Challenged Borderlands - Transcending Political and Cultural Boundaries

In the early 1990s, borders within Europe and between the United States and Mexico began to open. The increasing flow of goods, capital, ideas and people across boundaries promised to reduce physical and cognitive distances. Simultaneously, challenges to identity have arisen within and between the European nation-states, driven not only by internal cultural and political dynamics, but also by processes of globalization. Concurrently, the US-Mexican border emerged in public consciousness as a location of new opportunities, largely due to public perception of the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This book explores some of the contradictory, yet simultaneous, processes affecting border regions. A team of leading scientists offers a wide range of perspectives on global, national, regional and local processes, and provides a useful matrix for understanding their complex, multilayered implications. Key concepts such as globalization, borders and identities are illustrated through local and regional case studies.

List of contents

Contents: Introduction: Perspectives on Borderlands, Barbara J. Morehouse, Vera Pavlakovich - Kochi and Doris Wastl - Walter. Borders, Boundaries and Border Spaces, Barbara J. Morehouse and Vera Pavlakovich -Kochi: Theoretical approaches to border spaces and identities, Barbara J. Morehouse; Economic forces shaping the borderlands, Norris C. Clement; Contested boundaries and troubled borderlands, Mladen Klemencic and Clive Schofield. International and National Forces Redefining 'We' and 'Others', Barbara J. Morehouse, Vera Pavlakovich - Kochi and Doris Wastl - Walter: From Iron Curtain to fortress Europe and beyond, Richard Welch; The Zagreb region at double doorsteps: implications of a redefined boundary for regional development, Vera Pavlakovich - Kochi; Renewal of cross-border cooperation along the Hungarian - Croatian border, Zoltán Hajdú; Conflict and accommodation in the Arizona-Sonora region, Pablo Wong González; Lower income, higher income: impacts of the Maquiladoras on both sides of the border, Arthur L. Silvers. Living with Changing Borders, Barbara J. Morehouse, Vera Pavlakovich - Kochi and Doris Wastl - Walter: Ruptures in the Austro-Hungarian border region, Doris Wastl - Walter and Mónika M. Váradi; Protecting diversities and nurturing commonalities in a multicultural living space, Susanne Janschitz and Andrea Ch. Kofler; Perceptions of new realities along the Slovenian-Croatian border, Ana Barbic; The Croatian-Slovenian border: the local experience, Vera Pavlakovich - Kochi and Zoran Stiperski; Transborder urban regime in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region, Francisco Llera Pacheco; Transboundary health care and the production of space on the Arizona - Sonora border, Barbara J. Morehouse and Patricia L. Salido. Epilogue: Implications for Policy - and Decision-Making, Bruce A. Wright and Vera Pavlakovich - Kochi; Index.

About the author

Doris Wastl-Walter, Professorin für Humangeographie, Direktorin des Geographischen Instituts Bern und Mitbegründerin und Direktorin des Interdisziplinären Zentrums für Geschlechterforschung der Universität Bern, beschäftigt sich seit vielen Jahren mit feministischer Geographie und Gender Geogaphien. Sie ist auch Co-Leiterin einer Doktorierendenschule zu "Gender: Scripts and Prescripts". Ihre weiteren Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Migrations- und Grenzforschung sowie Politische Geographie.

Summary

In the early 1990s, borders within Europe and between the United States and Mexico began to open. The increasing flow of goods, capital, ideas and people across boundaries promised to reduce physical and cognitive distances. Simultaneously, challenges to identity have arisen within and between the European nation-states, driven not only by internal cultural and political dynamics, but also by processes of globalization. Concurrently, the US-Mexican border emerged in public consciousness as a location of new opportunities, largely due to public perception of the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This book explores some of the contradictory, yet simultaneous, processes affecting border regions. A team of leading scientists offers a wide range of perspectives on global, national, regional and local processes, and provides a useful matrix for understanding their complex, multilayered implications. Key concepts such as globalization, borders and identities are illustrated through local and regional case studies.

Additional text

'Borderlands are not new phenomena. With globalization, however, their significance as laboratories of transnational societal development has rapidly increased. Written by experienced borderlands scholars from North America and Europe, this book wonderfully pieces together a complex mosaic of economic, political and socio-cultural change on and around the boundaries of the nation-state.' Dr James Wesley Scott, Free University of Berlin, Germany 'Challenged Borderlands is required reading for borderlands scholars and students of international affairs. Remaking boundarylines and reconceptualizing borderlands are defining characteristics of contemporary culture and politics. The book correctly identifies supranational influences from above; and the several analyses are especially relevant as they focus upon regional and local forces from below.' Professor Edward J. Williams, University of Arizona, USA

Report

'Borderlands are not new phenomena. With globalization, however, their significance as laboratories of transnational societal development has rapidly increased. Written by experienced borderlands scholars from North America and Europe, this book wonderfully pieces together a complex mosaic of economic, political and socio-cultural change on and around the boundaries of the nation-state.' Dr James Wesley Scott, Free University of Berlin, Germany 'Challenged Borderlands is required reading for borderlands scholars and students of international affairs. Remaking boundarylines and reconceptualizing borderlands are defining characteristics of contemporary culture and politics. The book correctly identifies supranational influences from above; and the several analyses are especially relevant as they focus upon regional and local forces from below.' Professor Edward J. Williams, University of Arizona, USA

Product details

• Authors: Barbara J. Morehouse, Barbara J. Pavlakovich-Kochi Morehouse, Morehouse Barbara J., Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi, Pavlakovich-Kochi Vera
• Assisted by: Barbara J. Morehouse (Editor), Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi (Editor), Doris Wastl-Walter (Editor), Professor Doris Wastl-Walter (Editor)
• Publisher: ASHGATE PUB CO
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.08.2004
• EAN: 9780754640936
• ISBN: 978-0-7546-4093-6
• No. of pages: 325
• Dimensions: 159 mm x 235 mm x 25 mm
• Series: Border Regions Series; Border Regions Series
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Social sciences, law, business > Political science; Geography, SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Geography, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, Geopolitics