Revista de Administración Pública Conceptual considerations on territorial development Antonio Inoue Cervantes* Introduction. Developing a State based on its internal activities is an idea which has been recurrently analyzed and studied by different –social and natural- disciplines; this has caused this subject’s approach to be broad and diffuse. Thus, different perspectives on development have sprung: biological, economical, anthropological, ecological and sociological ones. Additionally, the height of investigations focused on space-place in the latter part of the 20 th century, led studies to paired up the concept of “development” with different adjectives in order to differentiate global-local, internal-external, urban-rural notions. Expressions such as “endogenous development”, “exogenous development”, “local development”, “regional development”, “urban development” or “metropolitan development” were created. This does not mean they are exclusive prescriptive concepts, but analytical categories that represent different perspectives of the same process: “development” and all of these variations share a common factor, they all take place within some “territory”; in other words, all of these variations refer to “territorial development”. Regardless of the adopted classifcation, territory is an essential concept when designing, implementing and evaluating development plans, policies and/or programs; simply because it reveals society’s expression and citizens’ rights to build and socially make it theirs. Territory is a scenario * Holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policies and a PhD in Social Sciences by the Metropolitan Autonomous University-Xochimilco. Tenured professor of the UAEM University Center Texcoco of the undergraduate Political Sciences and Public Administration Program and in the postgraduate Government and Public Affairs Program. Antonio Inoue Cervantes Conceptual considerations on territorial development 257 Esta revista forma parte del acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM www.juridicas.unam.mx http://biblio.juridicas.unam.mx DR © 2013. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, A. C.