Fences and neighbours in the postmodern world: boundary narratives in political geography David Newman a and Anssi Paasi b a Department of Geography, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel b Department of Geography, University of Oulu, PO Box 400, Oulu 90571, Finland Abstract: State boundaries have constituted a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Boundary analysis has focused on the international scale, since international boundaries provide perhaps the most explicit manifestation of the large-scale connection between politics and geography. The past decade has witnessed a renewed interest in boundaries, both within geography and from the wider field of social theory. Geographers have sought to place the notions of boundary within other social theoretical constructs, while other social scientists have attempted to understand the role of space and, in some cases, territory in their understanding of personal, group, and national boundaries and identities. Recent studies include analyses of the postmodern ideas of territoriality and the `disappearance' of borders, the construction of sociospatial identities, socialization narratives in which boundaries are responsible for creating the `us' and the `Other', and the different scale dimensions of boundary research. These can be brought together within a multidimensional, multidisciplinary framework for the future study of boundary phenomena. I Introduction The boundary is the place of intercourse with the foreigner (Fawcett, 1918). Boundaries have constituted a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Typically, they have been analysed at the scale of the state, since international political borders provide one of the most explicit manifestations of the large-scale connection between politics and geography. The 1990s have witnessed a renewed interest in boundaries and frontiers within diverse academic fields. Territorial transformation at a global scale, and the deinstitutionalization of territories in eastern Europe and elsewhere have, once again, raised questions relating to boundaries and territorial identities. This * c Arnold 1998 0309±1325(98)PH192RA Progress in Human Geography 22,2 (1998) pp. 186±207