The term territory has multiple meanings. In this article, we use three different contexts of social and ecological contestation as examples and apply the prism of territory and territoriality to open novel ways to explore property rights. First, we use the conceptualization of territory that is the most conventional for many theoretical and practical purposes: a two-dimensional piece of the earth’s surface. More specifically, we focus on the ownership of forests. Second, we explore another kind of property, self-ownership, through an analysis of feminist and other struggles that define body as territory. Third, we use the concept of territory in analyzing intellectual property rights, especially patents. We argue that territory and territoriality can have an analytically and politically meaningful use that, while connecting the concept of property rights in these different contexts, helps to uncover some of the ways through which mechanisms of capitalist rule are established. In particular, considering self-control of the body as a territorial claim can help understand how the drive toward privatization of territories in the form of land or knowledge is at least partially based on misleading arguments.Non peer reviewe
