Function of Political Boundaries

12 Key excerpts on "Function of Political Boundaries"

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  Human Geography

  People, Place, and Culture

  • Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Nash, Alexander B. Murphy, Harm J. de Blij(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Boundary Vertical plane between states that cuts through the rocks below (called the subsoil), and the airspace above the surface, dividing one state territory from another. Territoriality In political geography, a country’s or more local community’s sense of property and attachment toward its territory, as expressed by its determination to keep it inviolable and strongly defended. Sovereignty A principle of international relations that holds that final authority over social, economic, and political matters should rest with the legitimate rulers of independent states. 58 CHAPTER 3 Political Geography Tropic of Cancer Equator Tropic of Capricorn 60° 40° 40° 20° 20° 20° 0° 20° 20° 20° 40° 60° 40° 60° 40° 60° 40° 60° 160° 140° 120° 80° 60° 40° P A C I F I C O C E A N A T L A N T I C O C E A N SOUTHERN OCEAN CANADA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA U.S. (Alaska) GREENLAND MEXICO BERMUDA GUATEMALA BELIZE EL SALVADOR HONDURAS NICARAGUA COSTA RICA PANAMA JAMAICA BAHAMAS CUBA HAITI DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PUERTO RICO BARBADOS TRINIDAD & TOBAGO VENEZUELA COLOMBIA ECUADOR PERU BOLIVIA BRAZIL FRENCH GUIANA SURINAME GUYANA PARAGUAY URUGUAY ARGENTINA CHILE U.S. (Hawai’i) STATES OF THE WORLD, 2011 0 0 2000 1000 3000 Kilometres 1000 2000 Miles FIGURE 3.4 States of the world, 2011. ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES Demarcating and controlling territory is a central function of the state. Clearly, the ability to control the border is a primary concern. A boundary helps define who belongs and who does not, who must stay and who can go. Boundaries affect the movement of people from different places, locations, and re- gions; by allowing or inhibiting movement they affect life changes, influence the possibilities for work or travel, and, in some cases, determine whether or not one will survive. Practically speaking, establishing a boundary between two states typically involves four steps. First, states define the bound- ary through a treaty-like legal document in which actual points © H.J.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Political Sociology, 2v

  • William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner, William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner, Author(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  18 The Political Sociology and Political Geography of Borders

  Alexander C. Diener

  Joshua Hagen

  Introduction

  If political sociology can be broadly defined as the study of the relationships between the state, society, and people, then borders provide key points of intersection and interaction for studying those relations. As such, borders are intimately involved with and lie at the heart of a whole host of contemporary issues, ranging from national security and economic development to migration and cultural identity. It is hardly surprising, then, that a growing body of scholars, including economists, geographers, historians, lawyers, political scientists, and of course sociologists, have made borders the focal points of their research (see Wastl-Walter, 2011; Wilson & Donnan, 2012). Collectively, this body of scholarship constitutes a broad, interdisciplinary field of border studies replete with its own research centers, academic journals, conferences, and professional associations.

  What exactly are borders? As noted above, borders are normally defined as the lines of demarcation between different states, and by extension distinct economies, societies, and identities. Most people envision the political map of the world as a colorful collage of states, each possessing its own territory bounded by clear and unambiguous lines. In short, borders define the basic building blocks of the modern international system. These same basic assumptions carry over when we think of borders at smaller scales neatly partitioning space between provinces, municipalities, or even private properties. Reality is much more complicated, but that basic assumption provides a convenient starting point for our discussion.

  What do borders do? The question seems odd at first, since historic perceptions of borders as static dividers of space clash with contemporary notions of borders as possessing agency. Although highly varied and contingent, borders both divide and often simultaneously unite. The contradictory nature of borders is almost inherent, in that defining an inside implicitly suggests the existence of an outside and vice versa. In that sense, borders are emblematic of the dichotomy and interrelation between senses of belonging and alienation and processes of inclusion and exclusion. We tend to focus on borders as sources of conflict, but we can also point to borders as mechanisms for cooperation. This basic binary juxtaposition can be extended downward to more local spaces and everyday life. Again, reality is more complicated; for example, being inside a particular border does not necessarily mean that one feels or is regarded by others as an insider.

