Border Making: South American Gazes

Abstract

The expression “border making” has the intention of highlighting the intentional and strategic character of different ways of delimiting, demarcating, reinforcing, crossing and using borders. Border making is not restricted to a single dominant player such as the State, but is also employed and challenged by specific populations. In South America, openness and integration initiatives compete and combine with policies to control and inhibit cross-border flows, shaping geographical realities that have been the subject of many studies and research in various disciplinary areas, particularly Geography. In order to provide an overview of some of these studies, we present the dossier “Border Making: South American Gazes”.