Creativity and Constraint on African State Boundaries

边境地区是非洲最具活力的社会领域之一。这令人惊讶：我们发现，在强大的控制技术塑造社会生活的地方，国家机构的拨款最具创造性。由于制度化和动态化之间的相互作用，国家边界是分析适应和创造力之间关系的理想场所。该项目使用在三个非常不同的边界地区的案例研究来描述适应从上面实施的制度化的可能性和必要性如何有助于出现新形式的社会行动。比较纳米比亚和安哥拉、南非和津巴布韦以及科特迪瓦、布基纳法索和马里的边界，我们分析了制度化程度与当地人口与制度互动产生创造力的可能性之间的关系。这三个案例研究通过系统地选择案例来代表不同的边界历史和不同的政治背景，通过共同的方法和共享的工作包使数据相互比较而联系在一起。第一个项目阶段集中于当地动态以及控制技术的划拨和重新解释。在第二阶段，我们将以我们的发现为基础，专注于全球意义的作用。我们问，在全球范围内出现的意义归属如何在地方层面上变得相关，它们如何以及为什么影响地方机构，以及它们如何塑造人们行动所基于的社会想象。我们尤其感兴趣的是，新的意义归属如何影响当地机构的机会分配。在第一阶段，一个具有全球意义的领域对每个案例研究都特别重要；我们将使用这些主题作为经验分析的案例。在南非和津巴布韦之间的边界，重点将放在关于移民制度、安全和自然保护的全球思想的相互作用上。在纳米比亚-安哥拉的案例中，我们专注于关于全球货物自由流动的想法，并试图通过运输走廊消除边境地区的摩擦。在科特迪瓦、布基纳法索和马里的边境地区，主题是安全与建国之间的必要联系。这些问题涉及优先方案在一个与国家和国际政治行为者日益密切相关的经验领域的核心理论关切。通过从优先方案的理论角度分析具体的边界局势，预计该项目将为边界研究以及政策行为者带来重要的新见解。该项目依赖于定性方法，最重要的是长期的参与者观察和日常对话。将通过访谈和档案工作收集更多数据。

Borderlands are among the most dynamic social spheres in Africa. This is surprising: we find the most creative appropriations of state institutions in places where a powerful technology of control shapes social life. Due to this interplay between institutionalisation and dynamism, state boundaries are ideal places to analyse the relation between adaptation and creativity. The project uses case studies in three very different borderlands to describe how the possibility and need to adapt to institutionalisations implemented from above contributes to the emergence of novel forms of social actions. Comparing the borderlands between Namibia and Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, we analyse the relation between the degree of institutionalisation and the likelihood of creativity to emerge from the interaction of a local population with the institution. The three case studies are linked by a systematic selection of cases to represent different border histories and different political settings, by a shared methodology and by shared work packages making data mutually comparable. The first project phase concentrated on local dynamics and on the appropriation and reinterpretation of technologies of control. In the second phase, we will build on our findings to focus on the role of global significations. We ask how ascriptions of meaning emerging in a global sphere become relevant on the local level, how and why they influence local agency, and how they shape the imaginations of the social on which people base their actions. We are particularly interested in the way new ascriptions of meaning affect the distribution of chances for local agency. In the first phase, one field of global significations has emerged as particularly important for each case study; we will use these themes as cases for the empiric analysis. On the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, the focus will be on the interplay of global ideas about migration regimes, security and nature conservation. In the Namibian-Angolan case, we concentrate on ideas about the free global flows of goods and attempts to eliminate the friction of borderlands through transport corridors. In the border region of Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, the main theme is the idea of a necessary connection between security and statehood. These questions address the central theoretical concerns of the Priority Programme in an empirical field that has increasing relevance for national and international political actors. By analysing concrete border situations from the theoretical perspective of the Priority Programme, the project is expected to generate important new insights for borderland studies as well as for policy actors. The project relies on qualitative methods, most importantly long-term participant observation and everyday conversations. Additional data will be gathered through interviews and archival work.