Border communities
Les sociétés de frontière
Treizième numéro de Frontière•s, revue d’archéologie, histoire et histoire de l’art
Abstract
The next issue of Frontière·s will focuses on ‘border communities’ that have emerged from this unique milieu of interactivity. Border communities – which have a tendency to settle in border zones rather than along border lines – originate from negotiations, hybridization and melting pots just as much as from conflicts, domination and violent situations. Depending on the context and level of analysis, they can therefore be regarded either as ‘in between’ societies shaped by the exchanges, agreements and accommodations specific to interface zones or as face-to-face societies based on mutual violence, anchored on opposite sides of a somewhat arbitrary dividing line defined by discourses and practices.
Announcement
Argument
The French term frontière (border) originally belonged to the military sphere, referring to the battlefront or frontier. The next issue of Frontière·s aims to explore this seminal concept by focusing on ‘border communities’ that have emerged from this unique milieu of interactivity. The concept of border communities is of particular interest in that it provides a long-term perspective on these complex societies, defined by dynamics of interaction and acculturation, with no disregard for the deeply conflictual nature behind their development. Indeed, border communities – which have a tendency to settle in border zones rather than along border lines – originate from negotiations, hybridization and melting pots just as much as from conflicts, domination and violent situations. Depending on the context and level of analysis, they can therefore be regarded either as ‘in between’ societies shaped by the exchanges, agreements and accommodations specific to interface zones or as face-to-face societies based on mutual violence, anchored on opposite sides of a somewhat arbitrary dividing line defined by discourses and practices.
Authors are invited to explore border communities in the ancient and medieval worlds. Topics may encompass, without limitation, aspects such as:
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The manner in which border communities are formed, transformed and defined by all forms of interaction and settled in unstable territories;
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The specific characteristics of these societies, given that their very existence stems from the border itself: social organization and hierarchy, actors, practices, representations, imagination, etc.;
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The military and contentious nature of border communities, and their ability to adapt and demonstrate resilience in violent contexts;
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The relation between border communities and their so-called hinterland or domestic territory, especially, albeit not exclusively, in context of imperial constructions. Are border communities by definition marginal? To what extent do they conform to a central model? Or, do they, in fact, assert their own distinctiveness?
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The concept of ‘border communities’, which is employed to denote culturally distinct populations within larger groups, may be examined and discussed. This concept extends beyond the conventional geopolitical definition of borders.
This call for papers is open to all researchers working on Antiquity or the Middle Ages, in the fields of history, archaeology or art history.
Schedule
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June 2026: opening of the call
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April the 30th 2027: end of the call
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December 2027: publication
Submission guidelines
Authors must submit their contributions using dedicated submission interface. All paper proposals will consist of a text in French or English, or possibly Italian, of up to 35,000 characters (excluding spaces and bibliography), accompanied by an abstract (between 800 and 1,200 characters, excluding spaces) and a keyword list chosen in the thesaurus Pactols in the language of the article. Authors who wish can contact the committee to check the suitability of their subject with the call.
If the article includes illustrations, the authors must adhere strictly to the journal’s guidelines. They are requested to limit themselves to ten images, and multiple images per figure will not be considered as a single image.
For further information: https://journals.openedition.org/frontieres/2044
Review policy
Review process: double blind peer review
Average time between submission and publication: 24 weeks
Bibliography
Boissellier S. et Malbos L. 2021, ‘Frontières spatiales, frontières sociales au Moyen Âge. Rapport introductif’, in Frontières spatiales, frontières sociales au Moyen Âge. LIe congrès de la SHMESP, Perpignan, 21 mai – 22 mai 2020, Paris, Éditions de la Sorbonne, p. 11-38, DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.psorbonne.109666.
Bertrand M. et Planas N. (ed.) 2011, Les sociétés de frontière. De la Méditerranée à l’Atlantique (xvie-xviiie siècle), Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 2011, DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cvz.1021.
Guédon S. 2018, La frontière romaine de l’Africa sous le Haut-Empire, Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cvz.6537.
Whittaker C.R. 2008, Rome and Its Frontiers, London, Routledge.
Keywords
- frontière, société de frontière, antiquité, Moyen-Âge
Reference Urls
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .
To cite this announcement
Charles-Alban Horvais, Maxime Emion, « Border communities », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, July 01, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/16hwb
Author(s)
Charles-Alban Horvais
Maxime Emion
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