Autour de la fonction sociale de la frontière

The border rests more on its social foundation than on its biological foundation. Today Europe is definitely the continent of partitions, "a border-making machine" which has not worked only on its own behalf, since it has affected America, Africa and Asia with its practices.

Abolishing borders is intended as a definitive transgression leading to a limnological theory. This theory allows us to observe the multiple effects of the border on communities and spaces concerned through the functions assumed by the border. In fact, a border is a structural and morphological "invariant" conditioned by an "eco-bio-socio-logical" interface supporting four essential functions: translation, regulation, differentiation and relation.

A border is always a translation of an intention, a desire and a power. As a translation, a border takes on a social function, translates information and allows for territorial classification.

As a regulation, a border places boundaries on an area inside which those who founded it enjoy autonomy.

It is also a differentiation, whilst introducing differences allowing things to be established and preserved, as non-differentiation bring chaos and leads to crisis.

Finally, a border is a relationship as it joins territories that confront each other, compare themselves and discover each other, whilst allowing for exchanges, collaboration or opposition.

The social function of the border continues to be framed by this limnological theory. This function needs to be updated by state systems to avoid it being reduced. The example of Brazil is quite interesting from this point of view. This Latin American country has only updated the military function of the border. For a long the country looked towards Europe and North America and the social function was not made explicit. With borders that only translate a defensive aspect, exchanges and relations with the neighbouring countries are rare. But this chaos seems to be changing with the new policy of openness and updating. After concentrating on the ocean horizon, Brazil is now allowing itself a continental horizon continental on which its back had been turned in order to allow the land borders to function on the social level.

Former Eastern Europe has also taken its time rediscovering these functions that it had substantially forgotten because of all the geopolitical problems linked to the wars in the area and borders. Talking about erasing borders is a meaningless expression for a whole series of legal reasons. It is necessary, first of all, to combat and eliminate the violence experienced on borders. A border is not a "scar of history" - it really is a" bi-social invariant", a constituent part of all human organisation.

A border is fundamentally a regulation mechanism that guarantees life against the dangers of chaos, and it is on no account an obstacle and a constraint that imposes limitations on individual and collective freedom. It is true that it is indispensable for the reasons given, but it remains negative in certain cases where the community gives it a negative role to play.