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  Politics

  Critical Essays in Human Geography

  • Virginie Mamadouh, John Agnew(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Although this article focuses on the contemporary significance of international boundaries, lines of separation operate at a number of different scales. At a simple level, boundaries exist in different spatial contexts, ranging from the international and national to the regional and local/administrative and metropolitan. In many ways, administrative boundaries have a far greater impact on the daily behavioural patterns of most individuals than do national and international boundaries. For many, the national boundary is only important inasmuch as it may provide the territorial dimension within which the individual identifies with a national community. Beyond national identity, most of life’s functions take place within the context of local boundaries, both real and perceived.

  The different roles and functions of territoriality at different spatial scales have provided an important focus for some political geographers (Sack, 1986; Johnston, 1991). Scale plays an important part in the process of boundary construction, while national boundaries can have a differential impact at different scales of analysis (Minghi, 1963; Paasi, 1996a). State boundaries, for instance, are not universal phenomena in their territorial meanings and functions, but exist in varying concrete and symbolic forms simultaneously as part of the international geopolitical landscape, the nation-state system and local life. The everyday life meanings, for their part, differ crucially in border areas and elsewhere in states. Boundaries and territoriality are therefore contextual. At the global scale, this context is the geopolitical and economic landscape of the world, while, at the scale of the state, it is the continual nation-building process which manifests itself in different social practices. The third significant scale is the sphere of everyday life experience (Agnew, 1987; Taylor, 1993; Smith, 1995; Paasi, 1996a), where the meanings of (state) boundaries are ultimately reproduced and contested. The state makes a difference as far as boundary functions are concerned. Taylor (1994) argues that the state as power container tends to preserve existing boundaries; as a wealth container it tends towards larger territories; and, finally, as a cultural container it tends towards smaller territories.

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  Visualizing Human Geography

  At Home in a Diverse World

  • Alyson L. Greiner(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Boundaries Every state consists of a defined territory marked by at least one boundary. We tend to think of boundaries as lines that stretch boundary A vertical plane, usually represented as a line on a map, that fixes the territory of a state. 182 CHAPTER 7 Political Geographies such as the high-altitude zones along the Andes Moun- tains between Chile and Argentina. All political boundaries are human creations, but they often make use of physical features. A physiographic bound- ary follows a natural feature, such as a river or mountain range. For example, the boundary between Bulgaria and Romania follows the Danube River for much of its length. In mountainous areas, physiographic boundaries usually follow the crest, the line connecting the highest points. When a river is used, the boundary may be placed along one bank, in the middle of the river, or along the deepest part of the river channel. One problem with using rivers as boundaries is the potential for a river to substantially shift its course (Figure 7.6). Geometric boundaries are drawn as straight lines and sometimes follow lines of latitude or longitude. As we have discussed, the concentration of geometric boundaries in Africa stems from the Berlin Conference. West of the Great Lakes, the boundary between the United States and Can- ada follows the 49th parallel, and the straight line between Alaska and the Yukon Territory follows the 141st meridian. horizontally through space—the way we see them on maps—but boundaries are better understood as having a vertical extent, dividing the airspace above the ground and the rocks and resources below ground. The bound- aries of coastal states extend offshore. The waters en- closed by these boundaries are considered part of the territory of the state and are called territorial seas. By international convention, territorial seas rarely exceed 19 km (12 mi).

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  Foundations of Geographic Information Science

