BORDER STUDIES

We researchers at the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION consider borders to be institutionalized forms of creating difference which structure our social world and our orientation in time and space in a fundamental way, thus achieving important accomplishments in creating order. We consider order to be a system which structures our actions and has normative validity, and which is based on drawing borders. Orders and borders are therefore inseparably intertwined - the term B/ORDERS, which we coined, encapsulates this notion. By no means do we consider borders and orders to be natural and given, but rather the result of social practice and the production of meaning, which is constantly becoming, in transformation, IN MOTION. Our multidimensional approach is oriented toward capturing configurations of borders and orders in their dynamics... By not limiting our work to examining nation-state borders and orders, but also including social, cultural, legal, economic, and knowledge-based..

Primary location: Frankfurt Germany