Political borders and cultural landscapes in the boundaries of the nation-state

Abstract

This work investigates varying ways of perceiving, constructing and legitimizing geographical and political borders, using the example and contextual reference of the Portuguese-Spanish border. Following the logic of Henri Lefèbvre’s production of social space, it confronts two different and yet complementary visions of the border: on the one hand, of the nation state, which is increasingly interested and committed to a linear and topographical delimitation of its borders, on the understanding that they form precise territorial limits; and on the other hand, of the border communities, which hold close ties not only to the spatial practices and traditional representations of the territory from which the moral and cultural landscapes of the border arise, but also to the life experience of the populations, their survival strategies and the individual and collective identities. We also outline, in broad strokes, the historical evolution of ways of doing and being on the border, trying to highlight their overlaps and interactions.