Spaces of Interaction: Enactments of Sociospatial Relations and an Emerging EU Diplomacy in Kenya

Much of human geographic spatial theorizing has largely accepted space as relational and has moved from an engagement with fixed or static space to more dynamic notions of space such as space-time or sociospatial relations. Space is thereby inextricably linked to society and time. It is shaped by the preference of social (and political and economic) actors for specific spatial configurations and simultaneously shapes social (and political and economic) life. This paper argues that interactions are central to these assumptions - interactions between people, between societies, between political and economic actors, between objects and actors in space, and of course between society and space. It is through interactions that 'things' in space are made relational and that sociospatial relationality is enacted. We implicitly accept this centrality of interaction, however, hardly address it explicitly. This paper therefore suggests engaging more thoroughly with interactions as the practices and processes through which sociospatial relationality is enacted. Using the empirical example of the making of EU (European Union) diplomacy in Kenya, I offer the notion of spaces of interaction as an overarching access for studying such enactments.