Reflections on the geography of affection: the identity exceptionality amidst space-time distortions

Abstract

The debate about non-representational theories, although recurrent in anglophone geography since the late 1990s, is incipient in Brazilian geography. It retook the discussion about relative space, basing its framework on the concept of affect, which is directly linked to heterogeneous associations between human and non-human actors arranged in networks. Actors' displacements through space help to dynamize the multiple perceptions of the space itself, by submitting the individual who is dislocating to the experience of movement. Spatial distortions caused by relationships in networks, in turn, are capable of stretching or bending space, in addition to compressing or expanding time. Based on the assumption that the being is inseparable from the perceived space, this paper - which is essentially epistemological - defends the premise that the relative distortions of space are distortions of the identity itself, a process that rejects a clear cause-and-consequence relationship between space and identity, pointing to a dialectical and feedback process that resonates the heterogeneous associations affections, as well as contributes to the affection of others.