B/ordering Space

In the wake of globalization, numerous social scientists are turning to concepts of mobility, fluidity and hybridity to characterize a presumed de-territorialization and de-bordering of contemporary social and economic relations. This book brings together a select group of internationally renowned human geographers to explore the use of these concepts in relation to space, place and territory. In doing so, they (re)situate the subject of borders as active socio-spatial processes from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The contributors link debates on borders to discussions within the wider sphere of cultural studies, notably those addressing themes of migration, post-colonialism, the formation of national/regional identities and radical democratic practice. The chapters focus on those discursive practices that constitute 'bordered' geographical entities in the first instance through differentiated regimes of discourse. The book thus transcends the narrower field of borderlands research by building bridges to other domains of enquiry within political and human geography.

Contents: Prologue: B/ordering Space, Henk van Houtum, Olivier Kramsch and Wolfgang Zierhofer. B/ordering Practices In A 'Borderless' World: The changing discourses on political boundaries: mapping the backgrounds, contexts and contents, Anssi Paasi; Borders Unbound: globalization, regionalism and the postmetropolitan transition, Edward W. Soja; Regions and everyday regionalizations: from a space-centred towards an action-centered human geography, Benno Werlen; Shaky borders? transnational migrants as strategic actors, David Ley. Strategic Constructions: Claiming and Fixing Places: Regionalization in Europe: stories, institutions and boundaries, Arnoud Lagendijk; On paradigms and doctrines: the 'Euroregio of Salzburg' as a bordered space, Peter Weichhart; Borderline communities: Canadian single industry towns, Staples, and Harold Innis, Trevor Barnes; Splintering Palestine, Derek Gregory. Situating And Extending Spaces Of Orientation: Scientists without borders: or moments of insight, spaces of recognition: situated practice, science, and the navigation of urban everyday life, Allan Pred; Debordering subjectivity, Huib Ernste; Friedrich Ratzel's spatial turn: identities of disciplinary space and its borders between the anthropo- and political geography of Germany and the United States, Wolfgang Natter. Re-Imagining Bounded Routes and Discourses: The poetry of boundaries: reflections from the Portuguese-Spanish borderlands, James D. Sidaway; Bor(der)ing stories: spaces of absence along the Dutch-German border, Anke Strüver; 'Röstigraben': a discourse on national identity in Switzerland, Wolfgang Zierhofer; On the border with Deleuze and Guattari, Keith Woodward and John Paul Jones III; Index.

Dr Henk van Houtum, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Dr Olivier Kramsch is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Dr Wolfgang Zierhofer, PhD, is Senior Research Fellow for the 'Programm Mensch Gesellschaft Umwelt' at the University of Basel, Switzerland.