The phrase, “spatial turn” refers to a paradigm shift in the humanities and social sciences encapsulated by a shift in focus from time-oriented analyses—such as historical progressions and linear narratives—to the complexities of space and spatial relationships. This intellectual shift was driven by a growing recognition that space is not simply a neutral container where human activity takes place, but a dynamic and socially constructed phenomenon that shapes, and is shaped by, human interactions.

The roots of the "spatial turn" can be traced to the emergence of contestations between expert-led bureaucrats and traditional communities and their spokespeople over land reform in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As Jo Guldi notes, “public intellectuals like legal scholar Henry Maine, philosopher Ernst Cassirer, urban historian Lewis Mumford, journalist Walter Lippmann, and religious scholar Mircea Eliade combed through historical records, proposed theories of spatial experience, and promoted the terminology of ‘commons,’ ‘palimpsest,’ and ‘pseudoenvironment,’ attempting to coin a universal language for describing spatial experience and its artificial manipulation” (Guldi, n.d.). Scholars from a variety of disciplines—literary studies, art historians, social historians—built on these ideas and drew on ethnographic studies to document the ways in which relationships to the land were developed.

References

• Guldi, J. (n.d.) "What is the Spatial Turn?" Spatial Humanities: A Project of the Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship. https://spatial.scholarslab.org/spatial-turn/what-is-the-spatial-turn/