Gender, Governance, and Globalization at Borders.

The paper argues that globalization, free trade ideologies, and relatively open borders raise questions about the extent to which the nation-state can or should be the primary accountability institution for citizens and residents. The focus of this paper is the metropolitan region of El Paso-Juarez where governmental responses to violence against women have been limited, for reasons outlined in the body of the paper. Activists have raised awareness with high-visibility, media-dependent events; cultural imagery, colours, and icons; reports and resolutions, though at some costs, including division and co-optation. The paper examines people's common interests that span national borders, whether borderlands are densely or sparsely populated. It finds that male privilege and peculiar national and cultural patriarchies also transcend borders, manifested in many injustices, including a tolerance for violence against women, from domestic battering to serial mutilation murders. It argues that International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) address gender issues but operate in a space of privileged access and resources that remove them from local accountabilities and grounded understandings of borderland conditions. The paper outlines the various types of borderlands, both in concrete and metaphoric forms. It then outlines the peculiarity of local governance at borderlands and grounds its analysis in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, to assess what factors facilitate and impede cross-border organising. In conclusion, the chapter raises questions about the extent to which cross-border activists have successfully challenged (patriarchal) policy paradigms and/or gained powerful voices in governance coalitions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]