Frontières : approches multidisciplinaire

Border Region

Balkans, Roumanie, Belgique, espace schengen, Etat-Unis, France

Language(s)

Français

Type

Note on a scientific book publication

Main Category

Governance – Power – Cooperation

Language – Culture – Identity

Introduction

This community work resulted from the "Après-midi de recherche" ["Research afternoons"] of the faculty for political sciences. The target is to study the borders by mixing various disciplines. It is based on two perspectives: internationalist political-science theory and social sciences.

Summary

The term "border" is characterised by its complexity in connection with its linguistically ambiguous character. The work analyses the concept of the border under a multidisciplinary approach. All eight contributions are based on two approaches: internationalist political science theory on the one hand and social sciences on the other hand. This work has an entirely new, diversified methodical approach. It offers added value for the traditional approaches of political sciences and international relationships regarding the term of "border", in which the multidisciplinary perspective is supported. This approach permits integration of development of this concept and shows that several shared properties exist in spite of the different areas.

Content

This community work resulted from the "Après-midi de recherche" ["Research afternoons"] of the faculty for political sciences at the University of Liège in May 2016. It contains eight original contributions that connect theoretical considerations and empirical perspectives. This shared publication is determined by the following research question: How and why can the term "border" be treated by a multidisciplinary approach?

The eight contributions are divided into three areas.

The first part analyses the border from a perspective of internationalist political-science theory. The contributions focus on the role of borders as political or state, legal and symbolic separating lines, as well as on the economic and commercial exchange and their role as a source of disputes and wars.

The three contributions are as follows:

Study of the international borders of the Western Balkan states. The case of the Republic of Kosovo.
Waiting for Schengen: Romania's borders – from the institutional structure to the identity dimensions.
Nuclear border: The border point (Fail safe) in US film.

The second part focuses on the point of view of social sciences. The authors speak of the border as a social construct. The three contributions are as follows:

Monitoring and indicating. Building up immigration as a dangerous and autonomous social phenomenon.
The rhetoric of people of the French Front National: A trick to sovereignty, unity and identity.
Eating cultures and affiliation. An ethnography in the border area.

In the third part, the authors finally deal with social commitment and transfer of knowledge, standards and values from one generation to the next. The two contributions are as follows:

Development, obligation and transfer processes, observed in three generations of Moroccan men in Belgium.
Border, culture and identity. Artistic expression as a witness of the change of the ethnic borders.

The conclusion returns to each of the articles briefly while also highlighting the shared aspects of all the research works.

Conclusions

The different contributions in the work reflect the great variety of using the term "border", as well as certain shared items of research fields.

The term "border" initially contains the double meaning of separation and contact area for exchange.

Secondly, the contributions reflect the different functions of borders: political recognition, protection, territorial construct, material and symbolic association.

Thirdly, the multidisciplinary approach makes it possible to be aware of constant further development. In a globalised world, where many changes for exchange, but also processes of separation and fragmentation are present, borders can reinforce, close, multiply, open or even disappear very quickly. This way, borders are continually created anew and rethought. The borders are likely to determine our considerations and discussions for a long time to come.

Key Messages

This community work contains eight contributions that mix theoretical considerations and empirical perspectives. It is based on two perspectives: internationalist political-science theory and social sciences.

The different contributions in the work reflect the great variety of using the term "border", as well as certain shared items of research fields for the double meaning of borders and their function. Finally, the contributions highlight the considerations on continuous further development of the borders.

Lead

Liridon Lika, Audrey Weerts, Sophie Wintgens and Justine Contor

Author of the entry

Perrine

Dethier

Contributions

Rim Arara, Andrew Crosby, Francois Debras, André Dumoulin, Roxana Hincu, Elsa Mescoli, Madalina Sisu Vicari, Michel Sylin, Fatima Zibouh

Links

http://www.presses.uliege.be/jcms/c_19903/frontieres

Keywords

Frontières

Relations internationales