The summary is: The document discusses how an investigation of a postborder condition must consider both the physical border landscapes as well as the mental maps of its inhabitants. It notes that the investigation must confront both the hard edges of physical fences between countries, as well as dreams of crossing those borders. The authors argue that understanding a postborder city requires examining both the material and mental geographies that are characteristic of that place.

7. The city goes soft; it awaits the imprint of an identity. For better or worse,
it invites you to remake it, to consolidate it into a shape you can live
in…Decide who you are, and the city will again assume a fixed form around
you. Decide what it is, and your own identity will be revealed. Jonathan
Raban
Hence, our account of a postborder condition must also, of necessity,
deal with the material physicality of border landscapes as well as the
mental maps of its inhabitants. Our investigation must confront the
hard edges of the fence between countries, as well as dreams of
crossing the line. Michael Dear and Gustavo Leclerc, Postborder City.
Making Material and Mental Geographies.

8. What are some mental and material geographies characteristic of the San Diego U.S./Mex.
Border?

9. Material & Mental Geographies.
• Militarized boarder
• Military basis
• Urban development
• Consumerism
• Maquiladoras
• Drug cartels
• Poverty
• Affluence
• Discrimination
• How do different
people come to
represent these
material borders ?
• In this veneer-like zone
where the soft and hard
cities converge, the
process of creativity
begins.

10. Vladimir Herzog