Borderlands and Frontiers in Africa

ISBN-13: 9783643903334 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 254 str.

Opis

This volume addresses the marked influence that African borders and boundaries, whether real or imaginary, have on the lives of those inhabiting the borderland. How do political and symbolic borders take concrete shape, and how do they bear on daily life? Conversely, how does life in the borderland shape the borders that characterize it? The book recognizes borderlands as shifting places, times, or domains where competing discourses and regimes of power overlap. Characterized by overt contradiction and paradox, they are often imagined at the outside. Yet, they pertain to and define the center. The collected case studies challenge the assumption that states and anonymized institutions are the principal actors in border-making. Instead, they argue for an actor-oriented perspective, while drawing attention to the "physicality" of the borderscape. (Series: African Studies / Afrikanische Studien - Vol. 40)

O autorze

Contributors: Laura E. Bleckmann, Mark Breusers, Ira Dworkin, Paul Enzlin, Tammary Esho, Els Hoorelbeke, Gillian Mathys, Ana Cristina Roque, Steven Van Wolputte, Eline Versluys.
Editor: Steven Van Wolputte is Professor and Program director for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Institute for Anthropological Research on Africa (IARA) at the K.U.Leuven (Belgium).