Borders and Border Walls: In-Security, Symbolism, Vulnerabilities

This book addresses the recent evolution of borderlines around the world as an attempt to control transnational movements with a view to securitization of borders rooted in the need to control mobility and preserve national identities.

This book moves beyond physical borders and studies new manifestations of borders such as technological and symbolic walls. It brings together scholars from various academic fields such as geography, political science, and border studies to examine the various movements, functions and articulations of international borders. It explores two main issues: how international borders have become enforced lines of demarcation and division, reinforcing national identity and impacting national and regional dynamics; and the material and immaterial, discursive and concrete expressions of borders and the impacts of the transformation of bodies into threat to be monitored, as daily lives become sites of border enforcement.

Offering multidisciplinary insights on the growing phenomenon of border walls, this book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Border Studies, European Studies, International Relations, Political Geography, and Regional Studies.

Andréanne Bissonnette is a PhD candidate in Political Science and research fellow at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Her research focuses on women's rights, immigration and borders in the US.

Élisabeth Vallet is the Director of the Raoul Dandurand Center for Geopolitical Studies UQAM and Associate Professor at the RMC-Saint Jean. A regular chronicler for the Canadian national network and Le Devoir newspaper, she was awarded the AAG Richard Morrill Outreach Award in 2017. Her research focuses on borders, globalization and border fencing.