About the Agency and Structures of Borders
Résumé
The study of borders has reached the status of a unified scientific subfield, stimulating the development of
many competing epistemologies of borders (Knippenberg & Markusse, 1999, Paasi, 1999, in Eskelinen,
Liikanen, & Oksa, 1999, Perkmann & Sum, 2002, Newman 2005, Brunet-Jailly, 2005 and 2006, Konrad and
Nicol, 2008). In this paper, I review this discussion and suggest a tri-dimensional perspective on borders
and borderlands: (1) The agency of local cross-border culture may straddle a borderland, but it is only when
local culture or political clout straddles to integrate the borderland, that it actually has a structuring
influence; (2) Similarly, the agency of policy activities of multiple levels of government may span a
borderland to organize policy at local, regional, provincial, and central levels of governments, and/or
networks of task specific public and private sector organizations, but, it is only when government policies
straddle the borderland to integrate it, that they are structuring; (3) Finally, the agency of local/regional
cross-border market forces may straddle a borderland, but it is only when they span a borderland to
integrate it that it is structuring. I argue that this theoretical explanation of borders is key but neither
culture, nor government activities or markets forces should ever be assumed to be prevalent.
many competing epistemologies of borders (Knippenberg & Markusse, 1999, Paasi, 1999, in Eskelinen,
Liikanen, & Oksa, 1999, Perkmann & Sum, 2002, Newman 2005, Brunet-Jailly, 2005 and 2006, Konrad and
Nicol, 2008). In this paper, I review this discussion and suggest a tri-dimensional perspective on borders
and borderlands: (1) The agency of local cross-border culture may straddle a borderland, but it is only when
local culture or political clout straddles to integrate the borderland, that it actually has a structuring
influence; (2) Similarly, the agency of policy activities of multiple levels of government may span a
borderland to organize policy at local, regional, provincial, and central levels of governments, and/or
networks of task specific public and private sector organizations, but, it is only when government policies
straddle the borderland to integrate it, that they are structuring; (3) Finally, the agency of local/regional
cross-border market forces may straddle a borderland, but it is only when they span a borderland to
integrate it that it is structuring. I argue that this theoretical explanation of borders is key but neither
culture, nor government activities or markets forces should ever be assumed to be prevalent.
Domaines
Science politique
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