Working the Border: Constructing Sovereignty in the Context of Liberalization

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract 0087356 This Small Grant for Exploratory Research will examine the role of state agents, specifically customs officers, in the management of international boundaries and the implications of this process for the expression of state sovereignty in Ghana. Ghana has recently and successfully implemented market reform policies and promoted liberal foreign trade and investment. The research will investigate how economic liberalization is reflected in and has shaped state boundary control and construction. Three sites - the international airport, a major national border site, and a peripheral border site - will be compared to analyze how different types of global commerce, as well as variation in state surveillance, border officers' training, and local/regional integration, impact state border management. Methods include policy analysis, extensive observation and documentation of day-to-day border activities, decision analysis of border agent activities, structured interviewing of agents, and survey data analysis. This project presents a number of methodological challenges due to the political sensitivity and secrecy surrounding border activities. The researcher has research affiliation and research clearance from the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. This study will contribute to our sociopolitical understanding of the nation state and its efforts to maintain sovereignty in a highly transnational and global world.