ABSTRACT
This omission is all the more puzzling because there has existed for a while now a relational reading of place that works with the ontology of flow, connectivity and multiple geographical expression, to imagine the geography of cities and regions through their plural spatial connections. This is the second reason why it is odd that the territorial/scalar imaginary of place has not budged. Perhaps it is not that strange, given the enduring grip of territorial representations of cities and regions. It will take a lot to displace the A-Z or concentric-circle image of London by a 'relational' map which incorporates the network of sites around the world that pump fresh food into a distribution centre called Covent Garden, that draws neighbourhood boundaries around settlements in postcolonial countries with which social and kinship ties remain strong, that makes us see sites such as Heathrow Airport or Kings Cross Station as radiations of trails shooting out across the land and far beyond to reveal London as a site of transit and connectivity. I cite London only because it came to mind first, not because it is any more relationally constituted than any other place. Similar imaginaries could be conjured up for the least likely places, such as Bedouin camps in the Sahara brought to life through elaborate trading routes, and religious practices that stretch across North Africa and far across the ocean to market stalls in New York (Stoller, 2002).
