Search

Current and past historical research on Russia and China's borderlands heavily relies on the concept of ethnicity. Both the Russian and Qing empires ascribed to an "ethnic mode of ruling" in their borderlands, reflected in the estate inorodtsy and the Eight Banner system. In view of how strongly state-determined categories of ethnic identification can influence historical analysis, this paper observes that the focus of research is shifting from "ethnicity" to "regionality". The paper also explores how the communist regimes in Russia and China of the 20th century handled the legacy of the multiethnic empire with the politicization of ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital games are one of the most engaging forms of media. Players can have a first-hand experience and the possibility of feeling immersed within a digital setting where agency is exerted. This paper seeks to understand the role of digital games as new means of communication and their potential to convey messages that may defy gamers to question the moral grand narratives that shape contemporary societies. In a moment when many countries have opted to close or limit the circulation in their borders, it is important to think about the role played by the border as a historic liminal entity for the representation of societies and communities, distinguishing those who belong from those who do not. The representation of the border in digital games have tended to follow one of the main tropes explored in other media: the border as a physical space that set boundaries between different nations and different regions of the world. In order to assert the potential of digital games to offer a more comprehensive representation of the border as a liminal space, the case of Papers, Please! (2013) will be analyzed. Based on a qualitative methodology, having content analysis as primary data collection method, the paper intends to contribute to the discussion on how history may narrativized and, eventually, reinterpreted in digital games. Papers, Please! analysis will be centered on the relationship that is set between player and border, that is presented as a liminal space where the game's action takes places entirely. Moreover, the paper intends to discuss the role that has been played by digital games in the representation of serious topics and how they have evolved as communication tools beyond their role as entertainment products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Big Bend National Park: Mexico, the United States, and a Borderland Ecosystem" by Michael Welsh is a historical exploration of Big Bend National Park, situated on the border between Mexico and the United States. The book examines the unique landscape of the park, shaped by the Rio Grande river, and the challenges posed by its borderland ecosystem. Welsh discusses the efforts of conservationists, politicians, and scientists in establishing the park and highlights the potential for binational cooperation and collaboration. The book also addresses the tensions between preservation and development in national parks and the need to navigate the changing cultural and political landscape. While the book lacks an examination of the park's future in the face of climate change and public policy, it offers valuable insights for students and scholars interested in national identity, border relations, and environmental protectionism. [Extracted from the article]

This article studies the collaboration between the Chinese and Vietnamese communists in the socialist transformation of their shared borderlands after the First Indochina War. It both complicates and clarifies the volatile bilateral relationship between the two emerging communist states as they solidified their power in the 1950s. Departing from traditional narratives of Sino-Vietnamese relations which focus on wars and conflicts, this article examines how the timely convergence of Cold War and state expansion transformed the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands from 1954 to 1957. Using both Chinese and Vietnamese archival sources, it contends that the Chinese and Vietnamese communists pursued two interrelated goals in carrying out the political projects at the territorial limits of their countries. First, they wanted to build an inward-looking economy and society at the respective borders by consolidating the national administration of territory. Second, they wanted to impose a contrived Cold War comradeship between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in place of the organic interdependence of people within the borderlands that had existed in the area for centuries. The Sino-Vietnamese border, therefore, was the focus of joint state-building by the two communist governments, which made the cross-border movement of people and goods more visible, manipulable, and, more importantly, taxable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human migration is a defining feature of our world, yet the simplistic binary categorization of “legal” versus “illegal” movement often obscures the complexities of cross-border movement. This paper examines the nuanced spectrum of (il)legality along the Ethiopia-Sudan border, focusing on how legal frameworks and social perceptions of (il)legality shape experiences of migrants and people on the move. The study proposes categorizing migration as including sectoral classifications (laborers, tourists) and legality-based situations (overstays, illegal routes). Building upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2021, the paper analyzes the discrepancies between national migration legislation, on-the-ground enforcement practices, and lived realities of migrants and border communities while acknowledging a multifaceted landscape of performances. By exploring this dynamic, the paper contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the concept of (il)legality in migration studies, in particular in the context of the Ethiopia-Sudan border, while providing insights that extend beyond this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophical speculation about how psychiatric externalism might function in practice has yet to fully consider the multitude of externalist psychiatric systems that exist beyond the bounds of modern psychiatry. Believing that anthropology can inform philosophical debate on the matter, the paper illustrates one such case. The discussion is based on 19 months of first-hand ethnographic fieldwork among Akha, a group of swidden farmers living in highland Laos and neighboring borderlands. First, the paper describes the Akha set of medicinal, ritual, and shamanic practices, analyzing issues of stigma and medical pluralism within it. Second, it makes the case that the Akha realize a functioning biopsychosocial system which comes with a well-developed set of resources for treating the social dimension of illness. Externalism among the Akha re-frames psychiatric illness as a 'problem in living,' which becomes manageable as such. The paper claims that, in so doing, the Akha system succeeds in many of the areas where modern internalist psychiatry falls short, and that it does so because Akha society is structured in such a way so that its practitioners can shift the social environment around the patient. As a takeaway for philosophers, it suggests that the development of an externalist psychiatry must begin from questioning the accepted ontology of the social causes of psychiatric illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North Waziristan is emerging from an episode of terrorism that lasted for decades. Critically examining the dynamics of borderlands, this paper explicates the intersection of informal cross-border trade with the local economy and livelihoods. These socio-economic patterns created by ungoverned geographies, and porous uncontrolled borders foster a dependence on the informal economy, which is largely responsible for financing and perpetuating the instability. The paper signposts that effective border management and ongoing security reconstruction have contributed to rejuvenating the local economy and providing the necessary impetus for post-conflict economic development, keeping widespread unrest and militancy on hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper – based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2017 with the Swedish border police force in charge of detecting and deporting irregularised migrants – analyses bordered urban space. It contributes to discussions about moral geographies that are produced through bordering work of border police officers, which sometimes blurs the distinction between external and internal border controls, based on an analysis of three spaces: the port as an "in-between" space of bordering; workplace inspections; and searches of private homes and other types of accommodation, conducted with the aim of detecting morally censured sex work. As I find, officers function as gatekeepers of the nation and its moral values in relation to space and thus map the area of their jurisdiction according to potentially "illicit" conduct of noncitizens. This, in turn, legitimises their gendered, classed and racialised inspection practices even as these practices entrench the perceived "otherness" of such spaces and manifest moral judgements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper explores the dynamics of cross-border relations, ethnic diversity and the role of sub-state actors in border regions, focusing on the Austrian–Italian border. Using a transnational regionalism lens, it examines how minorities, majorities, sub-state political elites and the media perceive and utilise cross-border spaces. The findings reveal contested perspectives among sub-state political elites, influenced by historical conflicts, while the media emphasise the connective role of the state border. Furthermore, autonomist parties and representatives contribute to framing cross-border cooperation as a means of connection and shared territorial policymaking. The research highlights the potential of sub-state to foster inclusive cross-border relations in minority contexts and empower minority communities in border regions, offering insights into integration and connection beyond ethnic and territorial divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numerical solution of a class of second-order singularly perturbed three-point boundary value problems (BVPs) in 1D is achieved using a uniformly convergent, stable, and efficient difference method on a piecewise-uniform mesh. The presence of a boundary layer(s) on one (or both) of the interval's endpoints is caused by the presence of the tiny parameter in the highest order derivative. As the perturbation parameter approaches 0, traditional numerical techniques on the uniform mesh become insufficient, resulting in poor accuracy and large blows without the use of an excessive number of points. Specially customised techniques, such as fitted operator methods or methods linked to adapted or fitted meshes that solve essential characteristics such as boundary and/or inner layers, are necessary to overcome this drawback. We developed a fitted-mesh technique in this paper that works for all perturbation parameter values. The monotone hybrid technique, which includes midway upwinding in the outer area and centre differencing in the layer region on a fitted-mesh condensing in the border layer region, is the basis for our difference scheme. In a discrete L ∞ norm, uniform error estimates are constructed, and the technique is demonstrated to be parameter-uniform convergent of order two (up to a logarithmic factor). To show the effectiveness of the recommended technique and to corroborate the theoretical findings, a numerical example is presented. In practise, the convergence obtained matches the theoretical expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The postcolonial legacy of India's borderlands is a legacy of othering, particularly of the religious other (meaning, other than Hindu). The 'friendly' India-Nepal border, however, negotiates the sameness of religion by managing the refractions of caste and gender. The shared sacredness of the landscape reproduced in the circulation of icons, myths and pilgrims also reaffirms the shared religious identity of those crossing it. This paper argues that the sameness that constitutes friendliness at this border rests on evaluating the gendered and caste righteousness of those crossing it. It is rendered most visible in alleged instances of elopement, marital infidelity and trafficking that come into public view at the open and friendly border. The paper describes how sameness is both refracted and managed through the observation of the daily mobilities and spatiality at the India-Nepal border at two check-points in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the variation in public support for European integration? While the existing literature has predominantly focused on economic, cultural and political factors, the influence of geography has been largely overlooked. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by examining the impact of residing in the European Union (EU) border regions on voters' perceptions and attitudes towards the EU. Contrary to previous research, our study reveals a remarkable pattern, indicating that individuals living in border regions exhibit a higher propensity to vote for Eurosceptic parties and hold negative views on the EU. Through the utilization of both behavioural and attitudinal indicators in years ranging between 1999 and 2021 and employing statistical matching, our analysis robustly supports this finding. Moreover, we delve into the underlying mechanisms driving these negative attitudes in border regions, highlighting the significance of institutional factors. A mediation analysis reveals an interesting and previously unexplored theoretical twist: We find that residing in a border region is associated with lower trust in national political institutions, which translates into distrust in the EU. These findings suggest that it might be policymakers residing in the capital of the country rather than people on the other side of the border that make borderland inhabitants' attitudes distinctly negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commuting, the spatial mismatch between work and residential locations, necessitates integrated urban and transport policies to mitigate its societal impacts. While cross-border commuting (CBC) is increasing and governance of border regions is on the rise beyond national borders, no systemic review of this specific commuting pattern exists. We aim to consolidate the CBC literature accumulated over the years into a coherent and synthetic framework. Our systematic review assembles an inaugural comprehensive corpus of cross-border commuting literature. It reveals three transversal key topics (transport-oriented topic, qualitative approaches versus a lack of quantitative data, and a large majority of European papers) and four sub-topics (patterns, determinants, impacts and policies). Moreover, we consolidate findings through meticulous mapping of evidence, where most links are traced between the determinants and the level of flows across borders. Finally, the discussion offers directions