  • Matt Duckham, Michael F. Goodchild, Michael Worboys, Matt Duckham, Michael F. Goodchild, Michael Worboys(Authors)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  More subtle are the long term On the ontological status of geographical boundaries 171 effects that may arise from the simple existence of the boundary, regardless of how it is physically demarcated. An international boundary drawn across an initially homogeneous region may lead in time to the two subregions thereby separated acquiring marked differences in character. Prescott (1965) cites a detailed study by Daveau of the effects of the Swiss-French boundary in the Jura to the west of Lake Neuchâtel over several centuries, where, for example, the ‘small strip fields’ of Amont in France are clearly contrasted with the ‘summer pastures’ of Carroz in Switzerland, ‘even though the physical character of the landscape on both sides is the same’ (Prescott, 1965, p. 97). This is a case where the physical effect of a boundary is something directly visible, but in many cases the effect is more subtle, having to do with patterns of movement and interaction. A political boundary introduces discontinuities into such patterns, some of which may be obvious, others only to be uncovered by detailed research. Fielding (1974), for example, notes that ‘[p]eople in Vancouver…are more likely to marry partners from Toronto or Winnipeg than from Seattle, Tacoma, or Bellingham, despite the proximity of single people in the latter group.’ Such differences in patterns of interaction are epiphenomenal. One could, albeit rather artificially, consider a field whose value at a given point is the probability that a randomly-chosen single inhabitant of Vancouver will marry a person living at that point. Then the state of affairs described by Fielding would show up as a heteroline marking a discontinuity in the field values along the border. 4 SOME KEY ATTRIBUTES OF BOUNDARIES In the light of the foregoing discussion it should be evident that the world of geographical boundaries is highly diverse, encompassing physical, biological, psychological, social, and political phenomena.

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  The Structure of Political Geography

  • Julian Minghi(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  38 This general interest in boundaries as regional divides has provided concepts often applicable to political geography, as we shall see below.

  The utility of boundaries in studying problems of political integration and disintegration and of transfer of sovereignty will be discussed in the following Part (Process).

  Some Misleading Notions

  The “natural-is-good” and “artificial-is-bad” concepts are based on the assumption that the degree to which a political boundary conforms to a natural feature is the measure of its success as a political divide. In other words, boundaries “established in an unrealistic manner tend to create problems commensurate to the degree with which they defy the forces of nature.” 39 Although many political boundaries are based on physical landscape features, they are all by definition political and therefore, whether naturally based or not, are man-made, hence artificial. It follows that a boundary’s “goodness” or degree of success is more a function of its role as perceived by members of the political systems it divides rather than of the environmental character of the line itself.

  Another widely held notion, somewhat associated with the above idea, still enjoys currency and even official authenticity. This holds that boundaries are the “enemies” of geography because they “conflict” with the operation of “geographical principles,” and hence social patterns are “compartmentalized” by these “unnatural” restrictions.40 The notion that “it is unfortunate when society must accommodate itself to boundaries rather than boundaries to society” is a logical corollary to this line of thought.41

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  Reordering The World

  Geopolitical Perspectives On The 21st Century

  • George J Demko(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Whittemore Boggs, writing in 1940, felt that the functions of boundaries were “in general negative rather than positive. To at least some degree they restrict the movement of peoples and the exchange of goods, of money, even of ideas.… International boundaries are intended to serve protective functions of various kinds. They can not promote trade or human intercourse as is sometimes contended.” 6 Today, with the development of a global economy and the disappearance of Cold War tension, many of the world’s States, through bilateral trade agreements or multilateral federations, are gradually eliminating or reducing the number of boundary functions. Most of these efforts are aimed at removing tariff or other economic barriers to free trade, as with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or South America’s MERCOSUR. The most prominent and advanced example, perhaps, is the gradual, painstaking movement by members of the European Union toward not only economic but social and political integration, eliminating controls on movement of people and labor across boundaries as well as restrictions on movement of goods and capital. At the same time, pressures from refugee flows and illegal migrants have led to stiffened immigration controls, even among States otherwise reducing boundary functions, and continued illegal narcotics smuggling prompts more intensive efforts to seal borders against such movements. International boundary functions vary greatly around the world as barriers to movement. The reader of a world map on which usually there is one uniform symbol for agreed and ratified international boundaries must be aware that, although the lines symbolized may be of equal political status, they may be quite dissimilar in regard to functions. Disputes Bounding of States with finite lines often leads to disputes over the location of the boundary

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  The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840-1947

  • Gideon Biger(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1 Like any skin of a living body, it functions both as a protective layer and as the site through which the exchange with the outer world occurs. According to Ratzel’s idea, one cannot separate the discussion about the border from the discussion about the rest of the state. The border is actually the reflection of the state’s power, and its own existence influences this power. Other geographers have added to this image, and claimed that, like human skin, the border can have its own disease and its condition can reflect the general situation of the body. Even though this romantic view has been rejected as old-fashioned, the statement that fixates the bond between the nature of the boundary, and the nature of the state, is firm and abiding.

