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D Border Regions Series
W
O
R
L INVISIBLE BORDERS IN
D
A BORDERED WORLD
POWER, MOBILITY, AND BELONGING
Edited by Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen
“Borders that are not at the border, that are mobile, detached from the
map, invisible yet felt, that live within laws, lines, and software, that strad-
dle infrastructures, pipelines, barbed wire, and waterways. This is a book
that takes us beyond state borders and fixed territories into bordered
spaces that are diverse, heterogeneous, and hidden. It’s a compelling
eye-opening collection.”
Gerard Toal, Virginia Tech
“Political geography’s great strength is ‘getting behind the map’ – reveal-
ing the numerous territories, boundaries, hierarchies, and processes that
traditional nation-state maps of the world conceal.
Invisible Borders does that with aplomb, illustrating important conceptual
arguments with an engaging range of examples drawn from across the
globe.”
Nick Megoran, Newcastle University
Invisible Borders in
a Bordered World
This book critically challenges the usual territorial understanding of bor-
ders by examining the often messy internal, transborder, ambiguous, and in-
between spaces that co-exist with traditional borders. By considering those
less visible aspects of borders, the book develops an inclusive understanding
of how contemporary borders are structured and how they influence human
identity, mobility, and belonging.
The introduction and conclusion provide theoretical and contextual fram-
ing, while chapters explore topics of global labor and refugees, unrecognized
states, ethnic networks, cyberspace, transboundary resource conflicts, and
indigenous and religious spaces that rarely register on conventional maps or
commonplace understandings of territory. In the end, the volume demon-
strates that, despite being “invisible” on most maps, these borders have a very
real, material, and tangible presence and consequences for those people who
live within, alongside, and across them.
Alexander C. Diener is a Professor of Geography in the Department of
Geography and Atmospheric Science at the University of Kansas, USA.
Joshua Hagen is the Dean of the College of Letters and Science at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA.
Border Regions Series
Series Editor: Doris Wastl-Walter, University of Bern, Switzerland
In recent years, borders have taken on an immense significance. Throughout
the world they have shifted, been constructed and dismantled, and become
physical barriers between socio-political ideologies. They may separate soci-
eties with very different cultures, histories, national identities or economic
power, or divide people of the same ethnic or cultural identity.
As manifestations of some of the world’s key political, economic, societal
and cultural issues, borders and border regions have received much academic
attention over the past decade. This valuable series publishes high quality
research monographs and edited comparative volumes that deal with all
aspects of border regions, both empirically and theoretically. It will appeal to
scholars interested in border regions and geopolitical issues across the whole
range of social sciences.
African Borders, Conflict, Regional and Continental Integration
Edited by Inocent Moyo and Christopher Nshimbi
Expanding Boundaries
Borders, Mobilities and the Future of Europe-Africa Relations
Edited by Jussi P. Laine, Inocent Moyo and Christopher Changwe Nshimbi
Intra-Africa Migrations
Reimaging Borders and Migration Management
Edited by Inocent Moyo, Jussi P. Laine and Christopher Changwe Nshimbi
Borderlands Resilience
Transitions, Adaptation and Resistance at Borders
Edited by Dorte Jagetic Andersen and Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola
Invisible Borders in a Bordered World
Power, Mobility, and Belonging
Edited by Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Border-Regions-Series/book-series/ASHSER-1224
Invisible Borders in
a Bordered World
Power, Mobility, and Belonging
Edited by Alexander C. Diener
and Joshua Hagen
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Alexander C. Diener and Joshua
Hagen; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen to be identified
as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 9780367370657 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032276984 (pbk)
ISBN: 9780429352515 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429352515
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Alexander dedicates this volume
to Professor Dan Caldwell
Contents
List of figures and tables xii
Acknowledgments xiv
List of contributors xv
1 Geographies of Visibility and Invisibility: Strategies
of Spatial Control and Differentiation 1
ALEXANDER C. DIENER AND JOSHUA HAGEN
PART I
Invisible Borders of Political Control 19
ALEXANDER C. DIENER AND JOSHUA HAGEN
2 No (Wo)Man’s Land: Risking Detention along the
South Ossetian Administrative Boundary Line 25
ARIEL OTRUBA
3 “It’s All One Place”: Geographic Networks in a
West African Borderland since Independence 41
DAVID NEWMAN GLOVSKY
4 Transboundary Water Management in Separatist Regions:
Towards a Geography of Hydro-Political Tensions 62
MEHMET ALTINGOZ
5 Bordering the South China Sea: Maritime Claims,
Contested Sovereignty, and Novel Territorialities 82
ALEXANDER C. DIENER AND JOSHUA HAGEN
