New Directions at the Post-Globalization Border

Abstract

A framework for thinking about borders in post-globalization scaffolds insights of emerging theory exemplary of prevailing in-betweenness of the border world. Epistemological advances frame dissensus, power, belongingness, borderscapes and a-territoriality as ridges of knowledge above the collected and connected lore of border experience, yet this knowledge remains topographic and incomplete for understanding interstitial components of borders and bordering. At best, linked approaches employing multiple perspectives, engaging with borderlands, portraying borderscapes, and articulating agency and mobility have set the stage for recalibration of borders in globalization, and approximation of post-globalization borders. In a post-humanistic era, in which humans encountered limitations of nature and sparred with natural laws, states propped up borders and emphasized boundaries. The “border turn” is reactionary, and antithetical, a time when we need to be mindful of the branded border and anxious of our belongingness both within and beyond borders. New directions at the border are epitomized by the articles in this special issue: controlling “blue” (maritime) versus “green” (land) borders, border ethics, China’s energized borders, borders as magnets of activism and spectacle, seemingly distinct borders in dialogue, border approaches of effective temporality, and the re-engagement of borders and policy.