Landscapes, Barriers, and the Militarization of Everyday Life Along the U.S.-Mexican Border

长期以来，墨西哥和美国之间的边界一直是文化和经济的交汇点，现在却日益成为分裂和猜疑的地方。这一转变源于墨西哥和美国政府对移民、贩毒和犯罪组织增长的相互关联的国家安全担忧。墨西哥和美国政府都选择通过“军事化”--将军事意识形态、战术、技术和武力纳入国内治理和治安--来解决这些问题。这项研究项目将调查军事化的边境治理和领土控制方法如何改变边境居民的日常生活。调查人员的目标是研究边境军事化如何改变居民社区的美墨边境的形式、功能和意义，并研究分裂两侧的边境景观如何塑造军事化。将特别关注该地区景观中明确和明显的边界地区军事化，以及联邦军事化作为一种治理战略如何影响不同边境人口的流动性、权利、归属感和环境的日常体验。一个由来自美国、墨西哥和加拿大的学者组成的多学科团队将在德克萨斯州埃尔帕索-亚利桑那州奇瓦瓦和诺加莱斯-索诺拉的两个两国边境大都市华雷斯和诺加利斯进行这项研究。作为联邦军事化战略的战略重点，这些城市经常经历执法人员的增加以及加强监视、审讯和搜查。他们还分享了边境沿线共同家庭、社区和经济的一些最悠久的历史。调查人员将从事档案研究、开放式访谈和焦点小组，所有这些都将旨在调查军事化和景观的多个交叉点，并挖掘这些交叉点在日常生活中的复杂性。该项目将加强对边境军事化过程、对居民的影响以及与景观相互作用的基本知识。除了增进基本了解外，它还将为军事化战略的设计者和实施者提供信息和见解，他们试图纠正早先表现出来的问题。它还将使公民组织、环境组织和社会正义团体受益，因为他们对当前的政策做出反应，并试图塑造未来的政策。结果将以英文和西班牙文在学术和面向政策的期刊上传播，并将在适当的国际和区域会议上介绍。

Long a space of cultural and economic convergence, the border between Mexico and the United States has increasingly become a place of division and suspicion. This transformation has resulted from the interrelated national security concerns of the Mexican and U.S. governments regarding immigration, drug trafficking, and the growth of criminal organizations. Both the Mexican and U.S. governments have chosen to address these concerns through "militarization" -- the inclusion of military ideology, tactics, technologies, and force in domestic governance and policing. This research project will investigate how militarized approaches to border governance and territorial control reconfigure everyday life for residents of the borderland. The investigators' objectives are to study how border militarization alters the form, function, and meaning of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands for resident communities and to examine how militarization is shaped by border landscapes on both sides of the divide. Special attention will be given to militarization of the borderlands as expressed and evident in the region's landscape as well as how federal militarization as a governance strategy affects the everyday experience of mobility, rights, belonging, and environment among diverse border populations. A multidisciplinary team with scholars from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada will conduct this study in two binational border metropolises of El Paso, Texas-Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Nogales, Arizona-Nogales, Sonora. As strategic points in federal militarization strategies, these cities regularly experience an increased presence of law enforcement as well as intensifying surveillance, interrogation, and searches. They also share some of the longest histories of joint families, communities, and economies along the border. The investigators will engage in archival research, open-ended interviews, and focus groups, all of which will be designed to investigate the multiple intersections of militarization and landscape and to mine the complexity of these intersections within daily life.The project will enhance basic knowledge about the processes of border militarization, its impacts on residents, and its interaction with landscape. In addition to enhancing fundamental understanding, it will provide information and insights for the architects and implementers of militarization strategies who seek to rectify problems created in earlier manifestations. It also will benefit citizens' organizations, environmental organizations, and social justice groups as they react to current policies and try to shape future ones. Results will be disseminated in both English and in Spanish in academic and policy-oriented journals and will be presented at appropriate international and regional conferences.