- Camille Dabestani
Macroregional imaginaries of French Caribbean Territories: Similarity and Difference in political geography of in-between and multi-belonging
Camille Dabestani. Macroregional imaginaries of French Caribbean Territories: Similarity and Difference in political geography of in-between and multi-belonging. IGU Commission on Political Geography pre-conference 2024 "Celebrating a World of Political Difference", Queen's Belfast University; IGU Commission on Political Geography, Aug 2024, Belfast (Queen's University), United Kingdom. ⟨hal-04690915⟩
As part of the Caribbean, Martinique and Guadeloupe are at the crossroads of multiple areas, associated with France and Europe through their administrative and political status (“overseas territories” in France, “outermost regions” in the EU). In representations of the world produced from the North, these territories are seen as peripheral to these areas, sometimes even forgotten or ignored. Their geographical position within the Caribbean is obvious, but the definitions and status of this group are complex and plural, reflecting processes of regionalization. This proposal invites to consider the ways in which the expression of differences and similarities is used to construct macroregional imaginations associated with these territories, to define spaces of belonging on this scale through the point of view of students from Martinique and Guadeloupe (living in these territories or studying in France). How are they using differences and similarities to question discontinuities, postcoloniality and hierarchization in practices and representations of the world from and within these territories? Analyzing their imaginations means analyzing institutional peripheralization in the French and European contexts, as well as in the Caribbean context. It also means shedding light on how students represent and practice these spaces, policies and futures. The results of a two-stage survey will be used. First, a digital cartographic questionnaire distributed to students at the University des Antilles and universities in France mainland (2021/22) which questioned their spatial representations of their regions of the world with mental maps, their migratory trajectories and mobilities (real or imagined). Secondly, semi-directive interviews were carried out with students, discussing their mobility, their cultural practices and their macroregional representations. The survey shows the socio-spatial and political proximities and discontinuities expressed by students with regard to their macoregions and their relationships through different processes (identification, differentiation, hierarchization, forgetting), parameters (cultural, political) and by different positions (in-between, multi-belongings).