Short Abstract:

The panel will explore the multi-layered processes of de- and unwriting boundaries and demarcations (as political, biological, social or cultural constructs) and show how they are redefined, questioned and reconceptualized in different contexts.

Long Abstract:

Borders and boundaries mark living environments: as physical demarcations, e.g. in the form of national and natural, i.e. geographical borders, but also as political, biological, mental, social or cultural constructs. Borders are not only products of social processes, they also produce them anew. On the one hand, the rules that define them are - like their subject matter - fluid: supposedly fixed codes can be redefined and thus rewritten. On the other hand, there are very precise unwritten rules for seemingly open areas that guide actions and practices and draw invisible dividing lines.

This panel will explore the multi-layered processes of de- and unwriting boundaries and demarcations in the broadest sense of the word, and how they are redefined, questioned and reconceptualized in different disciplines and contexts, both in the present and in the past. Using case studies, we aim to explore this complex process of de-writing/ unwriting different kinds of boundaries and demarcations. We are interested in discourses and materialities, practices and strategies of argumentation and legitimation as well as individual experiences and narratives.

The panel will address the following topics: Changes in the permeability of state borders and their impact on everyday life (e.g. in the context of COVID-19, migration, war), power relations and hierarchical structures (due to political, economic or environmental issues), phantom borders, borders and/or emotions and desires.

This Panel has so far received 2 paper proposal(s).
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