Border Encounters

William Kavanagh, until his sudden death in 2014, was a Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology at CEU San Pablo University and the Madrid campuses of New York University and Suffolk University. He co-founded the Mediterraneanist Network of EASA, and was on the executive committees of two Spanish anthropological associations and was a delegate on the World Council of Anthropological Associations.

Among the tremendous changes affecting Europe in recent decades, those concerning political frontiers have been some of the most significant. International borders are being opened in some regions while being redefined or reinforced in others. The social relationships of those living in these borderland regions are also changing fundamentally. This volume investigates, from a local, ground-up perspective, what is happening at some of these border encounters: face-to-face interactions and relations of compliance and confrontation, where people are bargaining, exchanging goods and information, and maneuvering beyond state boundaries. Anthropological case studies from a number of European borderlands shed light on the questions of how, and to what extent, the border context influences the changing interactions and social relationships between people at a political frontier.

Introduction: Border Encounters - Asymmetry and Proximity at Europe's Frontiers Jutta Lauth Bacas and William Kavanagh