The Political Border as a Symbolic Landscape: The Contribution of Geography
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Abstract
For geographers, the science of the borders represents since times a privileged field of interest. In particular after the affirmation of the critical approach in geography, the object of study is being studied not as a territorial element "in se" or because of its function of modeling the "borderland", like in the traditional geography. The critical research studies the border first of all in reference of the symbolic and identitarian functions it has not only towards the populations which are settled next to it, but also towards the entire world. The representation of the border - transmitted furthermore through the modern mass media at a global scale, and often with "unsuspected" instruments, such as the touristic promotion - therefore assumes an importance which is equal to that covered by the border materially interpreted. There is the transit from the territorial dimension of the "borderland" to the landscape dimension of the "borderscape", a concept which includes without doubt the feelings and the passions of the people.
Keywords
- Borders
- Symbolic Landscape
- Europe
- Critical Geography
- Visual Research