Living with Shifting Borders: Peripheralisation and the Production of Invisibility

Abstract

The article analyses the experiences and material impacts of shifting borders in the historical case of Sri Lanka's civil war and the contemporary case of shifting border between Georgia and South Ossetia. The two cases point to some lesser known geopolitical practices in which border-shifts and strengthening of control in contested areas take place without much international attention, partly because the shifts are so minor and gradual that they do not reach the news headlines. Living with shifting borders create a state of inbetweenness and losing of control, where forms of visibility and invisibility produces individual uncertainties and vulnerabilities in homeplaces and people's everyday lives. By analysing the borderland and bordershifts from the perspective of the peripheral, the article emphasises the ways in which border practices become part of social action through a rescaling of the understanding of the border encouraged by feminist geopolitics. The article begins by discussing what borders may mean and how borders shift and may produce particular forms of visibility and invisibility. Then the contexts of the Sri Lankan and Georgian villages are introduced before a short discussion of the methods applied. The article then analyses how the bordershifts create particular material and symbolic outcomes, an experience of 'displacement in place, and the particular invisibilities created on the ground in the two cases. The article concludes by reflecting on how border-practices produce forms of visibility and invisibility that continue to render people in the borderlands peripheral. In the Borderlands you are the battleground where enemies are kin to each other; you are at home, a stranger, the border disputes have been settled the volley of shots have shattered the truce you are wounded, lost in action dead, fighting back;

Borders and bullies: How borders shape perceptions of security and foreign policy preferences

“…Its visibility and permanency provide stability and dependability despite not being officially recognized. For those near the South Ossetian ABL, invisible and shifting borders threaten their livelihood and physical security as they risk detention by border guards (Amnesty International, 2018; Brun, 2019).…”

“…Figure 2 suggests that although the majority of respondents near the South Ossetian borderline perceive border instability as a severe personal security risk, an even larger share does not support using force to prevent moving the boundary line. Viewing the border as a personal security risk does not translate into supporting the use of force to prevent further encroachment on their territory, although this creeping borderization threatens their livelihoods and survival (Amnesty International, 2018; Brun, 2019).

Figure 2.Should Georgia use force to prevent SO border change?

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COVID-19 and New internal bordering: The case of Slovakia

“…Similarly, Cathrine Brun (2019), on the other hand, examined Georgia and Sri Lankan boundaries and the impact their changes and subsequent productions have on the experiences and identities of people living in the borderlands. Galen Murton (2017Murton ( , 2019, studied the interaction of ethnic identity with fenced borders and hardened border regimes in the case of the Mustang-Tibet portion of the China-Nepal border.…”

Feminist geopolitics: A contested and rebellious offspring of geopolitical knowledge

“…Primera radi, Katrin Brun (Cathrine Brun) je analizirala kako iskustva i materijalne posledice promene granične linije u slučajevima nekadašnjeg građanskog rata na Šri Lanci i nedavnog pomeranja demarkacione linije između Gruzije i Južne Osetije. 51 Reč je o toliko malim i postepenim pomeranjima da su ona ostala van vidokruga medija i, posledično, međunarodne zajednice, ali je život stanovništva posmatranih pograničnih područja pretrpeo duboke promene. Makro procesima projektovanja suverene moći na granične oblasti, lokalne zajednice u obe zemlje su uvedene u neizdrživo stanje položaja stisnutosti između dve oprečne sile u kojem preovlađuje osećaj i realnost gubitka kontrole nad sopstvenim životom, te time ranjivosti u svakodnevnom životu i u intimnosti doma.…”