for future research, with an exhortation to explicitly link policies to sustainability and social concerns, and the necessity for standardised datasets for methodological comparability across cases and in alignment with general commuting research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the incursions, or more accurately, the interventions of the Indian state into what are often called its "Northeast borderlands." It grapples with the specific space occupied by those who belong to this minoritized region in India. Theoretically, it works through conceptions of "sovereignty" and "intervention" to underscore what is at stake for those who lie within the remit of recognized state sovereignty but are nonetheless subject to brutal and invasive "intervention." The article engages Naga author Temsula Ao's writing on questions of "tribal" identity, globalization, and borders to situate India as a postcolonial "settler" state. Finally, it puts her work in conversation with Manu Karuka's notion of "counter-sovereignty" to highlight the ways in which even critical International Relations (IR) theory risks falling into the trap of reifying "sovereignty" and unwittingly giving credence to Westphalian and Euro-centric understandings of sovereignty at the expense of alternative and prior imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Don Sahong Hydropower Project (DSHPP), located in the Khone Falls area of Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos, near the border with Cambodia, has been amongst the most controversial hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin. Despite considerable regional and international opposition, the dam was finally constructed, becoming commercially operational in 2020. In 2011, I expressed serious concerns about the project's potential impacts on long-distance migratory fish and associated fisheries, especially fish that migrate from Cambodia and Vietnam up the Mekong River to Laos and Thailand. However, my concerns have somewhat changed along with the circumstances, although they continue to focus on dam impacts on migratory fish. I am now particularly concerned about the indirect impacts of the DSHPP on the fishing livelihoods in the Khone Falls area, and the impacts of the dam on fish larvae and fish passing through the dam's turbines when migrating downstream. Using a political ecology approach, this paper considers how infrastructure, in this case a large hydropower dam located on the Mekong River, has altered the spatialities associated with the project in particular ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article aims to propose a conceptual framework indicating how innovation labs can improve public service provision in the light of the New Public Service (NPS) model. Originality/value: The article discusses the relations and theoretical approaches of innovation labs at the interface with the NPS model through a framework; this is relevant, given the possibilities that these spaces provide for enhancing innovation in services and collaboration in the public sector, allowing knowledge exchange and individual and collective learning. Design/methodology/approach: This is a theoretical essay carried out through a non-systematic literature review. We collected information from books, scientific papers, theses, and dissertations on the Google Scholar platform. Data collected were discussed in view of NPS's potential connections and implications, considering laboratories as intermediaries of innovation for enhancing the quality of public services through innovative solutions. Findings: Innovation labs are dynamic and collaborative environments that seek to fix shortcomings identified in the traditional policy approach and in designing public services. They are also considered border spaces, acting at the direct interface with citizens and private organizations. They use innovative techniques to change how public organizations operate and stimulate the building of collaborative networks. However, individual, collaborative, and structural barriers may limit the proposition of innovative solutions for public services and the scope of these laboratories for incorporating NPS elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ripple effects of European border externalisation have transformed everyday life in the Tunisian coastal town of Zarzis. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among artisanal fishermen, and actors involved in two migrant cemeteries in Zarzis, the article provides an understanding of entangled processes and of how violence and death co-exist in the externalised borderlands of the EU. The felt and lived embeddedness and simultaneity of otherwise separately viewed policy issues is revealed through a focus on intersecting processes coming together in one place. The article analyses the ripple effects of these policies on third actors (the fishermen), the environment (marine life), and space (two migrant cemeteries) in Zarzis. The article unpacks how externalisation translates into human rights abuses, environmental crisis, and death, and how these are distinctly intertwined. I propose the concept 'felt externalisation' as a theoretical contribution which ties together the three core themes: the actors, the environment, and the space. In doing so, the article brings together three different, yet interrelated dimensions of border externalisation that are still largely understudied in the literature. By looking at externalisation from a spatial and geographically situated angle the paper makes not only an empirical but also a conceptual and theoretical contribution, by seeking to expand the empirical basis but also the very meaning of externalisation and its effects, in the extended EU borderland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper introduces a conceptual lens for leading social change in slums and informal settlements. In line with this aim, the purpose of this case study is to describe the public problem-solving approach of a social change organization situated in an informal settlement through the lens of adaptive leadership, complexity theory and social change leadership (SCL). Design/methodology/approach: This paper follows an engaged reflection tradition. First, the author-practitioners describe an informal settlement case hereafter called ISC in southeast Iran where many people have historically remained undocumented and uneducated. Using complex adaptive systems theory, adaptive leadership and SCL as the conceptual lens, the paper analyzes ISC as a complex adaptive context in which the community and the government are in tension in solving problems, particularly illiteracy. The instrumental case study draws from participant observation and document analysis to describe and examine the endeavors of a community office operating within ISC. Through this reflective analysis, the authors illustrate how a social change organization can effectively tackle public issues like illiteracy within informal settlements. Findings: This paper applies complexity leadership theory to a social context. The study illustrates how social change organizations can support the transformation of informal spaces into adaptive spaces to enact social change. Originality/value: This paper reflects on engagement activity near the insecure borders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. By extending an organizational-level theory to the public sphere, this paper contributes theoretically to the complexity theory literature. Moreover, it provides a practical insight for community development and slum upgrading projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores