Moving beyond the common ground in normative theories of territory

In the last decades, political theorists have turned their attention to territorial rights and their normative justification. Here I suggest that, despite their differences, normative theories of territory share five assumptions: statism, groupism, sedentarism, anthropocentrism and resourcism. These assumptions inform the questions asked, the units of analysis and the implications that follow, and are potentially problematic insofar as they can leave relevant phenomena under the radar and can become obstacles for the resolution of global challenges like growing migration and climate change. After showing how they are displayed in these theories, I suggest how we might reinterpret or drop them and sketch some ideas for moving forward.