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Border-making is an inevitable experience in human life. Borders can be viewed as part of an external sociocultural structure that guides the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, in addition to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis, borders can be conceptualized as an intra-psychological process of identity formation that is involved in meaning making and in organizing experiences with the world. Within the framework of cultural psychology, this article will provide an account of the process of bordering, using the example of Estonian identity that is approached as an affective process of semiotic construction of borders between us and the “other” (i.e., “non-us”). Using the dialogical self theory, it will examine how different I-positions (e.g., I-as-Estonian) related to collective and personal past experiences are involved in the construction of borders. The tendency to incline toward re-creation of the established structure of borders with the potential to renegotiate them is also revealed in this study.

This concluding chapter highlights the main ideas about the border in Self-Other relations introduced in this book. Drawing on the preceding chapters, we argue that the complexity of the bordering process requires multilevel analysis, specifically underlining micro-level processes. With a focus on the psychological dimension of the construction of borders, this chapter also explores the larger social processes (e.g., migration, mobility, segregation, and integration) addressed in several chapters of this book, as well as their links with the issue of space, identity processes, and affectivity.

Making and maintaining borders is an intriguing and complex process. Despite decades of exploration of how border-making affects and is affected by psychological functioning and social dynamics, it is still a fascinating topic that merits further exploration. In this book, various aspects of the border issue are approached from different theoretical perspectives. This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of the main ideas of each chapter. This book tackles the interconnections between borders, identity, and self-other relations, linking them with various themes like public spaces, (national) identity processes, affectivity, and negotiation of borders.

Borders are a part of an external socio-cultural structure guiding the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, additionally to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis of borders, borders can be conceptualized in terms of intra-psychological dynamics. In this paper I provide an account of the process of bordering based on the example of Estonian identity that unfolds under the guidance of social-institutional and personal representations. Drawing on a semiotic approach in cultural psychology, national identity is conceived in this chapter as a sign—a semiotic entity—that is involved in the meaning making of experiences and regulates one’s relations with the world, including relations with ‘other’. Dialogical Self Theory was applied to explore the dynamics of the negotiation of borders in the intra-psychological level.

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5459127*est

The paper outlines a cultural–psychological interpretation of the current European societies’ socio-institutional crisis. To this end, preliminarily, the cultural psychological view of social behaviour is outlined, focusing on the idea that socio-political choices depend on how people make sense of their world. Second, the paper provides an interpretation of the current socio-political European scenario of crisis, based on the main results of a recent study that has mapped the cultural dynamics underpinning some European countries. The interpretation focuses on two complementary facets: on the one hand, the lack of symbolic resources (defined: semiotic capital) enabling people to perceive the collective dimension of life as a lived, subjectively relevant fact of experience; on the other hand, the relevance of a cultural form (defined: paranoid belongingness) that channels a trajectory of sensemaking consisting of the affective connotation of otherness in terms of threat and enemy. Third, the paper deepens the interplay between these cultural dynamics and the social, political and economic conditions that may have been triggered by them. In that perspective, the function of semiotic regulation played by the enemization of the other is highlighted. The conclusive part of the work is devoted to discuss implications the analysis suggests for policy makers.