In recent decades, Border Studies have gained importance and have seen a noticeable increase in development. This manifests itself in an increased institutionalization, a differentiation of the areas of research interest and a conceptual reorientation that is interested in examining processes.
So far, however, little attention has been paid to questions about an integrated understanding of borders, how knowledge can be productively linked together and how Border Studies are related to other scientific areas. In addition, there is a significant lack of systematic and comparative considerations regarding the methodological foundations of Border Studies and the associated consequences for border research.
The thematic issue „Identities and Methodologies of Border Studies: Recent Empirical and Conceptual Approaches“ addresses some of the desiderata mentioned and aims to unite promising conceptual and empirical perspectives of research on borders, bring them into conversation with one another and provide impulses for a broader debate about (inter)disciplinary self-perceptions and methodological orientations in Border Studies. The collection of nine articles framed by a foreword of the President of the Association for Borderlands Studies and largely based on presentations at the second World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies in Vienna and Budapest in 2018, are intended to contribute a long-overdue self-examination of Border Studies.
“The authors in this special issue rightly point to the need to go beyond interdisciplinarity as a mere trendy buzzword and question what – and I would add also how – specific disciplines and approaches can contribute to an integrated understanding of borders.”
Jussi P. Laine (President of the Association for Borderlands Studies)
UniGR-CBS Publication