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In the past two years, the European continent has become the target of mass migration of various ethnic and religious groups who, for reasons of security or economic hardship, have decided to leave their homelands and go into dangerous exile, mostly by sea. In order to reach the world perceived by them as an oasis of security and prosperity, and above all tolerance for racial, ethnic, cultural and religious differences, the arrivals are deepening the already large diversity of the Old Continent's population, where the various minorities have been living for a long time. Particularly interesting is the question of the functioning of national and religious minorities in the borderlands between countries, as well as the formation of such borderlands by different nations. Therefore, the editors propose that number 13 of Region and Regionalism addresses the issue of Borderlands of nations, nations of borderlands. The proposed subject matter met with the lively response from the authors, so much so that the number of submitted papers prompted the Editorial Board to divide them into two volumes. The first volume, collects the works discussing Minorities in the borderlands and the fringes of countries.

AbstractLarge zones of de facto political autonomy persist even as various state systems have endeavored to fix, rationalize, and secure external and internal borders. These spaces are products of long histories of uneven extension and exercise of state sovereignty in the subcontinent and much of Asia and Africa. Histories and legacies of borderland autonomy have important implications for contemporary sovereign practice in much of the world. This article examines the making, unmaking, and endurance of borderlands around Hyderabad in the eastern Deccan. It describes the region as an "old borderland," from premodern frontier zone, to sovereign and autonomous state during the era of British imperial dominance, through its mid-twentieth-century reemergence as a site of state avoidance or resistance. Identifying the productive relationship among frictional environments, political sovereignty, and social and cultural dynamics, this article develops frameworks for historicizing borderland autonomy in South Asia and beyond.

Book Review Essay – Arredondo: Last Spanish Ruler of Texas and Northeastern New Spain, by Bradley Folsom. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.– Borderlands of Slavery: The Struggle over Captivity and Peonage in the American Southwest, by William S. Kiser. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.– Wars for Empire: Apaches, the United States, and the Southwest Borderlands, by Janne Lahti. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.– Soldiers in the Southwest Borderlands, 1848-1886, edited by Janne Lahti. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.– The Other California: Land, Identity, and Politics on the Mexican Borderlands, by Verónica Castillo-Muñoz. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.

Development Zones in Asian Borderlands' maps the nexus between global capital flows, national economic policies, infrastructural connectivity, migration, and aspirations for modernity in the borderlands of South and South-East Asia. In doing so, it demonstrates how these are transforming borderlands from remote, peripheral backyards to front-yards of economic development and state-building. Development zones encapsulate the networks, institutions, politics and processes specific to enclave development, and offer a new analytical framework for thinking about borderlands; namely, as sites of capital accumulation, territorialisation and socio-spatial changes

Development Zones in Asian Borderlands maps the nexus between global capital flows, national economic policies, infrastructural connectivity, migration, and aspirations for modernity in the borderlands of South and South-East Asia. In doing so, it demonstrates how these are transforming borderlands from remote, peripheral backyards to front-yards of economic development and state-building. Development zones encapsulate the networks, institutions, politics and processes specific to enclave development, and offer a new analytical framework for thinking about borderlands; namely, as sites of capital accumulation, territorialisation and socio-spatial changes.

The article attempts to identify Kharkiv's place on the mental map of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and traces the changing image of the city in Ukrainian and Russian narratives up to the end of the twentieth century. The author explores the role of Kharkiv in the symbolic reconfiguration of the Ukrainian-Russian borderland and describes how the interplay of imperial, national, and local contexts left an imprint on the city's symbolic space.

Ginseng and Borderland explores the territorial boundaries and political relations between Qing China and Chosŏn Korea during the period from the early seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries. By examining a unique body of materials written in Chinese, Manchu, and Korean, and building on recent studies in New Qing History, Seonmin Kim adds new perspectives to current understandings of the remarkable transformation of the Manchu Qing dynasty (1636–1912) from a tribal state to a universal empire. This book discusses early Manchu history and explores the Qing Empire's policy of controlling Manchuria and Chosŏn Korea. Kim also contributes to the Korean history of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910) by challenging conventional accounts that embrace a China-centered interpretation of the tributary relationship between the two polities, stressing instead the agency of Chosŏn Korea in the formation of the Qing Empire. This study demonstrates how Koreans interpreted and employed this relationship in order to preserve the boundary—and peace—with the suzerain power. By focusing on the historical significance of the China-Korea boundary, this book defines the nature of the Qing Empire through the dynamics of contacts and conflicts under both the cultural and material frameworks of its tributary relationship with Chosŏn Korea.

This volume examines the changing role which ordinary members of society played in the state-sponsored persecution of the Jews in Bukovina and Bessarabia, both during the summer of 1941, when Romania joined the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and beyond. It establishes different patterns of civilian complicity and discusses the significance of the phenomenon in the context of the exterminatory campaign pursued by the Romanian military authorities against the Jews living in the borderlands.

