Recent geohistorical research on boundary‐making. Challenging conventional narratives on borders and modern state‐building

Abstract

The paper aims at providing an overview of recent scholarship from the last 3 decades on boundary-making, borders, and the territorial shaping of modern states between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries. Scholarship in various languages (namely English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian) and from various fields of inquiry will be reviewed in order to highlight their shared themes and common concerns from a comparatist, transdisciplinary, and international perspective. We contend that the field has seen an improvement in knowledge about boundary-making, methodological changes, and a widening of primary sources and research materials. As a result, conventional narratives on state-building, as well as the accompanying understanding of boundary lines as the mere result of institutional imposition by central state agencies, have been nuanced and enriched. We claim that expanding on these remarkable outcomes of recent scholarship on boundary-making would help to further bridge the gap between traditional/geohistorical and postmodern/contemporary approaches to border studies.

Attuning to Emotions in the History of Border-Making: The Estonian-Latvian Boundary Commission in 1920

“…19 These top-down approaches to writing histories of border-drawing stand in contrast to more recent multidisciplinary scholarship on border studies which has increasingly emphasised how boundary-making results from interactions between 'a wide variety of actors (with diverging goals, interests, and territorial visions)'. 20 Boundary commissions play a pivotal role in processes of multi-scalar boundary-making as 'institutions [which] became mediating agents between different groups, contexts, and levels of power'. 21 Studies of bottom-up and participatory forms of boundary-making have examined a range of instruments, such as censuses, plebiscites, population surveys, referenda and public consultations used by boundary commissions to consult citizens on matters of border-drawing and to document local voices on border-related questions.…”

“…20 Boundary commissions play a pivotal role in processes of multi-scalar boundary-making as 'institutions [which] became mediating agents between different groups, contexts, and levels of power'. 21 Studies of bottom-up and participatory forms of boundary-making have examined a range of instruments, such as censuses, plebiscites, population surveys, referenda and public consultations used by boundary commissions to consult citizens on matters of border-drawing and to document local voices on border-related questions. 22 These mechanisms of civic engagement in bordering processes gave agency to border inhabitants and local activists, allowing them to communicate their wishes, grievances and their demands to the authorities.…”

The aesthetic turn in border studies: Visual geographies of power, contestation and subversion

“…For decades, geographers have been problematising the alluring nature of maps as accessible, intelligible and apparently neutral representations of reality. Harley (1989) has drawn attention to the relationships between map‐making and knowledge‐production, highlighting how maps always reflect the interests of their creators and are deeply implicated in processes of boundary‐making, state formation and nation building (see Paasi, 1996; Puente‐Lozano & García‐Álvarez, 2021; Strandsbjerg, 2012). The intertwinement between cartography and state power is exemplified by the development of the modern European state, which maps have supported by enabling rulers to transform previously ill‐defined dynastic realms into clear‐cut territorial units and naturalise them to the wider public (Biggs, 1999).…”

La geografía española actual. Estado de la cuestión

“…En los últimos años, esta temática se ha visto reforzada, en gran parte, debido a diversos proyectos de investigación liderados por Jacobo García Álvarez (cfr. Trillo, 2012), que estudian los procesos de delimitación de la frontera hispano-portuguesa (entre otros, García Álvarez y Puente, 2017ab;García Álvarez, 2019;Puente y García Álvarez, 2021) e hispano-francesa (García Álvarez y Puyo, 2019). Dos números especiales de la Revista de Historiografía (2015, nº 23;2019, nº 30) recogen parte de los frutos de los distintos investigadores implicados en los proyectos.…”