Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Macrosociology

The Borders of the World

The Borders of the World: Processes of De- and Rebordering in a Global Perspective (part of the CRC 1265: Re-Figuration of Space)

 

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), 1/2018-12/2021, 1/2022-12/2025

 

Project Coordinator: Steffen Mau

Researchers: Dorothea Biaback Anong, Zoé Perko

(Researchers in the first period: Fabian Gülzau, Kristina Korte, Aljoscha Jacobi)

 

The project “The Borders of the World: Processes of De- and Rebordering in a Global Perspective” (C01) is part of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1265 “Re-Figuration of Space”. In the project, Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau and colleagues analyze territorial borders between different nation-states.

In contrast to earlier assumptions of globalization literature, which expected debordering and a diminishing role of borders, the project conceptualizes borders as physical and material barriers. This conceptualization makes it possible to analyze how border infrastructures affect the appropriation of space, the organization of territoriality, and the mobility of individuals. In this perspective, rebordering and re-figuration are intertwined. The project applies a comparative perspective in order to survey the material and physical qualities of land border of nation-states. We expect that differing border configurations lead to varying relations of space and spatial stabilization.

The project aims at surveying all land borders between nation-states. A systematic typology of borders will include borders without barriers, borders with punctual controls and patrols, and those that feature significant fences and walls with barbed wire. On the basis of this taxonomy, case studies on borders that are highly fortified and militarized will be conducted. The qualitative part of the study is meant to provide in-depth insights on the factors driving the fortification and militarization of borders as well as their effect on border crossings, interactions and mobility.

 

Website of the CRC


 

Publications

  • Perko, Z. & Biaback Anong, D. (2025). Regional free movement: Ongoing spatial conflicts between macroterritorial and national levels—A case study of ECOWAS, the EU, and Mercosur. In B. Pfetsch & H. Knoblauch (Eds.), Spatial Conflicts and Conflictual Spaces. Routledge. Link
  • Perko, Z. (2025). Intraregional mobility and free movement in Mercosur: an interplay between state-led implementation and subnational migrant practices. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 12(1), 488–507. Link
  • Biaback Anong, D., Ceola, F., Hecht, C., Kirchner, S., Marguin, S., Prabaharyaka, I., & Amer, Q. (2025). Power and space: Understanding spatial refiguration through the lens of the regime – Working Paper No. 20. Berlin: TU Berlin.
  • Mau, S., Biaback Anong, D., & Perko, Z. (2025). Von der Grenze als Relation zu vergrenzten Räumen. In J. Kibel, N. Meier, S. Steets, & G. Weidenhaus (Eds.), Figuring Out Spaces. transcript Verlag.
  • Biaback Anong, D. "A Border Wall for Integration?". Atlas of Spatial Figures, edited by Ignacio Farías, Silke Steets and Nikolaus Gansterer, Berlin, Boston: JOVIS, 2025, pp. 134-136. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783986122218-045
  • Perko, Z. "EU Borders in Africa". Atlas of Spatial Figures, edited by Ignacio Farías, Silke Steets and Nikolaus Gansterer, Berlin, Boston: JOVIS, 2025, pp. 110-111. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783986122218-035
  • Biaback Anong, D. (2024). Selectivity in Migration Governance in the South American Mercosur: Selecting-by-Origin, Selecting-by-Merit, or Not Selecting at All?. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies (online first), p. 1-14.
  • Perko, Z., & Biaback Anong, D. (2023, 15. Dezember). Unequal passports, unequal freedoms. Reflections on researching freedom of movement while holding a European passport [Blog Article]. https://sfb1265.de/en/blog/unequal-passports-unequal-freedoms/
  • Perko, Z., & Biaback Anong, D. (2023, 24. Februar). Migration als Menschenrecht? - Ein Feldbericht aus drei Mercosur-Staaten in Südamerika [Blog Article]. https://www.sfb1265.de/blog/migration-als-menschenrecht-ein-feldbericht-aus-drei-mercosur-staaten-in-suedamerika/
  • Fabian Gülzau / Steffen Mau (2024). Visas and border infrastructures: what makes them tighter or looser? In: Handbook of Human Mobility and Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing, 203-220.
  • Hannes Taubenböck, Carola Otto, Fabian Gülzau und Steffen Mau (2023). Border regions across the globe: Analyzing border typologies, economic and political disparities, and development dynamics. In: Applied Geography, 151, 102866.
  • Kristina Korte (2023). "So, if you ask whether fences work: They work"—the role of border fortifications for migration control and access to asylum. Comparing Hungary and the USA. In: Comparative Migration Studies, 11:1, 29.
  • Steffen Mau (2022). Die globalisierte Grenze im 21. Jahrhundert. In: Neue Gesellschaft/Frankfurter Hefte, 9/22, 32-35.
  • Steffen Mau (2022). In dubio pro libertate? Zur Frage der Visabeschränkungen für russische Staatsbürger. In: Verfassungsblog: On Matters Constitutional. (Blogartikel: https://verfassungsblog.de/in-dubio-pro-libertate/)
  • Kristina Korte (2022). Wandelndes Klima, wachsende Zäune. Wie Klimaflucht, Konflikte und Grenzbefestigungen zusammenhängen. (Blogartikel: https://www.sfb1265.de/blog/wandelndes-klima-wachsende-zaeune-wie-klimaflucht-konflikte-und-grenzbefestigungen-zusammenhaengen/) 
  • Fabian Gülzau (2021). A 'New Normal' for the Schengen Area. When, Where and Why Member States Reintroduce Temporary Border Controls? In: Journal of Borderlands Studies, 38:5, 785–803
  • Fabian Gülzau / Steffen Mau (2021). Walls, Barriers, Checkpoints, No-man's-land. A Typology of Border Infrastructure on the African Continent. In: Comparativ: Leipziger Beiträge zur Universalgeschichte und Vergleichenden Gesellschaftsforschung, 31:3/4, 411-438.
  • Fabian Gülzau, Steffen Mau und Kristina Korte (2021). Borders as Places of Control. Fixing, Shifting and Reinventing State Borders. In: Historical Social Research, 46:3, 7-22.
  • Fabian Gülzau / Steffen Mau (2021). Walls, Barriers, Checkpoints, Landmarks, and "No-Man's-Land. A Quantitative Typology of Border Control Infrastructure". In: Historical Social Research, 46:3, 23-48.
  • Kristina Korte (2021). Filtering or Blocking Mobility? Inequalities, Marginalization, and Power Relations at Fortified Borders. In: Historical Social Research, 46:3, 49-77.
  • Steffen Mau (2021). Borders are back! In: 5 plus. Das Magazin der Buchhandlungen, 2/21, 48-52.
  • Steffen Mau (2021). Mauern der Ungleichheit. Die Rückkehr der befestigten Grenzen. In: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, 8/21, 61-70.
  • Steffen Mau (2021). Sortiermaschinen. Die Neuerfindung der Grenze im 21. Jahrhundert. München: C.H. Beck.

