Call for Papers for the December 2014 AAA meeting in Washington DC

3D Borders: Spatialized Sovereignties in Russia and China

Abstracts are invited from anthropologists, geographers and colleagues in related disciplines. Please email your abstract (250 words maximum) by April 7 at the latest.

Franck

Feel free to forward this CfP to colleagues who may be interested!
For more information on the 2014 AAA meeting, see: http://www.aaanet.org/meetings/


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3D Borders: Spatialized Sovereignties in Russia and China

Organizer: Franck Billé (University of Cambridge) — [log in to unmask]

Panel abstract

In anthropology and cognate disciplines, ethnographies have increasingly been focusing on margins and borders. Over the last few years, we seem to have reached a critical moment, with a veritable efflorescence of border-themed publications. A common thread in this literature is a strong emphasis on human cross-border connections and networks, and on the eminently porous nature of borders. Most international borders have been shown to be permeable, largely because they tend to slice across a rich fabric of ethnic, social, economic and cultural continuums. However not all borders are permeable in the same way or to the same extent. Socialist borders in particular have frequently managed to accomplish almost perfect physical closure (Pelkmans 2012). Yet, because the very idea of impermeable and hermetic borders is somewhat unappealing to anthropologists, such borders have remained largely understudied in the discipline. The Sino-Russian border, dividing two majority groups with little, if any, cultural and linguistic overlap, is a case in point. Even in the case of groups such as the Buryats who straddle the border and have long nomadized across boundary lines, the repercussions of decades of hermetic closure have been long-lasting.

This panel will look at the Sino-Russian border as an ‘extreme example’ of the nature of borders, and the force of ‘bordering’ (Scott 2012) to create and sustain discontinuities. Russia and China are two ‘authoritarian’ regimes with strict visa regimes and border control. Their emphasis on regulation of border-crossing for humans, animals and goods, is visible materially: lack of bridges, frequent closure of border crossing points, and interminable lines at the few points that are open.

In foregrounding the very spatiality of borders, the panel seeks to distance itself from too great a concern with human mobility and connections (kinship ties, cultural overlap and hybridity, cross-border networks, emotional linkages etc.). While these aspects are important, they unwittingly reduce the border to a line. If recent border scholarship (Wilson & Donnan 2012, Wastl-Walter 2011) has problematized this point and illuminated the novel ways in which borders post 9/11 frequently extend deep into nations, the persistent focus on human crossings offers a view of borders that remains essentially horizontal. A border is in fact a tridimensional separation between two legal entities, extending upwards as well as downwards. ‘Border work’ (Reeves 2014) also encompasses spatial yet amorphous practices and phenomena that are difficult to control or contain, e.g. air- and waterborne pollution, ‘invasive’ species, microscopic organisms, mobile communication technologies, television, radio, etc.

Contributions for this panel are sought on Russian and/or Chinese border practices with the view to publish an edited volume (co-edited with Professor Caroline Humphrey). A focus on the Sino-Russian border is preferred, but not exclusive (papers may be on other Russian and Chinese borders). Theoretical contributions on the topics below are especially welcome, however papers on any topic consonant with the overall theme of the panel are also strongly encouraged:

- maritime borders, disputed islands, and/or claims relating to the continental shelf;
- use of subterranean space (mining, fracking and other extractive practices) and how they intersect with practices and displays of sovereignty
- cross-border movement of organic material (biota, viruses, pollen, spores…);
- use of aerial space (flight paths, bird migrations, etc.) and how these movements might be understood spatially as corridors, funnels or conduits;
- control of ‘invasive’ species (fauna and/or flora) and ideas of ‘natural’ or ‘ecological’ borders;
- airborne pollution, sand storms, and other phenomena that are difficult to contain;
- control, channeling and blockage of new media/technologies, e.g. Internet, cell phones, etc., as well as the continued use of older technologies like radio and television.

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Franck Billé
Research Associate
Department of Social Anthropology
University of Cambridge, UK
[log in to unmask]
+44 1223 769 336
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