Borders, Bordering Practices and Mobility in Early Modern Europe

The debates on borders and their management are not a modern phenomenon, harnessed to the rise of the nation state. Borders had already been carefully discussed and negotiated in early modern times. The present volume will respond to recent trends in the historiography of early modern borders, boundaries, and their management from a European perspective. Three important strands have informed recent scholarship on early modern borders: firstly, the study of borders in the context of concepts of sovereignty, territoriality, and the law. Secondly, a praxeological approach to border management analysing the instruments and methods of bordering also in the context of changing spheres and practices of knowledge-production. Thirdly, the study of borders within the framework of migration and mobility studies. These approaches, which are sometimes addressed together in overlapping research, will be discussed in the articles brought together in this volume.