Space, Time and Borderlands History: Some Theoretical Reflections

Borderlands history is indispensable to the field of border studies. Nevertheless, while historical context is always important, there is also a need to move beyond empiricism and incorporate theoretical reflection. To do so, however, is to buck the general tendency for historians to place less emphasis on theory compared to geographers, political scientists, and others in the humanities and cultural studies, and put more weight on empirical studies. This paper begins with a brief review of past developments in borderlands history, followed by consideration of certain ideas on space and time proposed by critical theorists that serve as guidelines for more theoretical approaches to this field. This discussion is framed within the context of the spatial turn in history; the recognition that by privileging space, contemporary border studies lack an adequate historical analysis; and the belief that a resistance to spatial theory has encumbered the scope of borderlands history as an academic field.