ABSTRACT
In an overview about boundary narratives in Political Geography, Newman and Paasi (1998) identified several topics of discussion on border research. One of them, repeatedly evoked, is the assumption that borders were in process of ‘disappearance’ (Newman and Paasi 1998: 191). As enforced in interpretations of the processes and rhetoric of globalization, the “borderless world” seems to come, but did not arrive yet. In the meantime, these and other authors (see, for example, Paasi 2005; Newman 2006; van Houtum et al. 2005; Agnew 2008; Kuus 2009) propose multidimensionality on border research, and their conceptualization not as permanent and static structures, but as historically contingent processes (Newmann and Paasi 1998). This way, the largely assumed univocal nature of borders may be replaced for their comprehension as paradoxical and non-fixed place, as sites of constant negotiation. As social representations, borders are constantly being reproduced and created, in material, discursive and practical ways, and paradoxes are just one of their characteristics.