people's acts of disengagement from activist campaign and group spaces in the context of border struggle activism in Germany and the UK as fugitive practices of refusal. These acts of disengagement took the form of remaining silent or intentionally distracted, sleeping during activist meetings, distancing oneself from activist groups during conversations, or completely withdrawing from these spaces. The paper approaches these acts, first, as practices of refusal that expose notions of the political rooted in liberal struggles over power and freedom as not only risky but also inherently self‐defeating and, second, as radically optimistic and vitalising practices of recovery and care that insist on alternative modes of thinking, practising, and experiencing sociality and the political that can inspire us to consider political agency in relation to wider abolitionist projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two main scholarly trends dominate the study of the relations between the Northeastern frontier zone(s) of the Achaemenid Empire and the steppes: the assessment of the military strategies to control the Saka and the development of artistic currents within and beyond the Empire through diplomatic relations and gift-giving. This paper makes the case for a more complex and dynamic scenario, in which the Central Asian borderlands transpire to have been a fertile ground for experimentation and innovation (not only of strife and rebellion), while local actors are given back their agency. In doing so, it first of all focuses on the extraction and working of precious stones. Secondly, recent research on Achaemenid archival materials shall be discussed which suggest the importance of trade in these and similar items for both imperial agents and local elites. Thirdly, and finally, the paper considers material evidence originating from the Empire but found beyond its Northeastern territories as far as China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the region's diverse peoples and unique environments, Arctic political analyses frequently remain focused on the traditional level of the state and inter‐state relations. While states undoubtedly play a significant role in Arctic governance arrangements, this paper seeks to direct attention to the agency of the many people and actors performing politics in the region. A more 'peopled' analysis includes renewed attention to professionals – e.g., state personnel, politicians, and diplomats – as well as non‐state actors involved in Arctic politics through different avenues and with different levels of agency. This paper focuses on the so‐called Barents Cooperation, a peace‐building initiative set up in the wake of the Cold War between Nordic states and Russia in the Barents Euro‐Arctic border region. It draws on interviews with professionals involved in the daily running of the Barents Cooperation, including its funding of 'grassroots' and people‐to‐people activities, to ask what can lessons can be learnt about Arctic political participation beyond the state. Based on their reflections, key challenges, successes, and future opportunities are highlighted, and the paper argues for strengthening both the analytical attention to and the practical agency of a wider range of political actors. Geopolitical analyses frequently remain focused on the traditional level of the state and inter‐state relations. While states undoubtedly play a significant role in Arctic governance arrangements, this paper seeks to direct attention to the agency of the many people and actors performing politics in the region, focusing on the political initiative The Barents Cooperation. The paper argues for strengthening both the analytical attention to and the practical agency of a wider range of political actors in geopolitical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses peace education focusing on how place-based experiences and collective memories stimulate local mobilisation for refugees fleeing from war. The Arctic Migration Route, located above 69th degree north, became an alternative to dangerous boat trips on the Mediterranean Sea, for people seeking safety and protection in the fall of 2015. During a few months, over 5,500 people from 35 nations, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran came to a municipality in north Norway with 10,000 inhabitants. The paper demonstrates how global conflicts far away, have important local consequences across borders and huge distances. Interviews with local authorities, teachers, voluntary workers constitute the main empirical material. By combining theories of place-based experiences and collective memories with phenomenology of practice, geographical location, collective and cultural memories across generations, are analysed as important driving forces for the local mobilization to help refugees. This approach opens for a wider perspective on learning, showing how climate, culture and history have important role as material and sociocultural education in this arctic border region in the north of Norway. Based on empirical data from a small local school, the paper will document how a local community can find solutions to globally produced problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the conventional understanding of North Korean borders as classic barriers that block infiltration of outside influences, this paper argues that the Sino-North Korean border region has undergone considerable transformations, especially at the local level. By analysing local-level trans-border activities, it shows that North Korea seeks to develop the Sino-North Korean border region as a space of opportunity. Even the heightened political conflicts between China and North Korea and the tightened international sanctions against North Korea failed to dampen local actors' economic imperatives, particularly after the 2012 and 2013 decentralisations in North Korea. Local actors were active in driving trans-border economic practices and, in turn, transformed the Sino-North Korean border region into potential cross-border cooperation zones. Although there has been conflict and competition in border region development between North Korea and China, we argue that local governments and entrepreneurs' efforts to maximise economic independence in the border regions are persisting, and their geo-economic imperatives are important factors in reshaping the Sino-North Korean border region by initiating and advancing trans-border interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effectiveness of cross-border cooperation programmes between Spain and Portugal, focusing on their impact and outcomes in Portuguese regions. Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of the programmes, the study examines the socio-economic dynamics in border regions, including job creation, population trends, and investment patterns. