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Navigating borders' multiplicity: the critical potential of assemblage
Author(s) -
Sohn Christophe
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12248
Subject(s) - assemblage (archaeology) , epistemology , diversity (politics) , sociology , multiplicity (mathematics) , identity (music) , economic geography , geography , mathematics , aesthetics , philosophy , anthropology , archaeology , mathematical analysis
Various critical and scholarly works have underlined the multiplicity of borders, or the idea that borders mean different things to different people. This paper discusses the potential of the concept of assemblage for better understanding the ontological multidimensionality intrinsic to borders. An assemblage is understood to be a heterogeneous and open‐ended grouping of elements that do not form a coherent whole that helps explain how different meanings emanating from various actors may interact and endure in a contingent and provisional way. It can be argued that such a topological approach may be well suited to highlight the overall significance of a border's identity beyond its diversity and on‐going transformation.