Boundaries and Belonging

States and Societies in the Struggle to Shape Identities and Local Practices

Joel S Migdal editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:3rd May '04

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Boundaries and Belonging cover

This interdisciplinary volume maintains the importance of a spatial understanding of society and history.

This interdisciplinary volume maintains the importance of a spatial understanding of society and history, but it suggests a way of conceiving of borders and space that goes beyond a school map of states. Its subject is the struggle among differing spatial logics, or mental maps.This interdisciplinary volume maintains the importance of a spatial understanding of society and history, but suggests a way of conceiving of borders and space that goes beyond a school map of states. Its subject is the struggle among differing spatial logics, or mental maps. It is concerned with the meaning that state borders hold for people, but recognizes that such meaning varies and is contested by other social formations. To what degree do state borders encase the mechanisms that make the decisive rules governing people's lives and to what extent do they give way to other rulemakers? To what extent do states circumscribe the communities to which people feel attached and to what extent do they intersect with other communities of belonging? These essays home in on the struggles and conflicting demands on people, given that state borders are not automatically pre-eminent and that other spatial logics demand attention.

Review of the hardback: '… these well-written, interesting chapters form a useful addition to the study of political identities.' Political Studies Review
Review of the hardback: '… this is an excellent book providing the necessary detail on which the development of viable theory on the role of the state in creating identities and senses of belonging depends.' Progress in Human Geography
Review of the hardback: 'The major strength of the book is that it raises questions which are not viewed as fashionable in the dominant tradition of social enquiry, and it provides new conceptual tools for their imaginative interpretation. Although this book would generate interest among students of potical society in general, scholars of comparative politics and sociology will find it indispensable and deeply innovative in its inquiry.' Development and Change

ISBN: 9780521835664

Dimensions: 235mm x 160mm x 30mm

Weight: 646g

376 pages