Border theory

de Scott Michaelsen, David E. Johnson

Challenging the prevailing assumption that border studies occurs only in "the borderlands" where Mexico and the United States meet, the authors gathered in this volume examine the multiple borders that define the United States and the Americas, including the Mason-Dixon line, the U.S.-Canadian border, the shifting boundaries of urban diasporas, and the colonization and confinement of American Indians. These writers - drawn from anthropology, history, and language studies - critique the terrain, limits, and possibilities of border theory. They examine, among other topics, the "soft" or "friendly" borders produced by ethnic studies, antiassimilationist or "difference" multiculturalisms, liberal anthropologies, and benevolent nationalisms.