ABSTRACT
The interdisciplinary emphasis on process, practice and experience means that contemporary borders are observed as multiple and multiplied: They are studied from multiple disciplinary, theoretical and methodological vantage points. The broad argument is that general border studies contain a serious theoretical and philosophical challenge regarding the definition of its very object of study–and it is theoretical-cum-philosophical challenge to which the chapter contributors have been invited to respond. The danger is, of course, that theorising borders in terms of defining the border is, by definition, to define the limits of a discipline that is necessarily open and interdisciplinary given the subject matter. Philosophy aims to develop abstract conceptual frameworks that can be applied broadly, if not universally. Philosophy, being the study of the fundamental phenomena of human existence and the world, is the study of any phenomena relevant to any given science. This chapter also presents some key concepts discussed in this book.
