Globalization And Borders

This book analyzes the political and material conditions driving contemporary border control policies and discusses the processes that mediate popular and official understandings of border-related fatalities.

The emergence of new and substantial human migration flows is one of the most important consequences of globalisation. While ascribable to widely differing social and economic causes, from the forced migration of refugees to upper-middle-class migration projects and the movement of highly skilled workers, what they have in common is the effect of contributing to a substantial global redefinition in terms of both identity and politics. This book contains contributions from scholars in the fields of law, social sciences, the sciences, and the liberal arts, brought together to delineate the features of the migration phenomena that will accompany us over the coming decades. The focus is on the multifaceted concept of 'border' as representing a useful stratagem for dealing with a topic like migration that requires analysis from several perspectives. The authors discuss the various factors and issues which must be understood in all their complexity so that they can be governed by all social stakeholders, free of manipulation and false consciousness. They bring an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective to the social phenomena such as human trafficking, unaccompanied foreign minors, or ethnic-based niches in the job market. The book will be a valuable guide for academics, students and policy-makers.

Borders represent an intriguing paradox as globalization continues to leap barriers at a vigorous pace, merging economies and cultures through world trade, economic integration, the mass media, the Internet, and increasingly mobile populations. At the same time, the political boundaries separating peoples remain pervasive and problematic. Borders and Border Politics in a Globalizing World offers a carefully selected group of readings to enhance student understanding of the complexities of border regions. The reader brings together key writings on the histories of borders, their social development, their politics, and the daily life that characterizes them. The authors place their analyses of these issues in an international context, stressing how borders influence, and how they are influenced by, global processes. The selections provide a window on our current understanding of human interactions at and along national and interethnic boundaries, interactions that will characterize borders and border politics for decades to come. Drawing on a worldwide set of case studies, this text divides border issues into seven thematic categories: borders as barriers; borders, migrants, and refugees; borders and partitioned groups; borders, perceptions and culture; borders and the environment; borders, goods, and services; and maritime and space borders. An excellent text for courses on boundaries, ethnicity, and international relations, this collection of cutting-edge information and analysis on borders and border politics in the context of ongoing globalization will shed light both upon international and subnational boundaries and upon the unfolding processes of globalization.

Border culture emerges through the intersection and engagement of imagination, affinity and identity. It is evident wherever boundaries separate or sort people and their goods, ideas or other belongings. It is the vessel of engagement between countries and peoples—assuming many forms, exuding a variety of expressions, changing shapes—but border culture does not disappear once it is developed, and it may be visualized as a thread that runs throughout the process of globalization. Border culture is conveyed in imaginaries and productions that are linked to borderland identities constructed in the borderlands. These identities underlie the enforcement of control and resistance to power that also comprise border cultures. Canada’s borders in globalization offer an opportunity to explore the interplay of borders and culture, identify the fundamental currents of border culture in motion, and establish an approach to understanding how border culture is placed and replaced in globalization. Published in English.

This book is a case-study collection examining the influences and functions of British Columbia’s (BC) borders in the 21st century. British Columbia’s Borders in Globalization examines bordering processes and the causes and effects of borders in the Cascadian region, from the perspective of BC. The chapters cover diverse topics including historical border disputes and cannabis culture and identity; the governance of transboundary water flows, migration, and preclearance policies for goods and people; and the emerging issue of online communities. The case studies provide examples that highlight the simultaneous but contradictory trends regarding borders in BC: while boundaries and bordering processes at the external borders shift away from the territorial boundary lines, self-determination, local politics, and cultural identities re-inscribe internal boundaries and borders that are both virtual and real. Moreover, economic protectionism, racial discourses, and xenophobic narratives, driven by advances in technology, reinforce the territorial dimensions of borders. These case studies contribute to the literature challenging the notion that territorial borders are sufficient for understanding how borders function in BC; and in a few instances they illustrate the nuanced ways in which borders (or bordering processes) are becoming detached from territory. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Borderlands Studies.

Written by two leading scholars of global politics, Globalization: the return of borders to a borderless world? is a major new book for students of globalization. It describes and explains globalization and its origins, and examines its future in light of key recent political and global trends and events. The text: identifies the different political, economic, technological, and cultural meanings of globalization examines its historical origins from the ancient past through the Cold War and into the twenty-first century describes the multiple attributes and consequences of globalization including its effect on the sovereignty of the nation state discusses recent trends such as the increased use of social media and events like the Arab Spring assesses the normative implications of globalization analyzes the challenges to globalization posed by contemporary events such as the global financial crisis. This book will be essential reading for all students of globalization, and will be of great interest to students of global politics and global governance.

Trade and investment policies face a changing geopolitical environment. They also face challenges from the interactions and limits of Canada’s multiple trade agreements with other countries. These challenges take on varied forms in different sectors that involve the bordering of energy trade, food safety, and related environmental and public health issues. Similarly, bordering dynamics differ significantly for cross border flows of tourism, skilled labour, and irregular migration. This book uncovers and analyzes factors that govern economic activity and human interaction across Canada’s “fluid” border. The contributors to this collection engage major domestic political, technical, and administrative factors that shape the conditions for and constraints on effective international policy and regulatory cooperation. Published in English.

This volume contains contributions from twenty-four scholars concerning the significance and implications of the world’s borderlands in economic, political, and socio-cultural contexts. Together these essays explore the changing role of borders in a global world. Are borders increasingly irrelevant under conditions of globalization, or can a case be made to demonstrate their continuing importance at various levels of spatial activity? Situating itself within a growing border literature, Holding the Line argues that contemporary borders facilitate parallel processes of globalization and localization of political activity. As such, the essays adopt a holistic approach to understanding the impact of boundaries on both society and space. They demonstrate that any attempt to create a methodological and conceptual framework for the understanding of boundaries must be concerned with the process of bounding, rather than simply the means through which the physical lines of separation are delimited and demarcated. This approach renders the notion of a "borderless world" highly problematic, because the latter ignores the important and ongoing relationship between the functional role of borders in the bounding process, and the symbolic role of borders as imagined social, political, and economic constructions embedded within a geographical text. The changing characteristics of political boundaries during an era of globalization has become a great focus of interdisciplinary study, and this book will appeal to scholars of political geography, border studies, and international relations.