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Transdisciplinary
Views on Boundaries
Towards a New Lexicon

Luca Gaeta and Alice Buoli (eds.)

Published by Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli | Quaderni series | English | ebook | ISBN: 9788868353827, 2020

What do researchers talk about when they talk about borders?
International debates on boundaries and borders have multiplied along with the global restructuring of the economy, the crisis of state sovereignty, and the increased migration flows from developing countries. Border studies have emerged as a field of study from the joint effort of geographers, anthropologists as well as political scientists to tackle the multifaceted complexity of borderland identities and landscapes. Nowadays, a trans-disciplinary approach more and more is replacing the affiliation of border scholars to separated fields of knowledge. However, as this convergence is far from complete, its potential for territorial development is limited. The book urges the need to apply trans-disciplinary methods in the making and management of boundaries. Though this can be done in multiple ways, the construction of a trans-disciplinary lexicon is key to facilitate a mutual understanding between researchers with different backgrounds, as well as between researchers and policymakers. However, such a lexicon also serves to “misunderstand” each other, unfolding the ambiguity of the border as a quality that cannot be eliminated in theory or in practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introducing a Transdisciplinarity Border Lexicon
Luca Gaeta and Alice Buoli

1 | Borderscap-es/-ing:
Reading the Moroccan-Spanish Borderlands Constellations
Alice Buoli
2 | Boundary Objects: How the Romans Protected the Border’s
Invention
Gianluca De Sanctis
3 | Connectedness and Separateness: On the Aesthetic Presence
and Material Performances of Everyday Artefacts and Thresholds
Paolo Patelli
4 | Design: Questioning Boundaries in a Time of Urgency
Micol Rispoli
5 | In-between: (Sub)urbanisation from the Outside-in
and the Generative Role of Borders
Camilla Perrone
6 | Infrastructures, Borders, and the Making of the African Territory:
The Case of Zambia
Giulia Scotto
7 | Mapping: Questioning Boundaries, Rights and Sustainable
Development in the West Nile Region, Uganda
Alessandro Frigerio
8 | Practice: Holding Breath When Crossing Boundaries
Luca Gaeta
9 | Production: Historicizing Border-Making
Laura Di Fiore
10 | Publicness: Public and Private Spaces in the Age of Diversity
Rossella Ferorelli

Afterword | Boundaries at the Intersection of Macro and Micro-Politics
Agostino Petrillo

References

Authors

Oraba border post between Uganda and South Sudan
Photo by A. Frigerio 2018 ©

THE EDITORS
Luca Gaeta. Full professor of Urban planning at Politecnico di Milano. Chair of the PhD programme in Urban Planning, Design and Policy. Editor of the online journal (ibidem). His research interests range from land use regulation to the theory of boundaries. He has published a number of books and articles on those subjects, including La democrazia dei confini. Divisioni di suolo e sovranità in Occidente (Carocci, 2011); Governo del territorio e pianificazione spaziale (CittàStudi, 2013, with L. Mazza e U. Janin Rivolin); La civiltà dei confini. Pratiche quotidiane e forme di cittadinanza (Carocci, 2018).

Alice Buoli. Architect and Ph.D., her academic and professional experience combine urban research, borderlands studies, creative practice research, editorial and curatorial activities. In 2016 she has been a Marie Curie experienced researcher for the ITN program ADAPT-r at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (Estonia) and assistant curator for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher for the project “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” (Polisocial Award 2018), Editor for Planum. The Journal of Urbanism, and tutor for the UPDP Ph.D. program at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (Politecnico di Milano).

THE AUTHORS
Gianluca De Sanctis, University of Tuscia | Laura Di Fiore, University of Naples “Federico II” | Rossella Ferorelli, SMALL - Soft Metropolitan Architecture & Landscape Lab | Alessandro Frigerio, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies | Paolo Patelli, Design Academy Eindhoven & Willem de Kooning Academie Rotterdam | Camilla Perrone, Research Laboratory of Critical Planning and Design, University of Florence | Agostino Petrillo, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies | Micol Rispoli, University of Naples “Federico II” | Giulia Scotto, University of Basel.