Production. Historicizing Border-Making

The essay focuses on the historical border creation processes aiming, on the one hand, to denaturalise the borders through the historicisization of their origins and development; on the other hand, to release the concept of border from the exclusive connection with a rigid version of state territoriality and sovereignty. Even though focused on political-administrative borders, mainly dating back to 19th century, the essay shows how the borders have historically been the result of an interactive dialectic between state institutions and social actors inhabiting the borderlands rather than the pure outcome of institutional acts. This point also sheds light on the pivotal role played by the borderlands, so favouring the dialogue with other disciplines, like anthropology and geography, stressing the agency of social actors, trans-border relationships, subjective perceptions.