Routledge Borderlands Studies
About the Book Series
Routledge Borderlands Studies
Borderlands are spaces of transition between cultures, societies and states. Often, like in the case of the US and Mexico, they are understood as static territorial lines and buffer zones, subservient to the development of states and state territories. However, borderlands can also be fluid and ambiguous spaces, moulded by processes of economic and political integration or shifting geopolitical dividing lines. Moreover, borderlands cultures can be found far from borders, in cities, multicultural neighbourhoods and diasporic communities. They also exist as both future-oriented geographical imaginations and imaginaries with profound historical roots. Today, globalisation, integration and new transnational forms of communication change the complex interrelationships between state, society, space and borders. Consequently, borderlands become more and more places in their own right, reflecting broader supranational patterns of political, economic and social change.
With this series we encourage inter- and multidisciplinary investigation on borders and borderlands throughout the world. We engage with the political, social and historical richness of borderlands, reflecting their unique (geo)political and cultural significance in contexts of colonial rule, nation-building and integration. The Series will explore, among other things, shifting social and political relations and place-related identities that emerge in borderlands, as well as cross-border interaction and the historical memories of every-day life at borders. With this series, we will both contribute to the rich tradition of North American and European borderlands studies and provide a forum for new growing interest in research on borderlands in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
To submit proposals, please contact the series editors, or Routledge’s Development Studies Editor, Helena Hurd ([email protected]).
Series Editors
James W. Scott, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland
Jussi P. Laine, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland
Nigeria's Border Diplomacy: Power and Hegemony in Africa
1st Edition
By Oladotun E. Awosusi, Olusola Ogunnubi
November 20, 2025
This book examines the ways in which Nigeria’s borders are used as instruments of soft and hard power in the country’s relations with other African states. Across land, air, sea, cyber-space, and even outer space, Nigeria uses its borders to insert the country into the heart of African ...
Tensions In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: From Border Security To Local Insecurity
1st Edition
By Cléa Fortuné
September 11, 2025
Over the last 30 years, the U.S. government has reinforced security around its borderlands with Mexico continuously, with migration becoming a top political issue. But what does this mean for the residents whose lives straddle the border? This book investigates the disconnect between what border ...
Competing Memories of European Border Towns
1st Edition
Edited
By Steen Bo Frandsen, Jörg Hackmann, Kimmo Katajala
July 31, 2025
This book considers competing memory politics in European border towns after the First and Second World Wars. In the twentieth century Europe’s borders shifted dramatically in the wake of war, and towns were often moved from one state to another despite their physical locations remaining unchanged....
Constructing a Cross-Border Region in the Pacific Northwest: The Residents of Cascadia at the Canada/US Border
1st Edition
By Pierre-Alexandre Beylier
April 14, 2025
For residents living at national borders, the divisions between countries are rarely black and white, and often everyday interactions contribute to the creation of a cross-border region. This book examines this phenomenon in Cascadia, which runs along the Canada/US border in the Pacific Northwest. ...
Post-Soviet Borders: A Kaleidoscope of Shifting Lives and Lands
1st Edition
Edited
By Sabine von Löwis, Beate Eschment
May 27, 2024
This book investigates how borders in former Soviet Union territories have evolved and shifted in the thirty years since the end of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to fifteen independent states and numerous de facto states; but this process of rebordering is not finished...
UK Borderscapes: Sites of Enforcement and Resistance
1st Edition
Edited
By Kahina Le Louvier, Karen Latricia Hough
September 04, 2023
This book analyses bordering practices and their negative effects as well as the many creative and often grassroots ways in which borders are resisted and reinvented. From the hostile environment to Brexit and the Nationality and Borders Bill, the UK border regime has become increasingly strict ...
Remapping Security on Europe’s Northern Borders
1st Edition
Edited
By Jussi P. Laine, Ilkka Liikanen, James W. Scott
May 31, 2023
This book critically analyses the changing EU-Russian security environment in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, with a particular focus on northern Europe where the EU and the Russian Federation share a common border. Russian involvement in conflict situations in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood has...
Border Culture: Theory, Imagination, Geopolitics
1st Edition
By Victor Konrad, Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary
December 29, 2022
This book introduces readers to the cultural imaginings of borders: the in-between spaces in which transnationalism collides with geopolitical cooperation and contestation. Recent debates about the "refugee crisis" and the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have politicized culture at and of borders ...
Border Ireland: From Partition to Brexit
1st Edition
By Cathal McCall
May 07, 2021
When the 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought an end to decades of conflict, which was mainly focused on the existence of the Irish border, most breathed a sigh of relief. Then came Brexit. Border Ireland: From Partition to Brexit introduces readers to the Irish border. It considers the process of ...