Working the Border: Constructing Sovereignty in the Context of Liberalization

这项用于探索性研究的小额赠款将考察国家机构，特别是海关官员在国际边界管理中的作用，以及这一过程对加纳国家主权表达的影响。加纳最近成功地实施了市场改革政策，促进了自由的对外贸易和投资。这项研究将调查经济自由化是如何反映和塑造国家边界控制和建设的。三个地点-国际机场、一个主要的国家边境地点和一个外围边境地点-将进行比较，以分析不同类型的全球商业，以及国家监控、边防官员培训和地方/地区一体化方面的差异，如何影响州边境管理。方法包括政策分析、对日常边境活动的广泛观察和记录、对边境人员活动的决策分析、对人员的结构化访谈和调查数据分析。由于边界活动的政治敏感性和秘密性，该项目在方法上提出了一些挑战。这位研究人员拥有加纳大学非洲研究所的研究从属关系和研究许可。这项研究将有助于我们对民族国家及其在高度跨国和全球化的世界中维护主权的努力的社会政治理解。

Abstract 0087356This Small Grant for Exploratory Research will examine the role of state agents, specifically customs officers, in the management of international boundaries and the implications of this process for the expression of state sovereignty in Ghana. Ghana has recently and successfully implemented market reform policies and promoted liberal foreign trade and investment. The research will investigate how economic liberalization is reflected in and has shaped state boundary control and construction. Three sites - the international airport, a major national border site, and a peripheral border site - will be compared to analyze how different types of global commerce, as well as variation in state surveillance, border officers' training, and local/regional integration, impact state border management. Methods include policy analysis, extensive observation and documentation of day-to-day border activities, decision analysis of border agent activities, structured interviewing of agents, and survey data analysis. This project presents a number of methodological challenges due to the political sensitivity and secrecy surrounding border activities. The researcher has research affiliation and research clearance from the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. This study will contribute to our sociopolitical understanding of the nation state and its efforts to maintain sovereignty in a highly transnational and global world.