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data analysis. We argue that the cross-border territorial cooperation between Spain and Portugal has played a significant role in fostering regional development and addressing common challenges. While the concerted efforts have shown positive results in terms of economic growth and employment, they have not been sufficient to reverse the regressive demographic trends. Thus, it is essential to strengthen cooperation mechanisms, invest in human capital, and foster innovation so that the two countries can work together to create sustainable and inclusive development across their shared border regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the memoryscapes of Cieszyn Silesia, Orawa and Spisz in a context of the border conflicts of the twentieth century. The regions located on the current Czech-Polish and Slovak-Polish border have lived through paralleled histories of the border demarcation after WWI, which was unprecedented there. In both cases the national minorities were left behind the border, outside of their home states. Their stories and memories are, however, not being researched together. This paper contrasts the patterns of memory production related to the border shifts in the landscape in both regions. Emphasis is placed on the memory sites, their narratives and memory activism related to the conflicting past. The results show that the main axes of both memory debates are contrasting. While the conflict over Cieszyn Silesia was most shaped by the short war in 1919, the lesser-known dispute over Orawa and Spisz was marked by numerous smaller incidents, assimilation efforts and a layer of post WWII violence. This has important consequences for the memory production. The other important differentiating factor is the scope of memory activism inside of the national minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This paper is devoted to the study of the Lunaria rediviva population at the eastern border of its range (National Park "Smolny", Republic of Mordovia, Russia) in 2013–2018. Ontogenetic structure of the population has been identified by distinguishing juvenile, mature vegetative, and reproductive individuals. We found changes in the ontogenetic structure of the population from 2013 to 2018. The type of its population changed from vegetatively oriented to bimodal, with a decrease in proportion of mature vegetative individuals. We found a significant negative correlation between the fruit set and the moisture in mid-July, and wind strength in late May and early June. It was found that the number of both flowers and fruits per individual is significantly positively correlated with the precipitation in late April, and they are negatively correlated with these parameters and the temperature in late July. We assume that the habitat shading negatively influences the L. rediviva population status. Long-term studies of plant populations provide valuable knowledge on the influence of various environmental factors on plant species. The status of edge-range species populations is especially important to be studied due to their higher vulnerability to extinction. This paper aimed to study the Lunaria rediviva population at the eastern border of its range (National Park "Smolny", Republic of Mordovia, Russia). The study was carried out in 2013–2018. Assessment of the L. rediviva population was performed on the basis of individual parameters of plants (height of the individual, number of leaves per individual, number of inflorescences, flowers, fruits per one generative individual, and the fruit set), and density of individuals. Ontogenetic structure of the population was identified by distinguishing juvenile, mature vegetative, and reproductive individuals. The relationships between weather conditions (mean values of temperature, air moisture, wind strength, precipitation divided to three decades per month) and population parameters of L. rediviva were identified. Results showed changes in the ontogenetic structure of the population. The type of its population changed from vegetatively oriented to bimodal, with a decrease (R2 = 0.686) in the proportion of mature vegetative individuals. We demonstrated a significant decline in some parameters of the L. rediviva reproduction. We found a significant negative correlation between the fruit set and the moisture at mid-July (r = −0.84, p < 0.05), and wind strength in late May (r = −0.83, p < 0.05) and early June (r = −0.83, p < 0.05). It was found that the number of both flowers and fruits per individual is significantly positively correlated with the precipitation in late April, and they negatively correlated with these parameters and the temperature in late July. We assume that the habitat shading negatively influences the L. rediviva population status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines North Korea's border politics along the inter-Korean border before the Korean War, focusing on the provincial division and the border revisions of Gangwon north of the 38th parallel. It traces how the division of Korea by foreign powers and the provincial boundary modification by the nascent North Korean state shaped northern Gangwons distinct way of becoming a North Korean province. Rather than focusing on certain areas of Gangwon, the present study takes northern Gangwon as a whole, examining how the border revision affected the political relationship between the province's old and new administrative centers, Cheorwon and Wonsan, respectively, and North Korea's capital Pyongyang. This paper advances the notion of borderland, inspired by Etienne Balibars rethinking of the concept of de/territorialization from the peripheral perspective, highlighting the power of bordering practices in maintaining the imposition of homogeneous symbolism upon heterogeneous realities. Through the lens of borderland, this research reveals the historical transformations of northern Gangwon from a remnant of an arbitrary division to a political arena of changing spatial relations and eventually to an abstracted territory not without uncontrollable elements within itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border effects have long been studied and are a central element of EU regional policies. While most literature takes a macroeconomic approach, this paper adopts a microeconomic one, studying the impact on firm productivity in border areas. The empirical analysis, on Italian land borders, employs a novel two‐phases double‐matching design, which considers firm‐level characteristics as well as the territorial capital of municipalities where they locate. Results suggest that border effects are not limited to territories close to the border but affect larger areas. Furthermore, they are significant and negative in urban areas, while they are insignificant in peripheral areas which are characterized by low accessibility and territorial capital endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that to understand the impact of former U.S. President Donald Trump on the U.S.-Mexico border, his presidential agenda needs to be compared with other presidential administrations from the 1990s to the present. It looks at presidential policy agendas, as seen in executive orders, legislative policies, binational initiatives, deployment of the National Guard and military, presidential visits, and use of the bully pulpit with visits to the border region. These are compared to border operations indicators, highlighting formal and informal crossings of people and movement of goods. Though Mr. Trump has been specifically negative and aggressive toward the border, the securitization of the region has been part of presidential agendas since the 1990s. A key takeaway is to think about and discuss these results to ensure the border is livable, manageable and ready for the challenges of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how Brazilian and Angolan national-popular songs were related in a space of cultural circulation on a transnational scale. For this goal, it takes as its object a tour of Brazilian musicians to Angola, in 1980, called Kalunga Project. It proposes an analytical path which apprehends the musical event as a heuristic object while it aims to investigate how the two national musical formations were confronted in their nationalization and internationalization strategies. It is an attempt to compare two musical