Epistemic border struggles: exposing, legitimizing, and diversifying border knowledge at a security conference Dominik Gerst Abstract In this chapter, a concept of border knowledge is introduced. After an overview of the relationship between borders and knowledge within bor- der studies and beyond, an ethnomethodological and conversation analyti- cal perspective is deployed. Raising the question of how border knowledge in action is used as a resource to articulate border experiences and thus deal with border complexity, this chapter conducts an analysis of the epis- temic border struggles at the border event Security Conference: Eight years of an open German–Polish border. An inventory shows how border knowledge is exposed, legitimized, and diversified. The chapter closes with a charac- terization of border knowledge, highlighting its multi-perspectival and processual features. Keywords Border knowledge, German–Polish border, membership categorization analysis, border security Introduction This chapter focuses on a concept of border knowledge and a perspective on the relationship between borders and knowledge in general. It brings toge- ther results from two independent yet intertwining arguments regarding contemporary border research. On the one hand, a lack of discussion about the epistemic dimension of borders is identified. Even though theo- retical and conceptual developments, e.g. borderwork (cf. Rumford 2008), bordering practices (cf. Parker/Adler-Nissen 2014), borderscapes (cf. Brambilla et al. 2016) border complexities (cf. Gerst et al. 2018), or border textures (cf. AG Bordertexturen 2018) implicitly refer to the connection between bor- ders and knowledge, a conceptual explication is still desirable. On the other hand, empirical accounts of border experiences regularly deal with questions about what people know about borders and how this knowledge 1. 143 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845295671, am 10.12.2019, 08:16:11 Open Access - - https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb