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This article contrasts the Finnish-Russian and Polish-Ukrainian borderlands situated at the external border of the EU. Based on multi-sited fieldwork, it observes how such EU level development concepts as sustainability and multiculturalism address cultural sharing as well as engage communities. Here everyday border crossings are limited, but the policies and practices of cross-border co-operation seek to produce sustainable border crossings in terms of projects and networking. The negotiations of the EU border by local Polish and Finnish actors reflect co-existing and alternative imaginations of borderland heritage. These heritages seem to suggest the 'right' ways not only for border crossings, but also for addressing the continuity and experience of cultural diversity. It is argued that recollections of borderland materiality in these ceded lands become a means for negotiating cultural borders, and verify the difference between European borderlands and borders.

Taking the Canada–U.S. border as a starting point to refl ect on emergent smart border practices, this essay analyzes the diff erential yet central place that race continues to hold in the regulation of mobilities through the technopolitical mechanism of the border. Against claims that smart borders off er a more scientifi c and “postracial” mode of border control, the essay off ers a situated conceptual refl ection on how race is currently being (re)shaped by the complex intersection of biopolitical and algorithmic forms of governmentality as they converge in border technologies. Th e essay proposes to think through four diff erent sets of smart border technologies that enact and track race as a biopolitical assemblage in particular ways, analyzing the associated perceptual codes each puts into play (biometric, movement sensing, drone, and databased). It closes by refl ecting on how these algorithmic technologies infl ect the biopolitical targeting of race and mobility in ways that serve to insulate smart border practices from democratic accoun tability.

The border guards were what made the Berlin Wall both function and lethal. Without them, people could escape nearly without any hindrance. Thus, it is crucial to understand the role of the border guards, who they were, and how they were prepared for their duty. They had a double task: preventing citizens, in most cases respectable and unarmed, from fleeing; and serving as an initial front-line defense in case of war. The military aspect of their mission, however, remained hypothetical, whereas preventing escapes became their daily duty. The duplicity of their task, with the military aspect determining armament, training, and structure no doubt increased the number of fatalities at the border.

This article analyzes actions of the Romanian state officials and the Romania-Serbia border region people during the embargoes imposed on Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It shows that the embargo-related contraband trade with its diverse layers and actors is an excellent window for studying state formations. Getting involved in both big contraband and the criminalization of smugglers, different state factions developed specific logics of privatization, transnationalization, and interstitial relations. These developments were connected to both the fantasies of accumulation in the context of embargo and Romanian European Union accession. The article also suggests how to understand continuities between the embargorelated and present state formations. Looking at the interplays among border posts, state officials, and the EU, it shows that the border posts are increasingly dislocated from the state and that they seem to become interstitial parts of a post-state field of power.

[Full article is in English]

English: This article analyzes the role of school education as a medium for indoctrinating young minds through school textbooks within the framework of India–Pakistan relations. This fact is more pronounced in Pakistan, but even in the case of India, eff orts are not undertaken to objectively teach subjects in a way that helps sensitize students about the India–Pakistan relationship. The author argues that the young generations in India and Pakistan largely lack a shared understanding until they undergo a process of de-learning and re-learning. Hence, the borders between India and Pakistan remained intact and militarized but defi nite types of borders are also created in young minds. Unless the psychological borders melt, it is diffi cult to imagine a porous physical border between India and Pakistan. This article att empts to understand how pedagogically the image of an enemy is created in young minds serving the purpose of the state.

