Borders and Borderlands in Contemporary Culture (Hardcover, Unabridged edition)

It is entirely appropriate that this book should be produced in Dundalk. Located on the Northern rim of the Irish Pale, this town has straddled a border for centuries. Over the past thirty years, it has come to be closely identified with violent republicanism both by the Unionist Community in Northern Ireland and by Constitutional Nationalists in the South. Against such a hostile background academics attached to the Institute of Technology there have bravely confronted and interrogated these processes which have so blighted history not only of Dundalk but of places and spaces throughout the world similarly located. In a wide ranging series of articles, perhaps the strongest message to emerge is that of border as limitation. The notion of border as a liminal space where worlds converge, new realities emerge and transcendence is possible rarely surfaces. Instead, the border as a physical manifestation of divisiveness is repeatedly explored. In a passionate statement of solidarity with the Palestinians, Lavalette describes the construction of the apartheid wall: The wall is eight feet high and has a watch tower every three hundred metres. thousand kilometres in length by the time it is completed (p18). Yndigegn shows how spatial borders gradually become mental borders such that, as visual borders disappear, new invisible borders appear: (p.33). The article explores the dualism of borders - simultaneously protecting those inside from external threats while also preventing those inside from reaching or engaging with the outside world. Ni Eigeartaigh takes up the duality theme in the exploration of individualism as a process either of liberation or one of alienation. Taking the title from an aphorism of Kafka's My Prison Cell, My Fortress, she explores a view of contemporary society as repressive, and of its inhabitants as complicit in the repression. Drawing on a wide span of literature and disciplines, she teases through the paradox of contemporary society that the freedom gained from the liberation of the individual from communal obligations and repression has resulted in a loss of identity and an overwhelming sense of isolation and powerlessness. the individual is forced to take responsibility for his own actions...It is to avoid this responsibility that many... choose the security of the prison cell above the hardship of the outside world. Her Paper does not go on to look at the potential role of the State or of Fundamentalist movements in playing on the fear and disconnectedness of the citizenry as an equally likely outcome to that of a stronger capability for personal responsibility. One could argue for instance that the Euoropean Fascist movement and the Nationalist movement of the early to mid -twentieth century, were both based precisely on the dislocation at personal and social level resulting from the breakdown of pre-industrial communitarian ties. While there is no attempt in the book to elucidate any particular developmental relationship between the different contributors, two broad themes may be detected - a concern with borders as socio-political and geographical constructs on the one hand and a concern with the formation of identity in the individual's relationship to the wider society on the other. discourse as a core concept in identity formation. This leads to the conclusion that individual identity, in this case individualism, is in fact socially constructed in a dialectical interplay between the discursive and the social identities included - so that they are mutually shaped by each other (p93). Using critical discourse analysis, he goes on to explore changing notions of masculinity as evidenced in the Health sections of men's magazines. This is an important book. It explores the fundamentals of discord, power differentials and oppression at personal, national and global levels. It calls attention to the ways in which space, place, identity and war interact with each other to produce situations where the absence of peace and security becomes endemic (p32). It is being published at a time when ancient borders between the East and the West are yet again the subject of international strife and present possibly the most ominous single threat to global harmony and peace. is uniquely placed to explore boundaries and to negotiate agreed borders on the geopolitical front. To the extent that this book begins and contributes to such a process it is to be greatly welcomed. -Tom Collins -National University of Ireland Individual and collective identity seems to be impossible without borders, i.e. a clear distinction between me/us and the others. Borders even appear to be something human beings do need. Historically the national states, political alliances and religious movements have managed to establish borders as if they are natural. We are witnessing currently a similar endeavour (by politicians, journalists and scientist) to make us think in terms of cultures. However, to define myself or ourselves, the others are needed. In any case, it is a type of communication. And historically, with regard to human and societal development, people have had all types of exchange across the borders. Borders are links. Of course borders have been helpful in terms of protection and security. (territorial, social oder legal ones), but for sure people have been suffering severely because of restrictions and compulsions due to borders, too. The wall in Germany forced thousands, millions of people to stay in GDR and bear the undemocratic regime. Even this border of barbed wire had been permeable to some amount: by TV, letters and packages and visits from the West. East Germans could manage to go West until 1961 via Berlin, then a few succeeded in escaping under high personal risk; pensionists got the allowance to leave GDR, others could attend family events in West Germany; in the 1980s more and more citizens applied for legal permission to emigrate. The political unification was based on a collecti