Borders and Empire
- In Border as Method, I kept getting caught up in thinking about a border as an actual physical thing. When the authors suggest looking at things from a position at/on the border, it is difficult to imagine there being a specific point that we can point to the exact location of a border except in rare geographical cases or where there are landmarks. As far as borders between less defined ideas, how does this methodological viewpoint actually work when borders are constantly shifting?
- Counting and sorting through census and maps is a very efficient way of exerting power, and it seems nearly impossible to “undo” in any real way. Is there an ideological or material way to work against these categories and borders established by colonial powers?
- The idea of empire makes me think of a dystopian world where corporations can get away with anything, but Hardt and Negri’s description also may have some potential positives. In contrast to imperialism, empire is not concerned with securing land and resources for the metropole, so would this undermine the methods of control described in Anderson’s chapter 10?
Empire – global sovereignty based around national and “supranational” economic organizations rather than the traditional political nation-state.