The article first presents the conditions for the emergence of the geographies of the representations: in reaction to the ‘organisation of space’, which calls for ‘rationality of choices and fluidity of traffic in an undifferentiated space’, they derive their sources from two currents: the geography of behaviour, taking into account stakeholders’ spatial strategies, and the perception of the environment (assessment of major risks, tolerance thresholds for spatial planning). The result is a geography incorporating the direction of the places, or even a humanistic vision such as that of YI FU Tuan: it attempts to link the opposition ‘elsewhere’ to the opposition ‘ourselves’. The main thrust of the reflection on the geographies of the representation then emerges: (A) complex relationships between the various spatial and cultural scales, (B) articulation of ‘static’ (site, location study) and ‘functional’ (study of socio-spatial interaction), (C) territoriality and reterritorialisation.