Signifying Boundaries

Detours around the Portuguese-Spanish (Algarve/Alentejo-Andalucía) Borderlands

Bibliographic Data

ID3948611
AuthorsJames Derrick Sidaway (0000-0001-6169-3566, corresponding author), J Sidaway
Year2002
Volume7
Issue1
Pages139-164
Publication date2002-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/714000890
OpenAlexW2149050043
LanguageEN
Citations received17

This paper draws upon the Portuguese-Spanish border to consider the semiotics of boundaries. It argues that what is proper to such an inter-state border is that it is simultaneously a highly structured (demarcated, ratified, mapped and sometimes patrolled) space and a liminal (marginal, threshold, peripheral and sometimes transgressed) place. The 'detours' of the paper explore official documentation, maps, literature, treaties, local journalism, planning texts and discussions with inhabitants of border communities along the southern section of what is both the longest and most materially underdeveloped border between two European Union (EU) member states. The paper may also be read as an examination of the poetics of a border and therefore as an alternative 'method' for critical studies of borders. Such explorations lead to critical reflection on some contradictions of EU-directed integration and on the wider project of overcoming (internal) European Union frontiers

European union · International trade · Liminality · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Portuguese · Semiotics · Sociology · Anthropology · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · Law · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Migration, Racism, and Human Rights

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub