Border Encounters

Jutta Lauth Bacas holds a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the University of Zurich with a special focus on migration studies. She has held teaching positions at universities in both Switzerland and Germany and also worked as a researcher at the Academy of Athens, Greece. Co-founder of the Mediterraneanist Network of EASA, she is a member of the Advisory Board of InASEA and co-editor of issues of Ethnologia Balkanica and the Journal of Mediterranean Studies.

“…provides a rich and thought provoking perspective on encounters and connectivity at the borders of Europe – both internal and external.”  ·  The Journal of Cross Border Studies in Ireland“As befits anthropology, Border Encounters is rich in empirical detail. However, it is also an excellent introduction to border theory, with a helpful literature review. The theoretical framework clearly set out in the Introduction and the individual chapters do collectively illustrate why borders should be seen as constructs and as sites of asymmetrical social relationships…All in all, this is an intriguing and well-structured volume which will be of interest to students and scholars from a variety of academic disciplines.”  ·  LSE Review of Books

• Introduction: Border Encounters – Asymmetry and Proximity at Europe’s FrontiersJutta Lauth Bacas and William KavanaghPART I: OPENING BORDERSChapter 1. Consumer Rites: the Politics of Consumption in a Re-Unified GermanyDaphne BerdahlChapter 2. Cross-Border Relations and Regional Identity on the Polish-German BorderRobert ParkinChapter 3. Anti-Nuclear Activism at the Czech-Austrian BorderBirgit MüllerChapter 4. Powerful Documents: Passports, Passages and Dilemmas of Identification on the Georgian – Turkish BorderMathijs PelkmansChapter 5. Proximity and Asymmetry on the Portuguese – Spanish BorderWilliam Kavanagh PART II: STRENGTHENING BORDERSChapter 6. Asymmetries of Gender and Generation on a Post-Soviet BorderlandLaura AssmuthChapter 7. ‘We are all tourists’: Enduring Social Relations and Changing Proximities and Asymmetries at the Romanian-Serbian Border in Different Mobility RegimesCosmin RaduChapter 8. ‘We used to be one country’: Rural Transformations, Economic Asymmetries and National Identities in the Ukrainian-Russian BorderlandsTatiana ZhurzhenkoPART III: CROSSING FORBIDDEN BORDERSChapter 9. Under One Roof: Six Years of Border Crossings in CyprusLisa DikomitisChapter 10. The Birth of a Border: Policing by Charity on the Italian Maritime EdgeMaurizio AlbahariChapter 11. Managing Proximity and Asymmetry in Border Encounters: The Reception of Undocumented Migrants on a Greek Border IslandJutta Lauth BacasNotes on ContributorsBibliographyIndex