Walls are identifying marks in space, made by humans; they are expressions of sovereignty, of power and independence. The walls recall us the existence of borders. Borders express the controlling of space. The defence of borders (limit of the territory, of an empire or a State) was quite usually made by walls during the long history of the humanity from the China’s Great Wall or Greek City-States through the Berlin Wall till the today’s constructed walls in Eastern Europe. However, walls exist in different forms, in different places, and in different ages on our Earth.
One can find many theories about the borders in the relevant literature. The common point about the existing conceptions of borders is its functions: separation, connection, filter function. The time of wall constructions is always the sign the strengthening of the separation function; while the demolition of the wall can show the coherence of territories, togetherness of different nations, natural, social, or economic spaces.
Fundamental social, economic and geopolitical transformations have taken place in the past decades on all territorial level. The year of 2015 seems to be crucial from wall constructions process in Europe caused by the migrant crisis, but the vote for Brexit in 2016 also has launched a wall building process in a figurative sense. The list of unsolved questions and walls arise from day to day in many case of the world: Why walls in Mediterranean, Pakistan, Palestine, Korea, US, English Channel exist and how we can manage these urgent issues?
The special issue wishes to work with the elements of this long-run dynamics. We are waiting for all empirical analysis independently of place or time; and theory which can help the understanding of the complex dynamics process around the walls.
The authors are kindly invited to send their full papers till 25th of August 2017 to the editor of the special issue. The authors of selected papers will be asked to submit their work for the regular review process of the journal (Regional Science Policy & Practice - RSPP).
Special Issue Editor:
Andrea Székely, Associate Professor (University of Szeged)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.