Spanish: Este artículo analiza el papel de la educación escolar como un medio para adoctrinar mentes jóvenes a través de libros de texto en el marco de las relaciones India–Pakistán. Esta situación es más pronunciada en Pakistán, pero incluso en la India, no se llevan a cabo esfuerzos para enseñar objetivamente temas que apoyen la sensibilización de los estudiantes sobre la relación India–Pakistán. El autor argumenta que jóvenes generaciones en India y Pakistán comparten la falta de un conocimiento compartido hasta que pasen por un proceso de des-aprendizaje y re-aprendizaje. En consecuencia, las fronteras entre India y Pakistán permanecen intactas y militarizadas, pero también otros tipos de definición de fronteras son creados en las mentes jóvenes. A menos que las fronteras psicológicas se derritan, es difícil imaginar una frontera física porosa entre la India y Pakistán. Este artículo busca entender cómo la imagen del enemigo es pedagógicamente creada en las mentes jóvenes sirviendo el propósito del Estado. Los casos de los libros de texto en India y Pakistán son presentados para comprender los diferentes tipos de fronteras prevalecientes en el sur de Asia.

French: Cet article analyse le rôle de l’éducation scolaire comme un moyen d’endoctrinement de jeunes esprits à travers les livres scolaires dans le contexte des relations entre l’Inde et le Pakistan. Cette situation est particulièrement marquée au Pakistan mais y compris en Inde, aucun effort n’est mené pour enseigner objectivement des thèmes qui sensibilisent les élèves sur les relations Inde-Pakistan. L’auteur argumente que les jeunes générations indiennes et pakistanaises manquent de connaissances partagées jusqu’à ce qu’elles transitent par un processus de désapprentissage et de ré-apprentissage. En conséquence, les frontières entre l’Inde et le Pakistan continuent à être intactes et militarisées et d’autres types de frontières claires son créées dans les esprits de la jeunesse. À moins que les frontières psychologiques ne disparaissent, il reste difficile d’imaginer une frontière physique poreuse entre l’Inde et le Pakistan. Cet article cherche à comprendre comment l’image de l’ennemi est créée pédagogiquement dans les jeunes esprits et sert les intérêts de l’Etat.

This essay exemplifies a particular approach to the field of health tourism, whereby the anthropology of tourism and medical anthropology can be used in conjunction. The serious business of healing is not usually associated with the pleasures of relaxation; however, Czech spas have historically been sites of both healing and leisure for visitors. Building on the suggestion of Veijola and Jokinen (1994), the body of the tourist is made the centre of this study. The bodies of patient-tourists at Czech health spas undergo various healing regimens, and their bodies signify a negotiation of national and cultural identities. Just as Bunzl (2000) considers bodies as constituting European cultural landscapes, this essay considers the ways in which German patient bodies at Czech health spas constitute a changing national, political and cultural relationship at a 'border' of Europe.

On the basis of fieldwork conducted in the two towns Görlitz and Zgorzelec, situated directly on the German-Polish border, this article explores how different versions of the border are enacted among Polish and German high-school pupils. As is usually the case with borders, the German-Polish border has a multiple, even ambivalent character. Inspired by the performative approach within actor-network theory, this article aims to qualify the concept of the multiple border, where multiplicity is understood as heterogeneous practices and patterns of absences and presences that constitute the border. The data, based on ethnographic fieldwork, consist of 'cartographies', maps made by the pupils, followed up by 'walking conversations' in the two towns on the border. The analysis shows that the border is not only enacted differently; also it is suggested that the performances all deal with and constitute an ambivalent border.

This article examines post 1989 Polish literary production that addresses German-Polish history and border relations in the aftermath of World War II and participates in the German-Polish dialogue of reconciliation. I consider the methodological implications of border space and spatial memory for the analysis of mass displacements in the German-Polish border region with particular attention to spatiocultural interstitiality, deterritorialization, unhomeliness, and border identity. Focusing on two representative novels, Stefan Chwin's Death in Danzig and Olga Tokarczuk's House of Day, House of Night, I argue that these authors' attention to geospatiality, border space, and displacement forms a distinct characteristic of Polish border narratives. Chwin's and Tokarczuk's construction of interstitial border spaces reflects a complex dynamic between place, historical memory, and self-identification while disrupting and challenging the unitary mythologies of the nation. With their fictional re-imagining of wartime and postwar German-Polish border region, these writers participate in the politics of collective memory of the border region and the construction and articulation of the Polish perspective that shapes the discourse of memory east of the border.