What do we mean by invisible borders? It’s about the psychological, social and cultural barriers to community participation, focusing on newcomers and identifying those people using unusual behaviours to break down those borders.
As globalization breaks down geographic, cultural, and economic borders, it significantly impacts our lives, creating both new opportunities and insecurities that we must navigate.
Not knowing how to navigate a world constantly redefined, many people become tempted to re-create cultural & psychological borders to protect themselves from what they can’t control nor understand.
Despite globalisation’s opportunities, only some can reshape borders and redraw the social & cultural maps of how we should live.
As citizens, we often take our social codes for granted, making it difficult to perceive how we inadvertently exclude others from public spaces.
These spaces are regulated by invisible codes that convey whom a particular area is for and what behaviour is allowed. However, there are other codes we can learn from, those used by people who actively break down these borders between practices and cultures.
How would you define “invisible borders”?
“All boundaries, whether national, global or street names on a road map, are socially constructed. They are as much the products of society as are other social relations that mark the landscape. They construct our sense of identity in the places we inhabit and organise our social space through geographies of power. Geographies of power, a concept coined by Karen Malone, refer to the less tangible but equally influential forces that shape our social spaces. These forces are less easy to determine than physical marks. A street map can tell us where we are concerned about other physical markers, but it cannot tell us how the people who operate in it classify street space.”
“Border is what separates and at the same time connects cultures. The less successful we are in keeping intact the borders we have drawn, the more obsessive we become in drawing them repeatedly…Because we have drawn the border, we actively seek differences and become acutely aware of their presence. Differences are products of borders, of the activity of separation.” (Zygmunt Bauman)
What comes to mind when you think of “invisible borders.”
Socio-economic: the kind of neighbourhood, rich/poor, whether it/there is a community, activities, work/jobs, (school going) children, status, (dealing/interaction with) newcomers
Invisible borders between the opportunities to make a living in new ways and the reality of precarity. Invisible boundaries between communities and the corporate powers who asset strip our natural, digital and economic resources.
Cultural: language, religion, ethnicity (origin), segregation, history (of the neighbourhood, e.g. Jewish), tourism
There are invisible borders between those who take our social codes for granted and the newcomers to our cities who bring in and use other codes, like travellers or migrants, or even nomads and vagabonds.
Invisible borders between gangs. For them, geography symbolises power and threat — many young people are scared of crossing into different postcodes.
All kinds of (not-so) subtle, invisible borders that hinder people from equal participation in social life or use of public spaces because of their gender, race, religion, class, and sexual identity: legal or practical exclusion of women wearing the hijab, unreflected gendered urbanism (for instance through a focus on sport dedicated outdoor areas, poorly lighten spaces at night, urban sprawl, the urban/suburban divide…), exclusion of public displays of affection in same-gender relationships, unequal participation to and representation in debates, discussions or generally public sphere based on gender/race/religion/sexual identity, discrimination while hiring, glass ceilings, between younger and older people where one group might be scared of the other
Psychological: ‘Everything’ is :) Asking questions/help from others, segregation, fear of entering somewhere/places, shame or fear of speaking up/saying anything, security (crime?)
Physical: Invisible borders can manifest in various physical forms such as handicaps, walls (literally), fences, water bodies, busy roads/streets, and even in the names of streets that symbolise different areas. The proximity to public transport, cars, bikes, supermarkets, shops, squares, the presence of community centres, shopping malls, parks, restaurants/cafés, markets, sports clubs, and the architecture in the neighbourhood can also serve as physical markers of invisible borders. The condition of buildings and the way the municipality (city council?) deals with the area can further reinforce these boundaries.
Invisible borders when and where international borders are re-established in other places but concern only specific populations.
Invisible borders are where some people’s mobility is encouraged and sponsored while others are monitored and restricted.
