Borderland

''"A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants."'' 
([[Gloria Anzaldua]], 1987, p 3)


The term borderland addresses the regions that surround international [[borders]]. These are places where power relations become particularly evident (Sparke, M., 2011, p 53) and where different cultures either mix or clash, creating a very (site-)specific political, spatial, cultural, economical and social situation. Which, refering to Soja, might be called a '[[Third space]]'.

Most studies on borderlands aim to create a discription of what could be called the everyday 'border-life': the daily practices, economic activities and cultural connections of people that live in borderlands, and that cross the borders of nations (see Sparke, M., idem).



== Studying the Borderlands ==

''"...borderlands provide usefully prismatic lenses on to the changing geography of power in the context of globalization."''(Sparke, M., 2011, p 53)


The concept of borderlands is recently under the growing attention of (spatial) scientists and politicians, encouraged by the increasing governmental interest in cross-border regional planning. Within the range of researches and articles on borderlands, Sparke distinguishes two different interpretations of the concept-metaphor of borderlands:

-  Borderlands as a refocusing concept, studying cross-border regional development.

-  Borderlands as a "meaning remaking metaphor to disrupt normalizing notions of nation and the nation-state" (Sparke, M., idem).

== References ==

* Anzaldúa, G. (1987) The Homeland, Aztlán. ''Borderlands/La Frontiera: the new mestiza''.  

* Sparke, M., 2011, Borderlands, in: ''The Dictionary of Human Geography'', p 53 



== Editors ==

* Page created by Isis Boot --[[User:IsisBoot|IsisBoot]] 17:11, 8 October 2012 (CEST)