Border Complexities

Border Studies has been one of emerging fields in the social sciences and cultural studies for decades. In addition to changes in scientific theory, this is primarily due to recent societal developments and the growing demand for knowledge on border and migration dynamics. It is in this context that Border Studies are now also gradually becoming more institutionalised in Europe and increasingly include more and more disciplines.

Against this backdrop, border studies encompass today a wide range of research topics in the context of borders, ranging from employment, education, spatial planning and politics to history, language and culture. It has become generally accepted that the function and effect of borders can be seen less at the edges of national territories but through the investigation of the processes of their establishment, displacement, infiltration, etc. This perspective prevails in border studies since at least the 2000s with the bordering approach (Paasi 1999; van Houtum 2002; Sahlins 1991; Motsch 2001; Rutz 2018).

The application of this approach shows, however, that the analytical perspective is not yet sufficiently developed to adequately grasp and understand the pressing societal challenges in Europe and beyond. Criticism of the Bordering approach aims at insufficient conceptualization and under-complexity and has recently led to a broadening of the analytical perspective, for example in Critical Border Studies (Parker et al. 2009; Parker/Vaughan-Williams 2012) or Cultural Border Studies (Gerst et al. 2018; Weier et al. 2018). Both currents attempt to analytically break down Bordering processes and to comprehend their various interlinked dimensions.

This further development, which has been observed for almost a decade, points to a complexity shift in border studies, insofar as border (space) phenomena are attempted to be understood in their complexity and relationality.

This objective draws from the understanding that borders do not manifest themselves through the unambiguous setting of dichotomous orders, the unambiguous separation of only a few actors, or on the territorial periphery of national societies. In recent border studies, borders are rather understood as results and crystallization points of multi-layered formations resulting from the (situational) interaction of different actors, activities, bodies, objects, knowledge and which are changeable (Amilhat Szary/Giraut 2015; Brambilla 2015; Hess 2018; Weier et al. 2018; Gerst et al. 2018). The concept of Border Complexities encompasses such dynamic constellations, which either cause or result from borders.

They are at the centre of the interdisciplinary project and will be conceptualised using different analytical approaches and discussed using empirical examples. For this purpose, a carefully coordinated series of workshops to enable a structured and interdisciplinary examination of a recent development in border studies, will be carried out.

References:

Amilhat Szary, Anne-Laure / Giraut, Frédéric (2015): Borderities: The Politics of Contemporary Mobile Borders. In: Amilhat Szary, Anne-Laure / Giraut, Frédéric (éds.): Borderities and the Politics of Contemporary Mobile Borders. Basingstoke, Palgrave, 1-22.

Brambilla, Chiara (2015): Exploring the Critical Potential of the Borderscapes Concept. Geopolitics 20 (1), 14-34.

Bürkner, Hans-Joachim (2017): Bordering, borderscapes, imaginaries: From constructivist to post-structural perspectives. In : Opiłowska, Elżbieta / Kurcz, Zbigniew / Roose, Jochen (éds.): Advances in Borderlands Studies. Baden-Baden, Nomos, 85-107.

Gerst, Dominik / Klessmann, Maria / Krämer, Hannes / Sienknecht, Mitja / Ulrich, Peter (2018): Komplexe Grenzen. Aktuelle Perspektiven der Grenzforschung. Berliner Debatte Initial 29 (1), (Special issue „Komplexe Grenzen“), 3-11.

Hess, Sabine (2018): Border as Conflict Zone. Critical Approaches on the Border and Migration Nexus. In : Bachmann-Medick, Doris / Kugele, Jens (éds.): Migration. Changing Concepts, Critical Approaches. Berlin, de Gruyter, 83-99.

Motsch, Christoph (2001): Grenzgesellschaft und frühmoderner Staat. Die Starostei Draheim zwischen Hinterpommern, der Neumark und Großpolen (1575–1805). Göttingen.

Paasi, Anssi (1999): Boundaries as Social Practice and Discourse: The Finnish-Russian Border. Regional Studies 33(7), 669-680.

Parker, Noel / Vaughan-Williams, Nick (2012): Critical Border Studies: Broadening and Deepening the ‚Lines in the Sand‘ Agenda. Geopolitics 17(4), 727-733.

Parker, Noel / Vaughan-Williams, Nick et al. (2009): Lines in the Sand? Towards an Agenda for Critical Border Studies. Geopolitics 14:3, 582-587.

Rumford, Chris (2011): Seeing like a border. Political Geography 30(2), 67-68.

Rumford, Chris (2012): Towards a Multiperspectival Study of Border. Geopolitics 17(4), 887-902.

Rutz, Andreas (2018): Die Beschreibung des Raums. Territoriale Grenzziehungen im Heiligen Römischen Reich. Köln, Weimar, Wien.

Sahlins, Peter (1991): Boundaries The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees. Berkeley et autres.

Van Houtum, Henk / Van Naerssen, Ton (2002): Bordering, ordering and othering. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 93 (2), 125-136.

Weier, Sebastian / Fellner, Astrid / Frenk, Jochen / Kazmaier, Daniel / Michely, Eva / Vatter, Christoph / Weiershausen, Romana / Wille, Christian (2018): Bordertexturen als transdisziplinärer Ansatz zur Untersuchung von Grenzen. Ein Werkstattbericht. Berliner Debatte Initial 29 (1), (Special issue „Komplexe Grenzen“), 73-83.