In recent years, a number of European countries abolished national border controls in favor of Europe’s external frontiers. In doing so, they challenged long-established conceptions of sovereignty, territoriality, and security in world affairs. Setting forth a new analytic framework informed by constructivism and pragmatism, Ruben Zaiotti traces the transformation of underlying assumptions and cultural practices guiding European policymakers and postnational Europe, shedding light on current trends characterizing its politics and relations with others. The book also includes a fascinating comparison to developments in North America, where the United States has pursued more restrictive border control strategies since 9/11. As a broad survey of the origins, evolution, and implications of this remarkable development in European integration, Cultures of Border Control will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations and political geography.

The dissertation examines one of the most remarkable and controversial developments in the recent history of European integration, namely the institutionalization of a regional policy regime to manage the continent's frontiers. By adopting this regime (known in policy circles as 'Schengen'), European governments have in fact relinquished part of their sovereign authority over the politically sensitive issue of border control, thereby challenging what for a long time was the dominant national approach to policy-making in this domain. In order to account for the regime's emergence and success, a constructivist analytical framework centred on the notion of 'cultures of border control' is advanced. From this perspective, the adoption of a regional approach to govern Europe's frontiers is the result of the evolution of a nationalist ('Westphalian') culture---or set of background assumptions and related practices about borders shared by a given policy community---into a post-nationalist one ('Schengen'). The cultural evolutionary argument elaborated in the dissertation captures the unique political dynamics that have characterized border control in Europe in the last two decades and offers a more nuanced account of recent developments than those available in the existing European Studies literature. It can also shed light on current trends defining European politics beyond border control (e.g., Europe's policy towards its neighbours) and on other attempts to regionalize border control outside Europe (e.g., the proposal for a North American security perimeter).

In recent years, a number of European countries abolished national border controls in favor of Europe’s external frontiers. In doing so, they challenged long-established conceptions of sovereignty, territoriality, and security in world affairs. Setting forth a new analytic framework informed by constructivism and pragmatism, Ruben Zaiotti traces the transformation of underlying assumptions and cultural practices guiding European policymakers and postnational Europe, shedding light on current trends characterizing its politics and relations with others. The book also includes a fascinating comparison to developments in North America, where the United States has pursued more restrictive border control strategies since 9/11. As a broad survey of the origins, evolution, and implications of this remarkable development in European integration, Cultures of Border Control will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations and political geography.

Examines how the US-Mexico border is seen through visual codes of surveillance When Donald Trump promised to “build a wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border, both supporters and opponents visualized a snaking barrier of concrete cleaving through nearly two thousand miles of arid desert. Though only 4 percent of the US population lives in proximity to the border, imagining what the wall would look like came easily to most Americans, in part because of how images of the border are reproduced and circulated for national audiences. Border Optics considers the US-Mexico border as one of the most visualized and imagined spaces in the US. As a place of continual crisis, permanent visibility, and territorial defense, the border is rendered as a layered visual space of policing—one that is seen from watchtowers, camera-mounted vehicles, helicopters, surveillance balloons, radar systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and live streaming websites. It is also a space that is visualized across various forms and genres of media, from maps to geographical surveys, military strategic plans, illustrations, photographs, postcards, novels, film, and television, which combine fascination with the region with the visual codes of surveillance and survey. Border Optics elaborates on the expanded vision of the border as a consequence of the interface of militarism, technology, and media. Camilla Fojas describes how the perception of the viewing public is controlled through a booming security-industrial complex made up of entertainment media, local and federal police, prisons and detention centers, the aerospace industry, and all manner of security technology industries. The first study to examine visual codes of surveillance within an analysis of the history and culture of the border region, Border Optics is an innovative and groundbreaking examination of security cultures, race, gender, and colonialism.

Questions over immigration and asylum face almost all Western countries. Should only economically useful immigrants be allowed? What should be done with unwanted or "illegal" immigrants? In this bold and original intervention, Alexandra Hall shows that immigration detention centers offer a window onto society's broader attitudes towards immigrants. Despite periodic media scandals, remarkably little has been written about the everyday workings of the grassroots immigration system, or about the people charged with enacting immigration policy at local levels. Detention, particularly, is a hidden side of border politics, despite its growing international importance as a tool of control and security. This book fills the gap admirably, analyzing the everyday encounters between officers and immigrants in detention to explore broad social trends and theoretical concerns. This highly topical book provides rare insights into the treatment of the "other" and will be essential for policy makers and students studying anthropology and sociology.

This volume encompasses a broad span of issues related to borders as areas of intense activity substantially contributing to the dynamics of culture. The chapters address questions relating to the construction and reconstruction of borders, as well as the experience and representation of physical, spiritual, imagined and symbolic borders. The authors provide perspectives on emerging and dissolving borders in the past and present. Special emphasis is placed on subjective perception by asking how borders are experienced and expressed at the level of the specific community or individual. Several articles tackle dramatic and controversial issues like war, conflict between different ideologies and cultures, and remembering. The authors also explore dialectical relations between culture, social relations and landscape, and the interplay of ideological constructions and material culture. The contributions are arranged into two sections focusing on two wider issues: how borders are drawn in landscape, religion and scientific discourse (Wandering borders), and how representations of cultural borders and border crossings have changed over time (Bordering ruptures: the dynamics of self-description). The authors of this volume come from various scholarly fields and offer innovative tools for expanding the concept of the border across disciplinary frames

The border between the United States and Mexico, despite attempts at containment, remains a vast and uniquely malleable yet indefinable region. With Border Culture, Ilan Stavans has collected essays representative of the tangled experiences and issues central to life between cultures. Divided into two sections, Border Culture covers topics essential to better understanding this often misunderstood region and state-of-mind. The first section, "Considerations," culls essays covering socio-economic and political topics illustrating the hyper reality of life and living on La Frontera. Section two, "Testimonios," takes careful consideration of lives affected by the border, either as a finite place, alternate universe, or the framework of the border as a state-of-mind, through various historic and literary accounts of La Frontera. This enlightening and comprehensive collection will no doubt help readers better understand border culture.