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kansallisen valtiorajan kokemista ja vaikutuksia rajamaan asukkaisiin sekä kuinka Euroopan unioni vaikuttaa tähän dynamiikkaan. Tutkimuksessa laadullinen aineisto tuo esiin, kuinka ihmiset kokevat Tšekin ja Slovakian välisen rajan ja kuinka se vaikuttaa heidän elämäänsä. Merkittävänä näkökulmana pidetään ihmisen kokemuksellisuutta toiminnan ja jokapäiväisen elämän kautta sekä tuodaan esiin asukkaiden eri rooleja muuttuvassa Euroopassa. Tutkimusaineistona on kahden eri ikäryhmän, 20–30 ja 30–40 -vuotiaat, henkilökohtaiset haastattelut. Haastatteluja tehtiin 12 kappaletta, ja ne on kerätty Tšekin ja Slovakian väliseltä rajamaalta, asukkaiden luontaisesta toimintaympäristöstä. Tutkimusaineistoa tarkastellaan sisällönanalyysin avulla, jossa hyödynnetään myös teemoittelua ja tyypittelyä analyysin metodeina. Tutkimusaineistosta nousevat keskiöön kahden eri ikäryhmän tavat kokea rajamaa, kansallisvaltio, Euroopan unioni sekä yksilön ja yhteisön roolit eri aluetasoilla. Lisäksi Euroopan unionin rooli tässä kehityksessä ilmenee eri tavoin eri ryhmien kohdalla. Erilaisten henkilö- sekä ryhmäkohtaisten kokemusten, muistojen, taustojen ja aluetasojen kautta kohdehenkilöt toivat esille sekä omia että yhteisöjensä rooleja eri tarkastelukokonaisuuksissa. Tutkimus tekee näkyväksi sekä tarkasteltavan rajamaan että Euroopan unionin ajankohtaisiin ja historiallisiin kysymyksiin liittyviä ongelmakohtia ja ratkaisuja, jotka ovat sidoksissa keskenään. Ensimmäiseksi tarkastellaan rajojen välistä ja rajat ylittävää toimintaa Tšekin ja Slovakian välisellä rajalta asukkaiden näkökulmasta, painopisteinä rajamaan historia ja rajojen välisen toiminnan haasteet. Toiseksi keskiöön nousevat kysymykset Euroopan unionin vaikutuksista rajan kokemisen dynamiikkaan. Tällöin keskeistä on ymmärtää, miten muutokset EU:ssa vaikuttavat paikalliseen yhteisöön sekä kuinka territoriaalinen identiteetti vaikuttaa ihmisiin tämän päivän Euroopassa. English absract: The research examines the experience and influence of a nation-state border on residents of the borderland, as well as in which ways and how much the European Union (EU) impacts this dynamic. In the study, qualitative data reveal how people perceive the border between the Czech Republic and Slovakia and how it influences their lives. A significant perspective is human experience through action and everyday life, as well as the various roles of residents in a transition in Europe. The empirical research data are personal interviews with two age groups, from 20 to 30 and from 30 to 40 years of age. Twelve interviews were conducted at the borderland between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the interviewees' living environment. The research data are examined through content analysis, which also includes thematic analysis and typification as analytical methods. The research data show how the two different age groups perceive the borderland, nation-state and European Union. An essential part is also related to individual and community roles at different regional levels. Moreover, the role of the European Union in the development context is reflected in various ways for the different groups. Through personal and group experiences, memories, backgrounds and regional levels, interviewees showed their own and their communities' roles in different contexts. The study reveals challenges and solutions present in the boundary regions, as well as related to the contemporary and historical issues of the European Union, which are interlinked. The first focus is cross-border and trans-boundary activities at the Czech and Slovak border that will be examined from the perspective of local citizens. In this case, the historical paths of borders and the challenges of cross-boundary action emerge as important factors. Secondly, the question of the impact of the European Union on the dynamic of perceiving borders is reflected upon in multiple ways. In addition, it is essential to understand how the changes and transformation in the EU affect the local community, and how territorial identity affects people in contemporary Europe.

A person may be legally blind, yet not "blind enough" to qualify for social services. Beth Omansky explores the lives of legally blind people to show how society responds to those who don't fit neatly into the disabled/nondisabled binary. Probing the experience of education, rehabilitation, and work, as well as the more intimate spheres of religion, family, and romantic relationships, her frank and theoretically sophisticated portrait of the legally blind experience offers an original insight into our understanding of the social construction of disability.

Cover -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- Part 1: "Borderland Schengen" -- 2. Coordinates -- 3. The Transnational Social Space of "Borderland Schengen" -- Part 2: Borderland Visualities -- 4. The Visuality and Mediality of Documentary Film -- 5. Representational and Performative Practices -- 6. Attempts of Visibility and Recognition -- 7. Transnational Social Spaces - Transitional Social Spaces -- 8. Conclusion: Borderland Counter-Topographies -- Filmography -- Bibliography

This article develops the concept of brokerage to analyse the systems of borderland governance that have underpinned processes of state formation and capitalist development in the conflict-affected Myanmar-China borderland region of northern Shan State since the late 1980s. It focuses on the brokerage arrangements that have developed between the Myanmar Army and local militias, and how the illegal drug trade has become integral to these systems of brokered rule. This article draws particular attention to the inherent tensions and contradictions surrounding brokerage. In the short term, deploying militias as borderland brokers has provided an expedient mechanism through which the Myanmar Army has sought to extend and embed state authority, and has also provided the stability and coercive muscle needed to attract capital, expand trade, and intensify resource extraction. However, at the same time, militias have sought to use their position as brokers to aggrandise their own power and counter the extension of central state control. In the longer term, brokerage arrangements have thus had the effect of reinvigorating systems of strongman borderland governance, further fragmenting the means of violence and the proliferation of drugs and disempowering non-militarised forms of political negotiation. (J Contemp China / GIGA)