French translation: Steffen Mau (2023). La réinvention des frontières au XXIe siècle. Paris: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (MSH).
English translation: Steffen Mau (2022). Sorting Machines. The Re-Invention of Borders in the 21. Century. Cambridge: Polity Press.

  • Steffen Mau, Fabian Gülzau und Kristina Korte (2021). Grenzen erkunden. Grenzinfrastrukturen und die Rolle fortifizierter Grenzen im globalen Kontext. In: Martina Löw, Volkan Sayman, Jona Schwerer und Hannah Wolf (Hrsg.), Am Ende der Globalisierung. Über die Re-Figuration von Räumen (S. 129-153). Bielefeld: transcript.
  • Fabian Gülzau / Kristina Korte (2021). Mauern aus Papier, Mauern aus Stein. In: Johanna Hoerning / Philipp Misselwitz (Hrsg.), Räume in Veränderung – Ein visuelles Lesebuch (S. 130-141). Berlin: Jovis Verlag.
  • Steffen Mau (2020). Borders that stay, move, and expand. In: Ayelet Shachar (Ed.), The shifting border. Legal cartographies of migration and mobility (pp. 139-157). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Kristina Korte (2020). "Who is the Animal in the Zoo?" Fencing in and Fencing out at the Hungarian-Serbian Border. A Qualitative Case Study. In: Journal of Borderland Studies, 37:3, 453-474
  • Steffen Mau (2018). Grenze. In: Hans Peter Müller / Tilman Reitz (Hrsg.), Simmel-Handbuch. Begriffe, Hauptwerke, Aktualität. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

 

