The Figure of the Knot and the Inertia of Hypermobile Territoriality

Contemporary spatialities shaped by mobility have often been conceptualised as open, fluid, and unstable—places, territories, or identities that risk dissolution in the primacy of process over form. However, this emphasis on relational flows has been criticised for overlooking the material and affective dimensions of space: its inertia, resistance, and structuring capacities. Building on recent geographical research advocating a more-than-relational perspective, this article investigates the territorialisation of hypermobile individuals through detailed fieldwork in Paris and Copenhagen. Combining a survey of 300 individuals with semi-structured interviews and mental maps of 38 intensely mobile subjects, it examines the micro-processes by which individuals appropriate and embed themselves in space. The knot metaphor serves as a conceptual tool to capture the entangled dynamics of movement and stability, revealing how territorial forms persist and evolve amid constant transformation. This approach challenges dominant narratives of spatial dilution by emphasizing the embedded, dense, and ‘sticky’ qualities of contemporary mobility and territoriality.