From Borders to Seams

Abstract

Abstract Geographic borders and social boundaries generate an ongoing interrogation about who belongs in the ingroup and who should be excluded. Unlike borders and boundaries, the concept of “seams” recognizes, in civic contexts, the mutual dependence and opposition of connected parties. Civic life, in its authentic sense, is “seamed”—it is not about a priori, “fixed” attributions of sex, race, or caste. Seams, in the sartorial metaphor, are both a line of delineation and of suturing. In the context of extraordinary global flows, transnational identities, dual citizenship, and the like (together with counter trends of renewed nationalism), this chapter re-conceptualizes borders to account for changes on the ground. In contexts where seams are recognized and facilitated, we move beyond “insiders and outsiders” and toward more scalar understandings of relational ties. We may even get beyond the foregrounding of categories like ethnicity, class, and caste in favor of collective civic projects.