Borders Sociocultural Encounters And Contestations

This book examines the enduring significance of borders in Southern Africa, covering encounters between people, ideas and matter, and the new spatialities and transformations they generate in their historical, social, economic and cultural contexts. Situated within debates on borders, borderlands, sub- and regional integration, this volume examines local, grassroots and non-state actors and their cross-border economic and sociocultural encounters and contestations. Particular attention is also paid on the role they play in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and its integration project in its multiplicity. The interdisciplinary chapters address the diverse human activities relating to cross-border economic and sociocultural encounters and contestations that are manifested through multiform and -scalar interactions between or among grassroots actors, involving engagements between grassroots actors and the state or its agencies, and/or to the broader arrangements that bear consequences of the first two upon regional integration. By bringing these different, at times contrasting, forms of interaction under a holistic analysis, this volume devises novel ways to understand the persistence and role of borders and their relation to new transnational and transcultural integrative phenomena at various levels, extending from the (nation-)state and the political to the cultural and social at the everyday level of border practices. Scholars and students of African studies, geography, economics, politics, sociology and border studies will find this book useful.

This book examines the enduring significance of borders in Southern Africa, covering encounters between people, ideas and matter, and the new spatialities and transformations they generate in their historical, social, economic and cultural contexts. Situated within debates on borders, borderlands, sub- and regional integration, this volume examines local, grassroots and non-state actors and their cross-border economic and sociocultural encounters and contestations. Particular attention is also paid on the role they play in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and its integration project in its multiplicity. The interdisciplinary chapters address the diverse human activities relating to cross-border economic and sociocultural encounters and contestations that are manifested through multiform and -scalar interactions between or among grassroots actors, involving engagements between grassroots actors and the state or its agencies, and/or to the broader arrangements that bear consequences of the first two upon regional integration. By bringing these different, at times contrasting, forms of interaction under a holistic analysis, this volume devises novel ways to understand the persistence and role of borders and their relation to new transnational and transcultural integrative phenomena at various levels, extending from the (nation-)state and the political to the cultural and social at the everyday level of border practices. Scholars and students of African studies, geography, economics, politics, sociology and border studies will find this book useful.

This book provides a sophisticated analysis of cross-border challenges and problems in the southern African region. It advances explanations that transcend the state-centric narrative that has nationalised cross-border security. It provides insights from non-state actors such as informal cross-border traders (ICBTs), informal cross-border transporters, undocumented migrants, and cross-border communities. It argues that security needs to be understood beyond a state-centric paradigm by focusing on the political, economic, environmental, and societal threats at macro, meso, and micro levels. The book suggests that at the core of cross-border security challenges in the Southern African region is a post-colonial governmentality. This drives the nationalisation of cross-border security as though it is the only security leading to nation-states, in turn depoliticising and invisibilising the security and livelihoods of ordinary people, even when nation-states claim to be protecting the same. The book will be a useful resource for students, scholars, and researchers of African Studies, Border Studies, Human Geography, Migration Studies, Development Studies, International Studies, International Relations, Political Science, and Security Studies.

This book offers new insights into the current, highly complex border transitions taking place at the EU internal and external border areas, as well as globally. It focuses on new frontiers and intersections between borders, borderlands and resilience, developing new understandings of resilience through the prism of borders. The book provides new perspectives into how different groups of people and communities experience, adapt and resist the transitions and uncertainties of border closures and securitization in their everyday and professional lives. The book also provides new methodological guidelines for the study of borders and multi-sited bordering and resilience processes. The book bridges border studies and social scientific resilience research in new and innovative. It will be of interest to students and scholars in geography, political studies, international relations, security studies and anthropology.

A thousand years ago, the Comitán Valley, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, was the western edge of the Maya world. Far from the famous power centers of the Classic period, the valley has been neglected even by specialists. Here, Caitlin C. Earley offers the first comprehensive study of sculpture excavated from the area, showcasing the sophistication and cultural vigor of a region that has largely been ignored. Supported by the rulers of the valley’s cities, local artists created inventive works that served to construct civic identities. In their depictions of warrior kings, ballgames, rituals, and ancestors, the artists of Comitán made choices that reflected political and religious goals and distinguished the artistic production of the Comitán Valley from that of other Maya locales. After the Maya abandoned their powerful lowland centers, those in Comitán were maintained, a distinction from which Earley draws new insights concerning the Maya collapse. Richly illustrated with never-before-published photographs of sculptures unearthed from key archaeological sites, The Comitán Valley is an illuminating work of art historical recovery and interpretation.

This book explores relations between states in the Africa–European Union in view of the African Continental Free Trade Area, both at a regional level and as a series of informal processes of socioeconomic and political interactions between state and non-state actors. The book reconsiders the ways in which actors in the Africa–European Union relationship function, and what that means for regionalism, regionalisation and regional integration. In addition to formalised state-to-state and inter-regional interactions, the book examines the impact of socio-economic and political interactions with non-state actors, including those who engage with regional integration through formal and informal processes such as civil society activists, “African migration evangelists”, human smugglers and human traffickers. The book thus demonstrates that regional and inter-regional engagements include issues that extend beyond the usual discussions of trade. The book is authored from an African perspective and will be of interest to academics who specialise in International Relations, Political Economy, Political Sociology and African Studies. Policy makers and various actors in civil society and think tanks who have an academic inclination and deal with trade, migration and regionalism in Africa and Africa’s relations with Europe will also find the book beneficial.

The essays presented in this volume are a peer-reviewed selection of some of the best papers presented during the 3rd Crossing Over Symposium at Cleveland State University from October 9–11, 2009. Scholars from the United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, India, Israel, and the United Kingdom came together to examine border experiences from different points of view. Originally the organizers called upon a diversity of borderland possibilities for this conference: cultural, political, educational, religious, international, intranational, linguistic, gender, ideological, age, tribal, social class/caste, identity, and neighborhoods. The definition of borderland was not limited to territorial spaces, but rather was open to any kind of confrontation/encounter affecting different situations of our lives. The call for this conference was interdisciplinary in nature, and its intent was to open a discussion between the humanities and the social sciences on the dynamic issue of borders.

This book examines the national borders and borderlands of Zimbabwe through the presentation of empirically rich case studies. It delves into the lived experiences, both past and present, of populations residing along the borders between Zimbabwe and its neighbours, i.e., Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique. It locates these lived experiences within the political economy of Zimbabwe, and highlights a wide range of themes pertinent to borders, including health, COVID-19, marginalisation, resource access, conservation, human-wildlife conflicts, civil wars, politico-economic crises, border jumping and cross border trade. The borderland communities discussed also include ethnic minorities such as the Tonga, San, Ndau, Shangane, and Kalanga. Overall, the book demonstrates the centrality of borders to the Zimbabwean nation-state and the importance of reading history, politics and society from the borderlands. The book fits into the wider prevailing literature of border and borderlands in Africa and beyond and thus has appeal far beyond Zimbabwe. Its diverse themes also relate to topics covered in multiple disciplines, including history, anthropology, and sociology. Academics, development specialists and policy makers will benefit in different ways from the depth and breadth of the analysis in the book.