A Very Bordered World Summary

Professor Coppoc

English 250

1 September 2017

A Very Bordered World Summary

        In the excerpt titled A Very Bordered World by authors Alexander Diener and Joshua Hagen, the authors argue that the borders are not natural phenomenon but rather social and political phenomenon created by humans, and the authors want to understand more of the concept. It starts off by mentioning that borders can be formal boundaries showing government authority, or informal symbolic boundaries within society and ideas. For example, bedrooms and bathrooms have limited access and relatively more freedom within them. Stepping outside a private property and crossing over many different public places is common. Areas such as the workplace can have their own borders like the office, lunchrooms, and factory floors. Each different room has their different purposes and different limitations, for example it is not socially acceptable nor safe for a person to eat their lung at a factory. These borders are obvious as well as entrances to different businesses have different intentions. Like an entrance to a factory is restricted but an entrance to a retail store is more welcoming. Borders can also be signified by signs posted, like and Authorized Personnel sign indicates where a customer does not have the authority to enter. Borders can also be seen differently and at a larger scale.

        Geographic borders are primarily used to separate social, political, economic, or cultural ideas from one location to another. Social groups are instinctively seeking territorial control for security over themselves and their resources. But defending territory allows for extraterritorial “in/out” and intraterritorial “governance.”

Sovereignty is defined as control over people and resources in a territory. And jurisdiction is the authority to people or groups are legally recognized. Both can not possibly be fully achieved because of fluid interactions and causes inner and outer conflict. Dichotomies like cooperation and competition, contract and conflict need to be understood more to find human organization. The authors’ call to action is to try to learn about, think about, and study borders more deeply.