The contemporary struggle for space in Carl Schmitt’s work

Abstract

In this article I review the theory of historical evolution of Carl Schmitt, by referencing his writings on the concept of nomos. In these studies, he distinguishes historical stages by a specific way of ordering the land and a particular collective imaginary about space, elements that have legal, political and military consequences. Based on this scheme, I review «the great space revolution» that Schmitt established between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Then, I discuss the particularities of contemporary historical stage, that according to the author started in the twentieth century, but is diffusely characterized throughout his work. I postulate that, for Schmitt, the current stage of world history is identified mainly by the appropriation of large industrial lands and an understanding of space as a field of forces in which humanity expands its energy, activity and effort.