Boris Nieswand is a sociologist at the University of Tübingen. His fields of interests are migration, diversity, cities, border regimes and ethnography. In his short introductory remarks Boris will explore to which extent borders can be understood as means of creating and governing spatial divisions that separate zones of well-being from an social and geographical outside (zones of ill-being) where the well-being of individuals and groups does not count in a political or legal sense.

Javier Ruiz-Tagle is assistant professor at the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His areas of interest are residential segregation, housing policies, neighborhood effects, urban marginality, self-organized housing, urban sociology, and comparative studies. In his presentation, he will describe the main findings from his last project, “Urban Marginality and Institutional Effects”, showing problems of disinvestment, inefficiency and stigmatization in territorially excluded and marginal neighborhoods in Santiago de Chile. He will also show the framing of a new project that continues the previous one, “The Politics of Urban Marginality”, formulating a socio-historical parallel between the so-called “classic ghettos” and Santiago’s “Poblaciones Emblemáticas”: highly politicized informal settlements established in the 60s and 70s, and currently (partially) disintegrated by processes of institutional abandonment and the penetration of drug-dealing.

Ruiz-Tagle, J., López-Morales, E., Orozco, H. & Monsalves, S. (2019). Gentrification, Class and Cultural Capital: Economic and Socio-Cultural Transformations in Peri-Central Neighborhoods of Santiago de Chile. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 166: 3-22.
https://www.academia.edu/38928692/Gentrification_Class_and_Cultural_Capital_Economic_and_Socio-Cultural_Transformations_in_Peri-Central_Neighborhoods_of_Santiago_de_Chile
 

Ruiz-Tagle, J. (2019). Bringing Inequality Closer: A Comparative Outlook at Socially Diverse Neighbourhoods in Chicago and Santiago de Chile. In: S., Oosterlynck, G., Verschraegen & R. van Kempen (Editors), Divercities: Understanding Super Diversity in Deprived and Mixed Neighbourhoods. Bristol University Press, pp. 139-164.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv92vpp2.12?refreqid=excelsior%3Afdcfb88c7df2d80e65c3524b7768b29c&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
 

Ruiz-Tagle, J. (2016). Segregation and Integration in Urban Sociology: A Review of Perspectives and Critical Approaches for Public Policy. Revista INVI, 31(87), 9-57.
http://revistainvi.uchile.cl/index.php/INVI/article/view/1070/1266

Ruiz-Tagle, J. (2015). The Broken Promises of Social Mix: The Case of the Cabrini Green/Near North Area in Chicago. Urban Geography, 37(3), 352-372.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02723638.2015.1060697?journalCode=rurb20
 

Ruiz-Tagle, J. (2012). A Theory of Socio-Spatial Integration: Problems, Policies and Concepts from a US Perspective. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(2), 388-408.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01180.x

Marta Stojić Mitrović is an ethnologist and anthropologist. She works as a research associate at the Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade. In her research, she focuses on discourses and practices related to the topics of migration, citizenship, human rights and discrimination in Serbian, regional, and the EU context. 

Stojić Mitrović, M., Ahmetašević, N. Beznec, B. & Kurnik, A. (2020). The Dark Sides of Europeanisation. Serbia, Bosnia and Hertegovina and the European Border Regime. Research Paper Series of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe, 8, 1-135.
https://www.rosalux.rs/sites/default/files/publications/MITROVIC_Dark_Sides_of_EU_.pdf 

Stojić Mitrović, M. & Vilencia, A. (2019). Enforcing and Disrupting Circular Movement in an EU Borderscape: Housingscaping in Serbia. Citizenship Studies, 23(6), 540-558.

Beznec, B., Speer, M. & Stojić Mitrović, M. (2016). Governing the Balkan Route: Macedonia, Serbia and the European Border Regime. Research Paper Series of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe, 5, 1-112. 

https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/engl/Governing_the_Balkan_Route.pdf 

Stojić Mitrović, M. & Meh, E. (2015). The Reproduction of Borders and the Contagiousness of Illegalisation: A Case of a Belgrade Youth Hostel. Гласник Етнографског и нститута САНУ LXIII (3), 623-639.
http://www.ei.sanu.ac.rs/index.php/gei/article/view/237/185

Richard Ballard is a Geographer at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand). His research interests include urban desegregation, racial identity, social policy and urban policy. In recent research, he has been re-examining the role of gated communities in Johannesburg, many of which fortified perimeters. At first glance, these perimeters seem to be hard separators of residents from non-residents. However, the research shows the way in which hundreds of working-class people routinely enter these spaces. While functioning in some ways as separators, these borders also determine the terms upon which different kinds of people can enter space.  
Working-class people are not merely excluded; they are also (following Hickey and du Toit 2007) adversely included.

Richard Ballard, Christian Hamann and Thembani Mkhize (forthcoming) Johannesburg three decades after the Group Areas Act ended: desegregation, resegregation and transformation. In Anthony Lemon, Ronnie Donaldson, Gustav Visser Homes still apart?

Richard Ballard and Christian Hamann (forthcoming) Socio-Economic Segregation and Income Inequality in the City of Johannesburg. In Maarten van Ham, Tiit Tammaru, Ruta Ubareviciene and Heleen Janssen (eds) Urban Socio-Economic Segregation and Income Inequality. Springer

Ballard, Richard (2012) ‘Geographies of Development: Without the Poor’. Progress in Human Geography. 36(5), 562-571.

Ballard, Richard and Jones, Gareth A. (2011) ‘Natural Neighbors: Indigenous Landscapes and Eco-Estates in Durban, South Africa’. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(1), 131-148.

Ballard, Richard (2010) ‘Slaughter in the Suburbs’: Livestock Slaughter and Race in Post-Apartheid Cities. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 33(6), 1069-1087.

Sarover Zaidi has studied philosophy, sociology and social anthropology. Her research work at the Max Planck Institute Germany, focused on religious architecture, everyday life, and  urban spaces in Bombay.  Previously she worked on rural public health, women's rights and poverty issues across India, and currently works on material cultures, Islamic iconography, and modernist architecture in South Asia.She curates an interdisciplinary forum on art, architecture and anthropology, titled 'Elementary forms' and co-runs a site on urbanisms called Chiragh Dilli (https://chiraghdilli.com). She is currently faculty at Jindal School of Art and Architecture, Sonipat, India.