realities, prioritizing an examination of the development of the Angolan national and popular music in the post-independence period, based on field study in Angola as well as an analysis of documentary and bibliographic sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on official imperial discourses in the Russian Empire and archival documents of the Orenburg Border Commission (1799–1856), the Russian imperial administrative institution subordinated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this paper analyzes the ransoming, release, and reintegration of freed Russian subjects and shows how these processes and practices were inextricably linked to the Russian imperial concept of political belonging. In such a context, the concepts of freedom and liberation must be questioned; that is, we must determine the extent to which "freedom" can represent a universal value and is legally defined and thus dependent on sociopolitical situations and frameworks. To contribute to a more precise and multifaceted understanding of "freedom" and "dependency" as well as "freeing" and "enslavement," this article examines the liberation and repatriation of enslaved Russian subjects in the Central Asian khanates of Khiva and Bukhara in the first half of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sikhs in Ladakh arrived as traders in Jammu and Kashmir, and settled around the major trading centres along the silk-route such as Skardu, Kargil, Leh in the then undivided erstwhile princely state as it existed before 1947-partition. Tracing their journey across tribulations of time, this paper studies identity and belonging among the Sikh-community living in the borderland town of Kargil through life-histories and oral-narratives collected on the ground. Despite having always existed as a small minority amidst an overwhelming Muslim majority, the work while recording the lived-experiences of the Sikhs during partition and, in times of subsequent wars in a post-partition era in this borderland, foregrounds the binding role that linguistic and territorial ethnic identity plays in a multi-religious community. In doing so, the work studies the parallel construction and evolution of a religious identity with that of an ethno-religious one, where shared ethnic-affiliations bind a multi-religious community together when religious differences tend to divide them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a widespread call for the development of transformative adaptation knowledge and strategies in the Himalayan region because of the intensifying onset of climate change impacts. But such transformative thinking is absent in much of Himalayan climate knowledge production, which builds on environmental deterministic and techno-managerial renditions of exceptional precarity; advocates for an increase in the scientific and expert driven projects on the ground; and remains rooted in the scalar realities of the nation-state. This paper contributes to the rich scholarship that counterbalances depoliticized renditions of climate change adaptation, by presenting "everyday stories of adaptation" that have emerged from the authors' work alongside Himalayan communities. In this work we ask, who is the subject in Himalayan climate adaptation discourse and policies? And how can their stories help us envision an adaptation praxis, which challenges regional narratives of crisis and provides alternatives to climate reductionist thinking/planning, by foregrounding the intersectionality and plurality of communities and ecologies? The stories come from three parts of the Himalaya: Uttarakhand, Khumbu, and Assam, and highlight the daily labor for adaptation and its mercurial relationship with the labor for survival. We find that intertwined with changing climate-society relationships are, historical caste privileges and changing generational relationships to land; the complicated engagements between indigeneity, communal sovereignty, and exclusionary institutional mandates; and life with ethnoreligious othering in an aqueous and geopolitically fluid borderland. Together these stories witness the relational social-ecological worlds of regional inhabitants, challenging their powerless and pejorative depictions through climate reductive framings. We conclude with a set of objectives to enable more hopeful and just adaptation futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great War and Trianon opened a new chapter in the history, not only of the Kingdom of Hungary, but also of Western Hungary. Besides dividing up the counties of Sopron, Moson and Vas, the newly re-drawn borders also split up most of the railway lines running within them as well. From the territory sliced from the three counties, the previously non-existent province of Austria, Burgenland, was established in 1922. In many cases, the new demarcation lines followed boundaries of old districts or settlements, but it was rare to find natural boundaries among them. As a result, between the two World Wars, the use of the affected railway tracks began to change similar to several contemporary Central European cases, with the exception of GYSEV (Győr–Sopron–Ebenfurth Railway Company), which could remain in its original form. This research paper aims to examine how the shift of borders in this region affected railway transport. It is based on the local historical literature on the railway, regional history and primary resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the Government of India has undertaken several policy initiatives to facilitate cross-border flows. Such initiatives can be read as an effort to transform 'battlefields into marketplaces'. This paper examines the rise of the border town of Champhai, located on the India-Myanmar border in the state of Mizoram in Northeast India. The formation of a new urban centre in a frontier region based on border trade reveals different dimensions of transition in Northeast India's borderlands. The paper explores two key themes: how border trade, comprised of legal and illegal flows, has transformed Champhai into Mizoram's third-largest city, and how increasing trade across the border reorients the interethnic dynamics with strong implications for ethnic and citizenship politics in Mizoram. The paper concludes by highlighting the different aspects discussed in the article that would determine the borderland dynamics in Mizoram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a growing number of institutional mapping approaches has reflected on border regions' development. These approaches visualise the relationship between institutional and spatial patterns. In parallel, the quality and quantity of cooperation-related information in the EU KEEP database (DB) is continuously increasing. The aim of our paper is two-fold. Firstly, we aim to understand the cooperation dynamics and funding geographies of the recent INTERREG A period. We do so with the example of cross-border programmes with German participation. More concretely, we scrutinise the relationships that exist between the spatial configurations of funded project cooperation, the involved thematic topics and the role of territorial contexts, particularly in terms of the degree of urbanisation and distance to a border. Secondly, we reflect on the potential and limitations of institutional mapping based on KEEP data. Specifically, we explore the explanatory capacity of institutional mappings based on KEEP data and discuss the blind spots that must be considered and how these could be addressed. The general conclusion from our paper is that institutional mapping based on the KEEP DB proves to be a strong data exploration tool