Overview

When are borders justified? Who has a right to control them? Where should they be drawn?Today people think of borders as an island's shores. Just as beaches delimit a castaway's realm, so borders define the edges of a territory, occupied by a unified people, to whom the land legitimately belongs. Hence a territory is legitimate only if it belongs to a people unified by a civic identity. Sadly, this Desert Island Model of territorial politics forces us to choose. If we want territories, then we can either have democratic legitimacy, or inclusion of different civic identities--but not both. The resulting politics creates mass xenophobia, migrant-bashing, hoarding of natural resources, and border walls. To escape all this, On Borders presents an alternative model. Drawing on an intellectual tradition concerned with how land and climate shape institutions, it argues that we should not see territories as pieces of property owned by identity groups. Instead, we should see them as watersheds: as interconnected systems where institutions, people, the biota, and the land together create overlapping civic duties and relations, what the book calls place-specific duties. This Watershed Model argues that borders are justified when they allow us to fulfill those duties; that border-control rights spring from internationally-agreed conventions--not from internal legitimacy; that borders should be governed cooperatively by the neighboring states and the states system; and that border redrawing should be done with environmental conservation in mind. The book explores how this model undoes the exclusionary politics of desert islands.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paulina Ochoa Espejo (Associate Professor of Political Science, Associate Professor of Political Science, Haverford College)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.10cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 15.50cm
Weight:   0.544kg
ISBN:  

9780190074203

ISBN 10:   0190074205
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   08 September 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Part I: Taking Identity Too Seriously: Against the Desert Island Model of Territorial Politics 2. The Desert Island Model of Territorial Politics 3. What Do Borders Divide? Peoples, Places, Jurisdictions 4. Democratic Legitimacy and the Vicious Circle of People and Territory 5. Natural Borders: From the Natural Boundaries of States to Ecological Accounts of Territory Part II: Taking Place Seriously: For the Watershed Model of Territorial Politics 6. The Topian Tradition: A Forgotten Alternative to Utopianism 7. How Place-Specific Duties Make Borders Morally Relevant 8. The Watershed: A (Not So) New Model for Territories and Border Placement Part III: The Morality of Border Politics in the Real World: Applying the Watershed Model 9. Grounds of Border Control and Shared Border Governance 10. Immigration: Rights Based on Presence Rather Than Identity 11. Sharing Ecosystems: Rivers as an Example of Transborder Resource Use and Cooperation 12. What is Wrong with Border Walls? Envoi Bibliography Index

Reviews

On Borders is itself a watershed in the political theory of territory, of migration, and of the interactions between human institutions and the natural world. Paulina Ochoa Espejo reframes our picture of the state and its relationship to its members and the places they live and work. Her originality is grounded in both deep insight as well as extensive and careful research across several disciplines. It is political theory for the 21st century. * Avery Kolers, University of Louisville * Ochoa Espejo argues that we should recognize borders as sites of important place-specific rights and duties. Looking at borders from this perspective, rather than through the lens of questions about collective identities or individual rights, disrupts conventional normative discussions. Her focus on place has a challenging and transformative effect on debates about territory and immigration and enables us to see ethical issues, especially environmental issues, that otherwise largely escape our view. A rich and rewarding read * Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto * Ochoa Espejo urges us to think place apart from presumed national identities in border politics. Foregrounding the politics of peoples and the earth, and backgrounding nation states, she expands the intellectual space for conceiving, drawing, and governing the proximate territories of borders. * Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley * Banging on about 'broken borders' is the major leitmotif of contemporary populism in Europe and the United States. This subtle and engaging exploration of borders as a theme in political philosophy shows how much about them is obscured when questions of immigration policy and territorial sovereignty are bundled together with the 'border question.' In placing borders at the center of analysis, this book effectively demolishes and replaces the very basis to the current debate about their meaning * John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles *

"""Banging on about 'broken borders' is the major leitmotif of contemporary populism in Europe and the United States. This subtle and engaging exploration of borders as a theme in political philosophy shows how much about them is obscured when questions of immigration policy and territorial sovereignty are bundled together with the 'border question.' In placing borders at the center of analysis, this book effectively demolishes and replaces the very basis to the current debate about their meaning"" -- John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles ""Ochoa Espejo urges us to think place apart from presumed national identities in border politics. Foregrounding the politics of peoples and the earth, and backgrounding nation states, she expands the intellectual space for conceiving, drawing, and governing the proximate territories of borders."" -- Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley ""Ochoa Espejo argues that we should recognize borders as sites of important place-specific rights and duties. Looking at borders from this perspective, rather than through the lens of questions about collective identities or individual rights, disrupts conventional normative discussions. Her focus on place has a challenging and transformative effect on debates about territory and immigration and enables us to see ethical issues, especially environmental issues, that otherwise largely escape our view. A rich and rewarding read"" -- Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto ""On Borders is itself a watershed in the political theory of territory, of migration, and of the interactions between human institutions and the natural world. Paulina Ochoa Espejo reframes our picture of the state and its relationship to its members and the places they live and work. Her originality is grounded in both deep insight as well as extensive and careful research across several disciplines. It is political theory for the 21st century."" -- Avery Kolers, University of Louisville"

Banging on about 'broken borders' is the major leitmotif of contemporary populism in Europe and the United States. This subtle and engaging exploration of borders as a theme in political philosophy shows how much about them is obscured when questions of immigration policy and territorial sovereignty are bundled together with the 'border question.' In placing borders at the center of analysis, this book effectively demolishes and replaces the very basis to the current debate about their meaning * John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles * Ochoa Espejo urges us to think place apart from presumed national identities in border politics. Foregrounding the politics of peoples and the earth, and backgrounding nation states, she expands the intellectual space for conceiving, drawing, and governing the proximate territories of borders. * Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley * Ochoa Espejo argues that we should recognize borders as sites of important place-specific rights and duties. Looking at borders from this perspective, rather than through the lens of questions about collective identities or individual rights, disrupts conventional normative discussions. Her focus on place has a challenging and transformative effect on debates about territory and immigration and enables us to see ethical issues, especially environmental issues, that otherwise largely escape our view. A rich and rewarding read * Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto * On Borders is itself a watershed in the political theory of territory, of migration, and of the interactions between human institutions and the natural world. Paulina Ochoa Espejo reframes our picture of the state and its relationship to its members and the places they live and work. Her originality is grounded in both deep insight as well as extensive and careful research across several disciplines. It is political theory for the 21st century. * Avery Kolers, University of Louisville *

Banging on about 'broken borders' is the major leitmotif of contemporary populism in Europe and the United States. This subtle and engaging exploration of borders as a theme in political philosophy shows how much about them is obscured when questions of immigration policy and territorial sovereignty are bundled together with the 'border question.' In placing borders at the center of analysis, this book effectively demolishes and replaces the very basis to the current debate about their meaning -- John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles Ochoa Espejo urges us to think place apart from presumed national identities in border politics. Foregrounding the politics of peoples and the earth, and backgrounding nation states, she expands the intellectual space for conceiving, drawing, and governing the proximate territories of borders. -- Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley Ochoa Espejo argues that we should recognize borders as sites of important place-specific rights and duties. Looking at borders from this perspective, rather than through the lens of questions about collective identities or individual rights, disrupts conventional normative discussions. Her focus on place has a challenging and transformative effect on debates about territory and immigration and enables us to see ethical issues, especially environmental issues, that otherwise largely escape our view. A rich and rewarding read -- Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto On Borders is itself a watershed in the political theory of territory, of migration, and of the interactions between human institutions and the natural world. Paulina Ochoa Espejo reframes our picture of the state and its relationship to its members and the places they live and work. Her originality is grounded in both deep insight as well as extensive and careful research across several disciplines. It is political theory for the 21st century. -- Avery Kolers, University of Louisville

Author Information

Paulina Ochoa Espejo is Associate Professor of Political Science at Haverford College. She is the author of The Time of Popular Sovereignty: Process and the Democratic State and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Populism.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions