Embodied bordering: crossing over, protecting, and neighboring

In the chapter, we study the manifestations of our embodied borders, between social, ecological, and economic encounters, and in the academic practice of writing research from different disciplinary traditions. We have joined under the term ‘bordering’ referring to both ‘doing’ and ‘being’, a method and a concept for analysis. Bordering is exercised in order to issue responsiveness and responsibility in our being in the world. For this, we join as one academic body in critically practicing feminist new materialism and phenomenology, recognizing the influence of our human embodiment when borders are treated as connecting lines for encounters rather than dividing boundaries. Bodily bordering is studied in three contexts: the Covid-19 virus by concentrating on social isolating, ecological border breaching, and inequalities; by entering a Namibian Mall as an evoking space, contrasting black bodies with one’s whiteness; and by embodied movement exercises in a Western work organization.