Science At The Borders

Fairchild has unearthed a curious fact about this ubiquitous rite of immigration - it was rarely undertaken to exclude immigrants.".

An Economist “Our Books of the Year” Selection Economist Bryan Caplan makes a bold case for unrestricted immigration in this fact-filled graphic nonfiction. American policy-makers have long been locked in a heated battle over whether, how many, and what kind of immigrants to allow to live and work in the country. Those in favor of welcoming more immigrants often cite humanitarian reasons, while those in favor of more restrictive laws argue the need to protect native citizens. But economist Bryan Caplan adds a new, compelling perspective to the immigration debate: He argues that opening all borders could eliminate absolute poverty worldwide and usher in a booming worldwide economy—greatly benefiting humanity. With a clear and conversational tone, exhaustive research, and vibrant illustrations by Zach Weinersmith, Open Borders makes the case for unrestricted immigration easy to follow and hard to deny.

Science Has No National Borders unfolds the fascinating account of the American scientist, Harry C. Kelly, who was central to the United States' contribution to the reconstruction of postwar Japan's science and engineering community. Charged with developing a sound and wise policy during the occupation, he tackled such significant and timeless issues as the relationship between government and scholars and the balance between academic freedom and state power. In the aftermath of World War II, from 1945 through 1952, U.S. military forces occupied Japan. The Americans who served as liaison officers during this time were faced with the task of forging alliances with former enemies so as to transform and revitalize Japan's institutions while paying close attention to American interests and concerns. Nowhere was the need for this delicate balance more evident than in the reconstruction of Japanese science and the reintegration of Japanese scientists into the global community of scholars. Kelly, a physicist in his late thirties, arrived in Japan with little idea of his mission and virtually no knowledge of Japan's culture, society, or language. What he did bring, in addition to his scientific training, was a humanistic vision of the scientific endeavor that extended beyond national borders and politics. By the time he left, he had won the respect and friendship of many Japanese scientists, and in 1969 the government awarded him the highest honor it confers on someone who is not Japanese. Kelly's work remains significant for today's scientists who must continue to seek mutual trust and support at a time when the strength of U.S.-Japanese relations is being challenged more than at any time since the end of World War II.

Integrated Science: Science without Borders” is the first volume of the INTEGRATED SCIENCE Book series, aiming to publish the results of the most updated ideas and reviews in transdisciplinary fields and to highlight the integration of discrete disciplines, including formal sciences, physical-chemical sciences and engineering, biological sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences. This volume primarily focuses on the research involving the integration of two or more academic fields offering an innovative, borderless view, which is one of the main focuses of the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN). The whole world is suffering from complex problems; these are borderless problems; thus, a borderless solution could merely solve such complex issues. Transdisciplinarity is a domain, that researchers work jointly, using a shared conceptual framework, drawing together disciplinary-specific theories, concepts, and approaches to address common problems. Lack of confidence, lack of expertise, complexities of healthcare, the confusing nature of healthcare environments, and lack of organization and standardization are the obstacles of successful scientific communication. Consequently, this book provides an overview of the essential elements of transdisciplinary studies and integrated science. The unique aspect of this book -privileging it from other books- is covering all aspects of science as harmonies of a single symphony.

Since the turn of the previous century, science fiction and its native tropes have been used by authors, artists, filmmakers and critics in order to challenge boundaries – whether these be conceptual, literary or metaphorical. Uniquely inherent to the genre is its ability to explore, as a form of thought experiment, different ways of crossing and subverting borders previously thought to be inviolable; these transgressions and their effects on popular culture have in turn led to an increased presence of science fiction studies in academia. This volume features papers presented at the 2014 and 2015 Science Fiction Symposia, held at Tel-Aviv University. These essays, submitted by an eclectic mix of scholars from different disciplines, institutes and walks of life, demonstrate the diversity and adaptability of science fiction as a tool for asking – and answering – impossible questions.

Borders and Belonging explores the role of libraries as both places of belonging as well as instruments of exclusion, xenophobia and assimilation. For over a century, North American libraries have liaised between immigrant communities and mainstream society by providing important sociocultural and educational services. Yet, outreach efforts have largely adhered to "Americanizing" ideals that reinforce ethnocentric and fatalist attitudes particularly toward undocumented and/or underprivileged migrants, refugees and asylees. As immigration continues to dominate public consciousness and political debates, the library profession must interrogate presumptions of immigrant incompetence or inferiority; professional awe whereby librarians are uncritically positioned as rescue workers; along with inattention to the contributions of immigrants within the profession as well as U.S. and Canadian societies. Through reflective essays, original research, and critical analyses presented by a range of specialists and thought leaders, Borders and Belonging challenges readers to dismantle problematic paradigms.

Framing Borders addresses a fundamental disjuncture between scholastic portrayals of settler colonialism and what actually takes place in Akwesasne Territory, the largest Indigenous cross-border community in Canada. Whereas most existing portrayals of Indigenous nationalism emphasize border crossing as a site of conflict between officers and Indigenous nationalists, in this book Ian Kalman observes a much more diverse range of interactions, from conflict to banality to joking and camaraderie. Framing Borders explores how border crossing represents a conversation where different actors "frame" themselves, the law, and the space that they occupy in diverse ways. Written in accessible, lively prose, Kalman addresses what goes on when border officers and Akwesasne residents meet, and what these exchanges tell us about the relationship between Indigenous actors and public servants in Canada. This book provides an ethnographic examination of the experiences of the border by Mohawk community members, the history of local border enforcement, and the paradoxes, self-contradictions, and confusions that underlie the border and its enforcement.

When are borders justified? Who has a right to control them? Where should they be drawn? Today people think of borders as an island's shores. Just as beaches delimit a castaway's realm, so borders define the edges of a territory, occupied by a unified people, to whom the land legitimately belongs. Hence a territory is legitimate only if it belongs to a people unified by a civic identity. Sadly, this Desert Island Model of territorial politics forces us to choose. If we want territories, then we can either have democratic legitimacy, or inclusion of different civic identities--but not both. The resulting politics creates mass xenophobia, migrant-bashing, hoarding of natural resources, and border walls. To escape all this, On Borders presents an alternative model. Drawing on an intellectual tradition concerned with how land and climate shape institutions, it argues that we should not see territories as pieces of property owned by identity groups. Instead, we should see them as watersheds: as interconnected systems where institutions, people, the biota, and the land together create overlapping civic duties and relations, what the book calls place-specific duties. This Watershed Model argues that borders are justified when they allow us to fulfill those duties; that border-control rights spring from internationally-agreed conventions--not from internal legitimacy; that borders should be governed cooperatively by the neighboring states and the states system; and that border redrawing should be done with environmental conservation in mind. The book explores how this model undoes the exclusionary politics of desert islands.