Since it is through the borders and boundaries of places that places themselves are constituted as such, so the idea of the border and the boundary has become an important focus for investigation in its own right – all the more so given the current political concern with border-protection and border-security at a national level. However, the ideas of the border and the boundary appear as significant in many different contexts, for instance, in discussion of the rise of ‘gated’ communities; in contests over disciplinary differentiation; in investigations of the interface between region and centre, between island and mainland, core and preliphery, urban and peri-urban. Border places are also transitional places, and understood as such, border places encompass the airport lounge, the highway, and perhaps even the permutational spaces that are opened up through artistic practice and performance.