with potential for comparative analyses. However, it has clear limitations with regard to causality testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to analyse the conceptualisation of space in border studies. My interest in the subject arises because recent articles published on diverse outlets of border studies have advanced the notion that borders are on the move and not necessarily located where it is expected—at the line shared by two sovereign nations. Instead, scholars argued that borders have become dislocated, displaced and can be found in-between, anywhere even if they have been out-sourced or placed off-shore. This notion of borders "everywhere" gives the sensation that borders are becoming a-spatial, a-territorial, space no longer matters, and geography is dead. This paper challenges that view. Thus, the main contribution this paper makes is to bring back space into border theory by tracing and reinserting spatial concepts into the discussion of border studies. The central argument in the paper is that space and borders are closely intertwined—like the ying and yang; borders are space. I argue that we can advance the theorisation of borders from a spatial perspective by delving deeper into concrete spatialisations such as micro spaces or heterotopias (besides the camp. Prison, mental hospitals, etc.) where bordering practices take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of otherness in the social construction of ethnicities and rural multiculturalism has long attracted the attention of scholars. By following a postcolonial background, this paper investigates the social construction of Roma as 'other' in a multicultural landscape (the Romania-Serbia border) using interviews with participants of different ethnic groups. This paper addresses the following questions: (i) Is the Roma population in this area completely spatially segregated? (ii) How do different kinds of prejudice against Roma operate within this multicultural context? (iii) How does discrimination against the Roma interface with power relations, in particular political power in the area? The findings indicate that, alongside ethno-nationalist racism, Roma face prejudice from apparently more 'progressive' groups, who accept multiculturalism, yet blame the Roma for their own disadvantaged social and economic position on the grounds of a failure to integrate that is pictured as 'backward'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the political, geo-philosophical musings of Deleuze and Guattari on spatialisation, place and movement in relation to the religious nomad (wandering ascetics and reclusive forest monks) inhabiting the borderlands of Thailand. A nomadic science involves improvised ascetic practices between the molar lines striated by modern state apparatuses. The wandering ascetics, inhabiting a frontier political ecology, stand in contrast to the appropriating, sedentary metaphysics and sanctifying arborescence of statism and its corollary place-making, embedded in rootedness and territorialisation. It is argued that the religious nomads, residing on the endo-exteriorities of the state, came to represent a rhizomatic and politico-ontological threat to centre-nation and its apparatus of capture. The paper also theorises transitions and movement at the borderlands in the context of the state's monastic reforms. These reforms, and its pervasive royal science, problematised the interstitial zones of the early ascetic wanderers in their radical cross-cutting networks and lines, moving within and across demarcated frontiers. Indeed, the ascetic wanderers and their allegorical war machine were seen as a source of wild, free-floating charisma and mystical power, eventually appropriated by the centre-nation in it's becoming unitary and fixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border cooperation can be an example of a non-hierarchical co-governance tool based on the principle of multi-level governance, which was successfully implemented mainly thanks to European integration as part of building EU territorial cohesion. As a new tool, it has not been limited by the experience of public administration organizations to date, and it is largely based on coopetition aimed at more effective co-management of border regions. Within the framework of this paper, we are exploring the new point of view in the debate on functional cross-border areas. In the first part of the paper, we shall move towards the establishment of multi-level governance (MLG) and re-analyze the adequacy of this concept in line with the general scientific discourse of functional cross-border areas. In the next part, on the basis of desk research and analyses of public policy, the tools and forms for MLG research as well as their implementation were identified and compared on the national and cross-border levels. In the last part of the case study from the Czech-Polish border, we identify the determinants for the organization and implementation of cross-border public services as a basis for defining cross-border areas functional for fire protection in the Jesenik District (CZ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparations for the EU's post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework have brought increased interest to the functional approach as a major paradigm of the EU policies towards cross-border areas. This approach aims to focus cross-border programmes on territories where there is a high degree of cross-border interaction. Cross-border functional areas (CBFAs) can be a potential instrument for this, fostering further reduction of cross-border barriers and enhancing flows of people, goods, materials and knowledge. However, certain aspects of this notion are rather vague. This includes both the way how to turn the rather discursive concept of the CBFA into more material-institutional practices, and how CBFAs can be identified in practice to successfully implement the EU's cohesion policy. This paper debates the concept of the CBFA and proposes understanding CBFAs as spatially specific territorial complexes, located on two (or more) sides of a state border(s) that are not defined by administrative borders, but by cross-border functional linkages, a system of cooperative relationships and the existence of governance mechanisms. The paper proposes a novel approach for CBFA's identification based on a four-level model, taking into account the selected criteria. The proposed framework enabled to identify CBFAs and potential CBFAs at the borders of Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore ways in which dynamics of visibility/invisibility of American Muslim women activists are transformed in secular places like USA, while these women struggle surviving on the borderlands. Borderland and boundary are perceived as lived spaces that are culturally hybrid and are seen as a theatre for radical action. In this paper I contend that Muslim women activists in the USA operate from geographies of borderland and while inhabiting this hybrid third space they generate discourses of dissent that challenge stereotypes about them. Hailing from diverse backgrounds and countries, with different cultural roots yet same belief system and faith, American Muslim women activists adapt varied resistance strategies to challenge the Muslim patriarchy and the western hegemony that has persisted to portray Muslim women as an oppressed group of people in need of saving. Tracing Muslim women activists' emotional and experiential geographies I will look at ways in which dynamics of solidarity between them have moved beyond dichotomous divisions of global-local, global North-global