  The essence of political boundaries

  International political boundaries are borderlines that were determined through political negotiations between sovereign states. These lines express the spatial range of the political authorities that exist on both sides of the border. A borderline appears on the map as a thin line, devoid of a spatial dimension that separates the areas of the states residing on its two sides. The essence of the separation line is not limited to the actual ground it lies upon, and it implies separation both in the air above the ground – the determination of the aerial space – and underground, thus separating among natural resources inside the earth. It is possible, therefore, to look at the boundary as a thin dimensional board with a height and a depth that separate different political territorial units, along all of its length and height. The territorial bounding of areas of sovereignty is a venerable phenomenon that has its origins in the division of hunting and fishing grounds by wandering tribes in prehistoric eras. The procedures that determined regional owning were institutionalized with the creation of land ownership, and the formation of states initially created the term ‘International boundary’. Detailed agreements that determined this or that political bordering exist all throughout history, and many signals were outlined in order to mark the positioning of this line or the other (the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Britain, etc). Nevertheless, the marking of borders on a map, and the implications of this on the landscape, are a relatively new phenomenon. Only when collective cartographic knowledge had reached the ability to produce up-to- date maps, agreed upon by all sides, did it become possible to use these maps to mark political boundaries as a part of agreements. The first maps that were an essential part of a border agreement were prepared during the time in which the control areas of the protectorates belonging to the French Empire were determined – in Napoleon’s time at the end of the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth. French cartography had at that time reached a high level of knowledge and production abilities, and it could come to the aid of the political discussions concerning the placing of the borders. From this period onward we can talk of international political boundaries.

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  21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook

  • Joseph P. Stoltman(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  15 POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY AND NATIONAL BOUNDARIES REECE JONES University ofHawai 'i at Manoa trol mine map the define B 21 the ies ritoriality-the politically. sovereign differences nowhere," field and This as over century. decolonization ways boundaries came Despite histories, "Without ies 17th st citizens century. emerged of national into simple both if political eign ou states examines chapter sovereignty this and n use they The Similar a particular became boundaries, idea of d the in between a The apparent school r in in the territory use by that states i fourth boundaries are terms e to describes of s geography. the next the what state. are over the section demonstrating section immutable of the using and followed modem mid-20th textbooks geographic medieval of boundaries adage dominant changes fundamental history permanency, century Contemporary you've a of the the fixed a The have clearly field state examines briefly World sovereign states third how been might "Without era, and political represent got area-and to way and of defined to of the of War have define the territorially section outlines approached and roughly be the the states, II. after nothing." political political national borders national in concept organizing current people geography, explains political contemporary the study since always it store territory explains Furthermore, the the maps, would of different boundar- period geography. to ofter- Boundaries in for who con- space defined mid- deter- boundar- political existed. you're sover- why the the the only state are be of boundaries are the most efficient way to communicate authority over something. The fifth and sixth sections trace the institutionalization of the contemporary political map through decolonization and the creation of the United Nations. The seventh section explores the future of national boundaries through the lenses of two contradic- tory ways they are represented today.

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  Drawing the Line

  Nature, Hybridity and Politics in Transboundary Spaces

  • Juliet Fall(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  In this chapter, I outline why boundaries must be understood as complex spatial and social phenomena that construct and structure space and to what extent their definition (where they are drawn) is linked up with the idea of creating ‘ideal’ spatial entities. A boundary is the generic term for a linear spatial discontinuity that structures a given portion of two-dimensional space by dividing it into two. More simply, a boundary ‘demarcates two entities, or two parts of the same entity, which are then said to be in contact with each other’ (Smith 2000: 7). I examine the variety of arguments that have been used to define boundaries, noting the difference between biophysical and societal arguments which represent an ontological split between realist and anti-realist conceptions of space. The recurring positivist temptation of finding ‘natural’ or ‘rational’ political boundaries is explored. The tensions in the way boundaries are defined is then examined in the wider context of the construction of space and of the need to identify and define spatial entities. In the second part of the chapter, I look at the role boundaries play in defining spatial entities, dwelling on the different discourses – and spatial ideals – that underpin how space has been constructed. This sets the scene for understanding how certain spatial discourses have been instrumentalised within protected area design, both implicitly and explicitly.

