ABSTRACT
But analysing the margins of a concept can provide valuable insight into how it is constituted. Geographers, historians and anthropologists have long observed the importance of analysing frontiers and borders for gaining a better understanding of how geographical space and communities are constructed. In political science, which is preoccupied with the study of ideologies, political institutions, political processes and political concepts, it is less common to place peripheries and margins at the centre of one’s analysis of a concept. Yet margins and the marginalised often become the centre of social movements and, under certain circumstances, they can become the center of scholarly discourse. They not only have the capacity to draw attention to themselves, but also reveal the complexities and problems at the core of major political concepts, such as the nation and nation-state.
