Professional paper
Barbed wire on the border: practice, representation, and reaction
Eric Ušić
Abstract
This paper is an analysis of the relationship between the social production of space and the multifaceted interpretations thereof. The underlying theory is Lefebvre’s theory of social space; and the analytical and critical segments of the paper focus on Northern Istria and the issue of barbed wire on the Croatian-Slovenian border. The purpose of the paper is to examine the various levels of interpretation, comprehension and the general impression of “barbed wire”, that is taken to be a product of the social practices that produce new social space. The paper contains an analysis of media representations, as well as the statements of the individual actors, used to indicate the stratified interpretations of “barbed wire”, depending on the positions of the social actors themselves. What is meant by social actor is, (the statements of) local politicians, residents, the heads of citizens’ initiatives and protesters. Of particular note is the discourse involving barbed wire and its coding/decoding. In conclusion, barbed wire is said to be an instrument used at two levels, both by the Slovenian government, and by the protest organizers, and that its installation violates the process of the local residents’ identification with the space and the local cultural heritage thereof. In addition, attention is drawn to the importance of resistance space as part of social space transformation.
Keywords
barbed wire (fence); border; Istria; “refugee crisis”; production of space; social space
Hrčak ID:
175039
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2016.
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