This volume addresses the marked influence borders and boundaries, whether real or imaginary, have on the lives of those inhabiting the borderland. How do political and symbolic borders take concrete shape, and how do they bear on daily life? Conversely, how does life in the borderland shape the borders that characterize it?
This volume understands borderlands as shifting places, times or domains where competing discourses and regimes of power overlap. Characterized by overt contradiction and paradox, they are often imagined at the outside. Yet, they pertain to and define the centre.
The case studies collected here challenge the assumption that states and anonymized institutions are the principal actors in border-making. Instead, they argue for an actor-oriented perspective while drawing attention to the "physicality" of the borderscape.
Contributors: Laura E. Bleckmann, Mark Breusers, Ira Dworkin, Paul Enzlin, Tammary Esho, Els Hoorelbeke, Gillian Mathys, Ana Cristina Roque, Steven Van Wolputte, Eline Versluys.
Editor: Steven Van Wolputte is associate professor and Program Director of social and cultural anthropology at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (IARA) at the University of Leuven.