South, and empire-colony. With the discussion of lives and activism of Amina Wadud, Linda Sarsour and Asra Nomani, this paper will contextualize these activists within the spaces of resistance which they inhabit, while navigating their challenges in the context of geopolitical tensions and conflicts which are their lived realities in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper engages on the assemblage of timber production and transaction at Indo (Naga)-Myanmar borderland, Manipur state, Northeast India, an emerging tributary of India’s Act East Policy, yet characterized by several marginalities in terms of state development parameters [and governance] entwist in historically militarized setting. The paper primarily looks at different factors, actors, flows, and drivers of timber production and transaction across the Indo-Myanmar border from the Sagaing region, Myanmar, to Manipur, India. Rather, this cycle and flows of timber coalesced with economic and geopolitical intricacies of the borderland thereby engender occupation of multiple authorities and governments. The paper provides an account of how these different authorities negotiate and co-regulate over the production and taxation of timber to meet certain revenue goals and aspirations beyond the normative understanding of legality and illegality – frontier of a kind in its own might. In reference to this network of timber trade, the paper further dwells into conversation of everyday experiences of militarization, livelihoods, village roads, and infrastructures are closely entangled around timber production, transaction, and its allied activities. In a nutshell, the paper argues that timber trade at borderland represent an assemblage of multifaceted realities and practices around the intricate socio-political and economic dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the Yunnan-Myanmar borderlands in Kachin State have become a major investment frontier for large-scale agribusiness. Chinese private capital, supported by state-led opium substitution programs, has turned thousands of hectares of forests into plantations. As in many such cases across Southeast Asia and beyond, this rapid development has come at the expense of local communities and displaced persons relying on these lands for their livelihoods and refuge. Caught between Chinese market expansion, and an ongoing war between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/KIA), plantations have become sites of often overlooked confrontations, compromise, and conflict operating behind the more spectacular politics of the grand infrastructures like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in this region. Moving across plantation sites, armed bases and border markets; and building on interviews with Chinese entrepreneurs, Kachin leaders, and farmers, the paper explores how plantations have transformed not only environmental space but also social-political dynamics of Kachin State in ways, we argue, that are more difficult to reverse than previous or ongoing military territorialization. In doing so, we aim to localize and contextualize the plantation as a key force rapidly transforming Asian borderworlds, over which broader socio-political struggles, environmental transformations, nature loss, connectivity and developmental become imbricated with bordering space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sikkim, one of the smallest Indian states is now one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical hubs in the country. Pharmaceutical factories are spaces where gender, technology, dependency, profit, and livelihood operate simultaneously. They represent sites of capital accumulation as well as continuous re-calibration of gender and race relationships. Pharmaceutical companies rely on local women from rural and peri-urban areas for assembly-line and other manual labour; work, which exposes them to new spatial and temporal patriarchal norms. Most importantly, these norms are enforced by migrant men who occupy a distinct and often subservient position in the local social matrix. Inside the factories, migrant men have more power and authority over the local population. Beyond the factory walls, local hill-groups assume positions of authority and control the spatial order, while the factory supervisors and technicians are reduced to a somewhat insignificant group of migrant men. Focussing on pharmaceutical factories in Sikkim, the paper will illustrate (i) how industrial labour exposes women to new temporal and spatialised patriarchy; (ii) how human resource frontiers emerge in recently industrialising borderlands; (iii) and how development creates a flux in identities and relationships between local and migrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the differential effect of trade agreements on income per capita of subnational regions with international borders. We construct an extensive panel dataset covering 1350 regions in 86 countries worldwide between 1950 and 2017. Our results show that trade agreements are positively associated with income per capita of regions sharing contiguous borders with trading partners, relative to regions sharing borders with countries with whom no trade agreements exist. For border regions, the positive relationship of trade agreements and regional income roughly compensates potential income disadvantages of having international borders. These insights help in explaining and mitigating regional inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the educational achievement and growth of Latinx third through eighth-grade students attending school along the U.S.-Mexico Border and in the interior of the four Border states. The theories of structural and legal violence predict that powerful Anglos have created systems of social reproduction, concentrated disadvantage, and immigration law that reduce Latinx education close to the U.S.-Mexico Border. We test these theories with data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), which contains information on Latinx achievement and growth in all public school districts in the four Border states. We find that Latinx achievement and growth are similar along the Border and in the interior except in Texas, where concentrated disadvantage dramatically lowers Latinx achievement and growth. We also find that social reproduction is more beneficial for Latinx youth along the Border because, surprisingly, Latinx adults tend to be more educated near the border than in the interior. We find no evidence that immigration laws reduce education more near the Border than in the interior. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to broaden the framework for understanding the many different roles that traditional leaders play in their communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Using data from an original public opinion survey along the Ghana–Togo border, we find that one of the most important roles of the chieftaincy is to maintain law and order: resolving disputes and keeping the community safe from crime. However, we also find considerable variation in what chiefs are expected to do, how effective they are performing their various tasks, and how much authority they wield in doing so – both over their own subjects as well as over local government officials. We explore several potential sources for this variation, finding that chiefs in Ghana, a former British colony, are expected to do more jobs, are perceived to be more effective, and hold more upward power over local state officials compared with their counterparts in Togo, a former French colony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]