  The nature of boundaries

  Boundary, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other

  (Bierce 1911 ).

  At different times and places, the term boundary has meant many things to different people. Ambrose Bierce, in his famous Devil’s Dictionary , suggests a wonderfully cynical definition. In a curious twist, but without missing the joke, I take his definition seriously in exploring how imaginary lines actually come into being. While I discuss the concept from a geographical perspective, this is not the only field through which it has been studied. Approaches to boundaries can be roughly divided into two broad fields: those derived from a social science perspective, considering boundaries as predominantly social phenomenon linked to the anthropic construction of space and those derived from ecological and biogeographic traditions, defining boundaries as physical limits inscribed in the landscape at various scales. This is of course a huge simplification, but it remains a coherent and useful one, a least as a starting point.

  Lines, boundaries and frontiers

  Boundaries, borders, frontiers and limits all indicate both a line and the idea of separation into two units. The emergence of the concept has been traced back to the Roman limes imperii which separated the civilised world from the ‘barbarians’ living beyond the fines of the Empire. The limes was thus a fortified line, rather than a political boundary, while the fines

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  A Companion to Political Geography

  • John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal, John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  As globalization impacts the traditional barrier role of state boundaries, so the focus of political power has also shifted to the regions and intra-state areas, such as Catalonia, Scotland, and Sicily, creating new life for territorial demarcators which were, until recently, considered largely redundant. Conclusion: Towards a Theory of Boundaries and Bounding The main argument in this chapter is that the process of bounding ± drawing lines around spaces and groups ± is a dynamic phenomenon, of which the boundary line is, more often than not, simply the tangible and visible feature that represents the course and intensity of the bounding process at any particular point in time and space. A deeper understanding of the bounding process requires an integration of the different types and scales of boundaries into a hierarchical system in which the relative impact of these lines on people, groups, and nations can be conceptualized as a single process. But the study of boundaries continues to take place within separate and distinct realms, be it the geographic and the state, be it the social and the group affiliations, or be it the political and the construction of ethnic and national identities. What is sorely lacking is a solid theoretical base that will allow us to understand the boundary phenomenon as it takes place within different social and spatial dimensions. A theory which will enable us to understand the process of ``bounding'' and ``bordering'' rather than simply the compartmentalized outcome of the various social and political processes. A conceptual framework for the study of the boundary phenomenon would have to take three dimensions into account, all of which have been addressed in this chapter.

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  The Politics of South American Boundaries

  • Carlos Parodi(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  Page 29 to settle complex territorial negotiations. A notable example is the triangular negotiations between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru that resulted in the capricious trapezoidal territory that is formed by the intersection of the territories of the three states. Fifth, it should be noted that boundaries were never established in order to demarcate a particular cultural unit or ethnic group. In cases where population was involved, boundaries reflected effective military occupation of border towns. Sixth, nor were state boundaries supposed to reflect the contours of a precolonial entity. Nowadays, some theorists and publicists justify state boundaries as reflecting the ancient pre colonial empires and kingdoms, but those arguments have not found their way into state boundary treaties. Historical legal possession can only be based on Spanish and Portuguese colonial decrees and acts of conquistadores. Territorial boundaries are presently powerful symbols of national identity in South America. 73 This was not always the case, however. Today, territorial boundaries are not merely marks on the ground determined by the presence of military posts, but monuments to the spirit of the nation. These days, people are expected to love their national territory to the point where they would be willing to go to the border and defend it with their lives, if needed. Territorial boundaries are now conceived as lines circumscribing a space, inside which everything is endowed with the quality of being a part of the national territory. Everything inside the boundary appears to take a different coloring. The diverse regions and natural resources no longer are separate entities but components of a rich mosaic. Boundaries have become forces of “vision and division” that impose themselves on the ground and on the consciousness, so to speak. The following chapters explore this process of transformation.

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