Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Production of Local Space on an International Border.

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Doctoral student, Laura K. Neck, with the guidance of Dr. Kirk Dombrowski, will undertake social science research on local responses to the federal border wall currently being constructed in Brownsville, Texas. The researcher will examine the relationship between national economic and security concerns, increased border controls, and the understandings and responses of border area residents. The researcher will employ multiple social science methods including respondent driven sampling, structured interviews, informal semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and content analysis of letters addressed to local newspapers. Over time, Brownsville, which is one of the busiest Land Ports of Entry into the United States, has developed economically, socially, and culturally around relatively open access to Mexico. The Border Wall may transform that situation. This research will compare ethnographic data on local responses to the anticipation of the border wall and its effects on local spaces with national perceptions about securing borders. The research will help to better understand the dynamic relations between local and larger social systems as they relate to public policy and the control of space. It also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.