Panel Border (Inter)Action

Panel Conveners

The Call

Interaction, understood as the "communication among those present" (Kieserling 1999), can be linked in various ways to borders and boundaries. These go beyond interactions at borders, such as cross-border cooperation, passport and customs controls, or smuggling. More broadly, borders and boundaries are complex manifestations of multiple relational practices. Boundary drawing comes into play in interactive situations through ascriptions, ways of speaking and how these are perceived and differentiated/categorized (Busch & Spitzmüller 2021), indexing social categories, discursive positions and re/producing social orders. Finally, there are questions about the boundedness of interactions per se, distinguishing them from one another (Muhle 2017).

The panel seeks a detailed analysis of the production of boundaries in concrete interactions, as well as micro perspectives on interactions at borders and the practices which manifest borders. To this end, theoretically grounded empirical analyses from various disciplinary fields will be welcomed into conversation.

The panel will explore questions such as:

• How are borders/boundaries articulated/expressed/manifested in interaction?
• How does one examine boundaries in interaction?
• How are borders/boundaries established in bordering practices/through border work and how do practices come to form a set of border/boundary manifestations?
• How are borders/boundaries and social orders negotiated, subverted, contested or (temporarily) deconstructed/dissolved in interaction?

We invite theoretical as well as empirical papers, focusing on the interplay of borders and interaction. We strongly encourage early-career scholars to submit a presentation proposal. We aim at an interdisciplinary approach towards the topic, and therefore would be happy to accept relevant presentation proposals from various disciplines.