Michael Dear

What a century of border films teaches about the real and imagined worlds of the US-Mexico borderlands—and how this understanding helps build better relations across boundaries. Border Witness is an account of cultural collision and fusion between Mexico and the United States, as seen on the ground and in films from the past hundred years. Blending film studies with political and cultural geography, Michael Dear investigates the making of cross-border identity and community in the territories between two nations. Border Witness introduces a new "border film" genre just now entering its golden age. A geographer and activist, Dear adopts an accessible and engaged perspective, combining the stories told by these films with insights drawn from his own decades-long research and travel. From early silent films to virtual reality, and from revolution to the present global crisis, border films provide fresh evidence for real and imagined politics and for envisioning future transborder architectures carved from in-between spaces. In an era of global geopolitics that favors walls and war over diplomacy, Dear's insights have relevance for borders around the world.

Reimagining the US-Mexico Borderlands through Film

Border Witness

"Border Witness offers a surprising catalogue of films dealing with the US-Mexico border and released during the past 100 years. It compares these screen visions with what was happening on the ground at the time in both countries. From revolution through to the present global crisis, the films are left to speak for themselves, but their stories are measured alongside the author's experience following decades of research, writing, and activism along the line. Taken together, this book outlines a unique Border Film genre just now entering its Golden Age. This book also comes with a message to both nations that they should learn more from borderlanders about how to conduct cross-border lives"--

Reimagining the US-Mexico Borderlands Through Film

Doug Richardson

Professor of City and Regional Planning Michael Dear

Jim Ketchum

Sarah Luria

Geohumanities identifies a convergence of transdisciplinary thought characterized by geography’s engagement with the humanities, and the humanities’ integration of place and the tools of geography into its studies. With this cutting edge book, an international collaboration of scholars, architects, artists, activists, scientists and writers map this emerging intellectual terrain. This volume explores the creative zone at the edge of the humanities’ rapidly expanding engagement with geography, and the multi-methodological inquiries that analyze the meanings of place, and then reconstruct those meanings to provoke new knowledge as well as the possibility of altered political practices. It is no coincidence that the geohumanities are forcefully emerging at a time of immense intellectual and social change. The book’s contributors address urgent contemporary imperatives, such as the link between creativity and place; altered practices of spatial literacy; the increasing complexity of visual representation in art, culture, and science; and the ubiquitous presence of geospatial technologies in the Information Age.

Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place

GeoHumanities

Stephanie Barron

Ilene Susan Fort

Sheri Bernstein

Richard Rodriguez

Howard Fox

Unusually inclusive, visually intriguing, and beautifully produced, Made in California will appeal to anyone who has lived in, visited, or imagined California.".

Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000

Made in California

Why Walls Won't Work is a sweeping account of life along the United States-Mexico border zone, tracing the border's history of cultural interaction since the earliest Mesoamerican times to the present day. As soon as Mexicans, American settlers, and indigenous peoples came into contact along the Rio Grande in the mid-nineteenth century, new forms of interaction and affiliation evolved. By the late-twentieth century, the border states were among the fastest-growing regions in both countries. But as Michael Dear warns, this vibrant zone of economic, cultural and social connectivity is today threatened by highly restrictive American immigration and security policies as well as violence along the border. The U.S. border-industrial complex and the emerging Mexican narco-state are undermining the very existence of the "third nation" occupying the space between Mexico and the U.S. Through a series of evocative portraits of contemporary border communities, Dear reveals how the promise and potential of this "in-between" nation still endures and is worth protecting. Now with a new chapter updating this story and suggesting what should be done about the challenges confronting the cross-border zone, Why Walls Won't Work represents a major intellectual intervention into one of the most hotly-contested political issues of our era.

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Why Walls Won't Work

Jennifer Wolch

This book illuminates the profound influence of geography on everyday life. Concentrating on the realm of social reproduction – gender, family, education, culture and tradition, race, ethnicity the contributors provide both an articulation of a theory of territory and reproduction and concrete empirical analyses of the evolution of social practices in particular places. At the core of the book’s contribution is the concept of society as a ‘time-space’ fabric, upon which are engraved the processes of political, economic and socio-cultural life. A second distinctive feature of the book is its substantive focus on the relation between territory and social practice. Thirdly, it represents a significant step in the redefinition of the research agenda in human geography.

How Territory Shapes Social Life

The Power of Geography (RLE Social & Cultural Geography)

From Chicago to L.A. begins the task of defining an alternative agenda for urban studies and examines the case for shifting the focus of urban studies from Chicago to Los Angeles. The authors, experienced scholars from a variety of disciplines, examine: The concepts that have blocked our understanding of Southern California cities The imaginative structures that people have been using to understand and explain Los Angeles The utility of the "Los Angeles School" of urbanism

Making Sense of Urban Theory

From Chicago to L.A.

Gustavo Leclerc

First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Michael Dear

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