Presentations

  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation for the Transnational Legal Studies Guest Seminar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, September 22, 2025.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference, Thessaloniki, August 26, 2025.
  • Perko, Zoé & Dorothea Biaback Anong. Presentation for the Seminar “Borders in Transition”, Technische Universität, Berlin, May 5, 2025.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the IMISCOE Conference “Decentering Migration Studies”, Online, July 2, 2025.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the NMR Conference “The politics of mobility and precarity”, Bergen, August 13, 2024.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the Neuchâtel Graduate Conference, Neuchâtel, July 11, 2024.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the DGS Frühjahrstagung (Sektion Migration), Online, April 26, 2024.
  • Perko, Zoé & Dorothea Biaback Anong. Presentation at Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Migration and Minorities Seminar, Brussels School of Governance, Brussels, February 5, 2024.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the DeZIM Promovierenden-Tagung, Berlin, October 26, 2023.
  • Perko, Zoé. Presentation at the The Migration Conference, Hamburg, August 24, 2023.
  • Gülzau, Fabian and Kristina Korte Walls, Barriers, Checkpoints, Landmarks, No Man's Land. A typology of border infrastructure, Presentation at the 6. Annual Conference of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft "B/Ordering Cultures", Frankfurt (Oder), Europa-Universität Viadrina, October 8, 2019.
  • Gülzau, Fabian Ähnlichkeit und Zirkulation. Wie sich Staaten zwischen 'offenen' und 'geschlossenen' Grenzen entscheiden, Presentation at the 40. Conference of the German Sociological Association, Berlin, TU Berlin, September 22, 2019.
  • Korte, Kristina "It‘s a mess" - Praktiken der Migrationskontrolle an fortifizierten Grenzen. Das Beispiel der Grenzzäune in Ungarn und den USA, Presentation at the 40. Conference of the German Sociological Association, Berlin, TU Berlin, September 22, 2019.
  • Gülzau, Fabian (Im)mobilisierung. Die Re-Figuration von Grenzen in globaler Perspektive, Presentation at the 40. Conference of the German Sociological Association, Berlin, TU Berlin, September 16, 2019.
  • Gülzau, Fabian The Borders of the World: Processes of De- and Rebordering in a Global Perspective, Presentation at the "Workshop "DE-RE-BORD: Socio-spatial transformations in German-Polish 'interstices'. Practices of debordering and rebordering", Erkner, Leibniz-Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS), September 3/4, 2018.
  • Gülzau, Fabian Global Visa Policy & Border Protection Data. Presentation at the Workshop 'Tracking Global Population Mobilities: Conceptual, Measurement, and Analytical Challenges', Florence, European University Institute (EUI), February 26, 2018.

 

As part of the project “the borders of the world” we have created a data set, which we make available here. The “border infrastructure data” seeks to capture the infrastructure at the border line. It comprises all land borders worldwide (N=630) and classifies border architecture into five categories, from relatively open to completely closed. The data was collected as part of the research project The Borders of the World: Processes of De- and Rebordering in a Global Perspective (SFB 1265, C01, PI: Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau) which was funded by the German Research Foundation, project number 290045248 - SFB 1265). For more details on the dataset, please consult the following article:

Gülzau, F., & Mau, S. (2021a). Walls, Barriers, Checkpoints, Landmarks, and “No-Man’s-Land.” A Quantitative Typology of Border Control Infrastructure. Historical Social Research, 46(3), 23-48. doi:10.12759/hsr.46.2021.3.23-48

If you want to use the data-set for further scientific analysis, please cite this article. Below, we publish the data set as well as the codebook.

 

border-infrastructure-data.xlsx

Codebook

 

Im Rahmen des Projekts "Die Grenzen der Welt" haben wir einen Datensatz erstellt, den wir hier zur Verfügung stellen. Die "Grenzinfrastrukturdaten" zielen darauf ab, die Infrastruktur an der Grenzlinie zu erfassen. Der Datensatz umfasst alle Landgrenzen weltweit (N=630) und klassifiziert die Grenzarchitektur in fünf Kategorien, von relativ offen bis vollständig geschlossen. Die Daten wurden im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts „Die Grenzen der Welt: Prozesse der Ent- und Neuordnung in globaler Perspektive“ (SFB 1265, C01, PI: Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau) gesammelt, das von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft gefördert wurde (Projektnummer 290045248 - SFB 1265). Weitere Details zum Datensatz finden Sie im folgenden Artikel:

Gülzau, F., & Mau, S. (2021a). Walls, Barriers, Checkpoints, Landmarks, and "No-Man's-Land". Eine quantitative Typologie der Grenzkontrollinfrastruktur. Historical Social Research, 46(3), 23-48. doi:10.12759/hsr.46.2021.3.23-48

Wenn Sie die Daten verwenden möchten, zitieren Sie bitte diesen Artikel. Unten stehend veröffentlichen wir den Datensatz sowie das Codebuch.

 

border-infrastructure-data.xlsx

Codebuch