Anthropology of borders as an anthropology of power: citizens, state and social control at the Polish-Belarusian border
2017
Abstract
The paper debates different approaches of anthropological study of international borders and power. Based on evidences taken from informal international small-scale cross borders trade practiced in Polish-Belarusian borderland the author shows, how the state border enact social boundaries between petty traders.
Ethnicity and gender of these entrepreneurs is connected with their citizenship. Mutal interactions of people and institutions controlling legality of their cross-border migration undermine an idea, that Foucauts' concept of panoptical power is applicable for description of sociomaterial controll as is practiced at the external frontiers of European Union.