Studia Etnologiczne i Antropologiczne, vol. 22 (1)

WALL, SMALL WALL, FENCE

A "big, beautiful wall" along the border with Mexico is unlikely to be completed in the foreseeable future. But the idea itself will not disappear soon and will probably continue to heat up the political atmosphere in the US for years to come. But what do we need a wall on a political border today for? After all, a hard border - one of the first associations of which is this architectural form - is a lofty and unfriendly line, which disturbs the need to move, extremely important for contemporary man. Should this phenomenon be treated as "phantom yearning for borders” (to use a Frank Jacobs’ phrase) - or maybe there is something more behind it; perhaps a border wall is once again something necessary for the prosperity and development of the modern state, and recently also for the epidemic security? Answering these questions is even more difficult insofar as the wall is rarely an effective barrier against intruders. A border wall does not protect against migration or germs. That was the case in the times of Emperor Hadrian - it is no different under President Donald Trump. A wall - be it of stone, steel or concrete - can at most slow down or restrict human mobility. Reason? In the today's world, stable, clearly defined borders simply do not exist. (Or perhaps they have never existed?). What is outside cannot be precisely separated today from what is inside. Nowadays borders do not coincide with sovereignty or political power. Does a state end at its borders, or perhaps only there where its "national" mobile telephony network no longer reaches, or where its currency ceases to exist? Answers to these questions are not easy for anybody. Thinking of the "political edges" of a state, we most often think of land borders (the only exception in this respect may be “island nations"). This is largely due to our attachment to land - a kind of terracentrism. And so Wikipedia informs that Poland is bordered only with 7 countries. However, it considers land borders only. This is all the more puzzling since their importance in international contacts is gradually decreasing, while the role of sea, air and... digital routes is increasing. All of them today are becoming true corridors in the global system of exchange and communication. Despite the galloping globalisation, borders seem to be needed as never before.
This is due to the social inequalities in the world, which today have clearly a spatial character. Today, the standard of living in individual countries can vary dramatically, and migration - from poor to rich countries - is a matter of social advancement. That is why the borders in the modern word differ from those of yesterday, but also have some elements in common. Namely, they are ubiquitous, dynamic, fragmented and often deeply hidden and closely linked to the world of advanced digital technologies. In volume 22 (1) of “Studia Etnologiczne i Antropologiczne" we want to consider what physical borders are now - and what they once were. And all sorts of boundary structures - walls, small walls and fences - are good pretext for such considerations. These, as we believe, speak a lot about the idea of borderness over time.\

In this volume, we particularly encourage to reflect on the following set of topics: 

• the dynamics of border infrastructure: guardhouses, fences, checkpoints, interstate shopping centres, etc.,
• the wall, small wall and fences as historical phenomena, connected with specific socio-cultural phenomena,
• relations between the wall ... and the state,
• the wall as a source of violence and aggression, 
• the role of the wall in the construction of a "mystic geography".