Introduction: approaching territorial belonging -- The making and remaking of homeland: the processes of territorialization and displacement -- Ethnogenesis and contested homeland claims: problematizing the "Kazakh-Mongolians"? -- Geobodies, geopolitics, and identity construction in north central Asia -- Mongols, Kazakhs, and territorial identity: trajectories of nationalization -- Constructing boundaries: Kazakh-Mongolians and the small-scale homeland -- Kazakhstan or Kazakhstani-stan: trajectories of nationalization -- The Mongolian-Kazakh Oralmandar: the complexities of "return migration" -- One homeland or two? A comparative analysis -- Conclusions: betwixt and between--tensions of national and transnational belonging
"Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges common perceptions of borders as merely lines on maps or physical barriers snaking across the landscape. Instead, borders are shown to be powerful forces integral to the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives. By highlighting their prominent role in global history and across a gamut of contemporary international events, Alexander Diener and Joshua Hagen demonstrate the impact borders have on a range of issues spanning economic development and inequality, inter- and intra-state conflict, migration, nationalism, international law, human rights, environmental sustainability, climate change, public health, and natural resource management and thereby provide a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an emerging borderless world. Even as some scholars and activists argue for open borders, unfettered movement, or the elimination of the territorial nation state, Diener and Hagen emphasize how and why borders have been, are currently, and will undoubtedly remain critical topics for the social sciences, domestic politics, and international affairs for the foreseeable future. This concise volume will appeal to a broad, interdisciplinary audience of scholars, practitioners, and students, including geographers, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, experts in international relations and law, and anyone interested in a deeper understanding of current events. Whether taking the form of fenced national borders, gerrymandered electoral districts, bounded economic spaces, or private gated communities, demarcations of political and social spaces protect, structure, and shape our lives. This book offers readers an introduction to the diverse theoretical and philosophical perspectives on borders and their multifaceted roles shaping the twenty-first century"--
"This book critically challenges the usual territorial understanding of borders by examining the often messy internal, transborder, ambiguous, and in-between spaces that co-exist with traditional borders. By considering those less visible aspects of borders, the book develops an inclusive understanding of how contemporary borders are structured and how they influence human identity, mobility, and belonging. The introduction and conclusion provide theoretical and contextual framing, while chapters explore topics of global labor and refugees, unrecognized states, ethnic networks, cyberspace, transboundary resource conflicts, and indigenous and religious spaces that rarely register on conventional maps or commonplace understandings of territory. In the end, the volume demonstrates that, despite being "invisible" on most maps, these borders have a very real, material, and tangible presence and consequences for those people who live within, alongside, and across them"--
"This book critically challenges the usual territorial understanding of borders by examining the often messy internal, transborder, ambiguous, and in-between spaces that co-exist with traditional borders. By considering those less visible aspects of borders, the book develops an inclusive understanding of how contemporary borders are structured and how they influence human identity, mobility, and belonging. The introduction and conclusion provide theoretical and contextual framing, while chapters explore topics of global labor and refugees, unrecognized states, ethnic networks, cyberspace, transboundary resource conflicts, and indigenous and religious spaces that rarely register on conventional maps or commonplace understandings of territory. In the end, the volume demonstrates that, despite being "invisible" on most maps, these borders have a very real, material, and tangible presence and consequences for those people who live within, alongside, and across them"--
"This book critically challenges the usual territorial understanding of borders by examining the often messy internal, transborder, ambiguous, and in-between spaces that co-exist with traditional borders. By considering those less visible aspects of borders, the book develops an inclusive understanding of how contemporary borders are structured and how they influence human identity, mobility, and belonging. The introduction and conclusion provide theoretical and contextual framing, while chapters explore topics of global labor and refugees, unrecognized states, ethnic networks, cyberspace, transboundary resource conflicts, and indigenous and religious spaces that rarely register on conventional maps or commonplace understandings of territory. In the end, the volume demonstrates that, despite being "invisible" on most maps, these borders have a very real, material, and tangible presence and consequences for those people who live within, alongside, and across them"--
The development of post-socialist cities has become a major field of study among critical theorists from across the social sciences and humanities. Originally constructed under the dictates of central planners and designed to serve the demands of command economies, post-socialist urban centers currently develop at the nexus of varied and often competing economic, cultural, and political forces. Among these, nationalist aspirations, previously simmering beneath the official rhetoric of communist fraternity and veneer of architectural conformity, have emerged as dominant factors shaping the urban landscape. This book explores this burgeoning field of research through detailed cases studies relating to the cultural politics of architecture, urban planning, and identity in the post-socialist cities of Eurasia. This book was published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers.
In: The SAIS review of international affairs / the Johns Hopkins University, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Volume 35, Issue 2, p. 13-20
Scholars of international relations and the general public alike often take the nation-state for granted as the fundamental unit of territorially divided space, around which socio-spatial identities are constructed. Political geography offers a critical perspective on the nation-state, demonstrating that its command of geopolitical imagination is a contingent historical development, and that alternative territorial constructs—such as the regional and the supranational—are also significant in processes of identity formation. This paper argues increased attention should be paid to the processes of institutionalization and identity formation that take place at territorial scales above, below, and across the nation-state. Moreover, because of political geography's critical focus on the historical trajectory of the nation-state and its contingent geopolitical role, the paper advocates for the consideration and inclusion of political geographic theory in any critical assessment of nationalism and the rescaling of identities.
