revisits Zibechi’s idea of the emergence of new or other subjects through socioterritorial practices, and in consequence, of socioterritorial movements as harbingers of possible urban futures. In this context, the interview also explores links to the writings of Carlos Walter Porto Gonçalves on »territory«, Henri Lefebvre on »space«, and Frantz Fanon on »zones of being and non-being«. We understand a conversation along these lines as a contribution to the ongoing debate on a decolonialization of knowledge and knowledge production in the field of urban studies.
Streule, Monika and Anke Schwarz (2019) »Not all spaces are territories«: creating other possible urban worlds in and from Latin America – an interview with Raúl Zibechi. In: Theme issue: Contested urban territories. Decolonized perspectives. Geographica Helvetica, 74, 105–111. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-74-105-2019
