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

墨西哥和美国之间的边界长期以来一直是文化和经济融合的空间，但现在却日益成为分裂和猜疑的地方。这种转变是由于墨西哥和美国政府对移民、毒品贩运和犯罪组织增长的相互关联的国家安全关切造成的。墨西哥和美国政府都选择通过“军事化”来解决这些问题——将军事意识形态、战术、技术和武力纳入国内治理和警务。这个研究项目将调查军事化的边境治理和领土控制方法如何重新配置边境地区居民的日常生活。调查人员的目标是研究边境军事化如何改变美墨边境居民社区的形式、功能和意义，并研究军事化是如何由分界线两侧的边境景观塑造的。将特别关注边境地区的军事化，这在该地区的景观中表现得很明显，以及联邦军事化作为一种治理策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、奇瓦瓦州华雷斯城和亚利桑那州诺加利斯、索诺拉州诺加利斯两个两国边境大都市进行这项研究。作为联邦军事化战略的战略点，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。他们还分享了一些历史最悠久的共同家庭、社区和边境经济。调查人员将参与档案研究、开放式访谈和焦点小组，所有这些都将被设计用于调查军事化和景观的多重交叉点，并挖掘这些交叉点在日常生活中的复杂性。该项目将提高人们对边境军事化进程、对居民的影响及其与景观的相互作用的基本认识。除了加强基本的理解之外，它还将为寻求纠正早期表现中产生的问题的军事化战略的架构师和实施者提供信息和见解。它还将有利于公民组织、环境组织和社会正义团体，因为他们对现行政策做出反应，并试图塑造未来的政策。研究结果将以英文和西班牙文在学术和面向政策的期刊上散发，并将在适当的国际和区域会议上提出。

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.