By using an empirical method to investigate the occupied site of a renowned airport mega‐project near Nantes (so‐called Notre‐Dame‐des‐Landes, France), the paper examines the socio‐spatial effects of territorial mobilisation. We consider how the territorial embeddedness of a struggle helps reshape the relationship to space for the occupants of the contested zone. Starting from an analysis of the forms of “inhabiting” and “cohabitation” of the heterogeneous “occupying‐inhabitants” in the disputed zone, we stress how the relationship with others and to space operates over the long term. More attention is paid to describing the plural representations of the territory, which clash, converge and are unified alternately, ultimately creating a “territory of struggle(s)”, which has become iconic in France.

By using an empirical method to investigate the occupied site of a renowned airport mega‐project near Nantes (so‐called Notre‐Dame‐des‐Landes, France), the paper examines the socio‐spatial effects of territorial mobilisation. We consider how the territorial embeddedness of a struggle helps reshape the relationship to space for the occupants of the contested zone. Starting from an analysis of the forms of “inhabiting” and “cohabitation” of the heterogeneous “occupying‐inhabitants” in the disputed zone, we stress how the relationship with others and to space operates over the long term. More attention is paid to describing the plural representations of the territory, which clash, converge and are unified alternately, ultimately creating a “territory of struggle(s)”, which has become iconic in France.