ABSTRACT

This chapter contributes to the understanding of smuggling practices through the conceptual lenses of borderlands, frontiers, and borders. The main question the chapter poses is: How does bordering affect smuggling practice? There are two key arguments made throughout the chapter. First, borders are no longer understood as a material, static, homogenous, and binary categories where a line separates and differentiates the “in” and “out,” and the State determines what is allowed and what is proscribed. Second, borders instead are now understood as a social product that is heterogenous, polysemic, and dynamic where multiple actors are engaged in the process of creating meaning and symbolism. The chapter shows that instead of looking at smuggling as a “deviant” or “subversive” practice that challenges the State authority and sovereignty over its territory, it is more fruitful and insightful to look at smuggling in relational terms. This reveals how social relations and networks operate at the border to facilitate enforcement in a more selective way, mediating between local and national interests.