Re-thinking Borders in the Digital Space

Abstract

On the basis of the arguments advanced by Imad Saleh, Nasreddine Bouhai, and Hakim Hachour (Saleh, Bouhai, & Hachour, 2014) concerning the impact of “digital borders” generated by the Internet on the dynamics of inter-disciplinary research, we have been led to blend disciplines in order to develop the following question: are representations in the digital space located in a borderless communication imagery? Here the humanities are called upon to look into the underpinnings of the meanings assigned to digital space, in its conception and its technological praxis. This question also provokes the following underlying reflections: how could we define the notion of borders in relation to a space that is non-territorialized at the level of human perceptions and where customs officials are not quite “in flesh and blood”? How does a border present itself? Does its representation influence conception and technological praxis? As a matter of priority we define what a border is in space for the purpose of confronting this definition with imagined borders in order to analyze the digital space in its continuum between openness and limits.