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Building walls and dissolving borders: the challenges of alterity, community and securitizing space

2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/08873631.2014.995406

1940-6320

Hayley Peacock,

Urban Planning and Governance

Building walls and dissolving borders: the challenges of alterity, community and securitizing space, edited by Max O. Stephenson Jr. and Laura Zanotti, Farnham, England, Ashgate, 2013, xiii + 2004 pp., US$99.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-4094-3835-9 Stephenson Jr. and Zanotti's collection is an exploration into the territorializing tendencies of borders, boundaries, and barriers. Walls, the editors argue, play multiple social, political, economic and cultural roles (p. 2). Linking scholarship from urban anthropology, architecture, and political science, the book comprises a delightful and diverse range of empirical and discussions, from the bamboo walls of Taiwan (chapter 2) to a biography of a Maronite family's old bus-house in North Cypms (chapter 8). Set against a backdrop of fast-paced globalization and urbanization, Building Walls and Dissolving Borders examines the lived experiences, challenges, and political agendas behind walling practices. The book rejuvenates previous borders and borderland literature by exploring how walls are imagined and created. It does this through nine chapters that, in addition to addressing well-known examples such as the US-Mexico border, peace walls in Belfast, and the Berlin Wall, also examine walls in theory, in communities, and in memory. The book gives the reader a sense that the wall is in itself a shifting concept whose boundaries are difficult to mark out, and this is clearly illustrated in each diverse entry. The book is divided into three parts. The first part opens with a text on Hannah Arendt's ideas on violence, showcasing how walls form part of theoretical and philosophical imaginaries (p. 31) in three of Arendt's major works (chapter 1). A standout piece in the book is Setha Low, Gregory T. Donovan, and Jen Jack Gieseking's ethnographic study of gating practices in two cities (chapter 3). Their study exposes the feelings of insecurity and fear experienced by the residents of gated communities and provides a convincing argument against the prevailing assumption that condominium communities increase social segregation (p. 62). Scott Tate's entry on the urban imaginary of Belfast's peace walls reads like an urban cultural geography text, examining contemporary art practice in the city walls of Belfast as play. Part II broadly concentrates on securitizing people and space through hefty governmental processes. An analysis of the Seam Wall and the US-Mexico border both draw inspiration from Foucauldian biopolitics, whilst chapter 7 draws on Foucault's idea of governmentality in the everyday experience of those living and working in regions served by peacekeeping missions. The short, final part of the book uses the wall as a metaphor to examine the cultural history and memory of spaces, including acontested redevelopment project at Checkpoint Charlie, once a key crossing point along the Berlin Wall. …