Place-making, Politics and Borderscapes in Southeastern Europe

This article introduces a collection of case studies on the politics of borders and the place-making processes in Southeast European border environments. It opens with explorations of how the social analysis of borders oscillates between border studies and border theory, and between the study of borders as things and as ideas. The focus on the territoriality of borders, analyzed as dynamic social-spatial formations, is proposed as a meeting point between the two approaches. On this premise, this article examines some key elements in contemporary ethnographic research on borders in Southeastern Europe.