Borders, Thresholds, Boundaries: A Social History of Categorizations. Introduction

The border: whether the term evokes the reality of a customs office or is instead used more metaphorically, its polysemous nature allows us to grasp both the boundaries between social, political, or geographical spaces and the uses made of those boundaries. Such polysemy offers the opportunity to take the notions of borders and boundaries as reference points for reflection upon several themes: the identities of constituted groups; potential or condemnable transgressions; the leveraging action...