Territory and development: Conceptual basis for local governance

Abstract

Territories are a human construction, which appears as people inhabit them. In other words, they are generated by the existence of societies, when they transform geographies into their own habitats. Thus, both public and private actors have a chance to organize their communications, interactions and conflicts with the purpose of fulfilling their own needs and desires. As such, they concur with general concepts of social science and governance as a scenario for making public decisions, as well as for productivity and competitiveness as fundamental variables of private actions and deliberate public actions, which usually develop into development policies, consensus by agents, as well as public and private agencies in pursuit of a common goal. On this basis, this paper seeks to formulate an academic space that intends to contribute to an integrated and sustainable human development in a perspective that assumes social change, respect for the fragile ecosystem balance, and the basis of sustainability of social and economic processes from the perspective of the government and the social responsibilities of companies and citizens.