Heritage-ized Places and Spatial Stories: B/Ordering Practices at the Spanish-Portuguese Raya/Raia

TLDR: In this article, the authors examine the politics of representation of the EU interstate borders by examining the Spanish-Portuguese borderline and find that border signs, narratives and feelings have the potential to assume the form of amenities for visitor enjoyment.

Abstract: European Union (EU) internal borders and borderlands have lately become tourist attractions and destinations. Border signs, narratives and feelings have the potential to assume the form of amenities for visitor enjoyment. This paper addresses the politics of representation of the EU interstate borders by examining the Spanish-Portuguese borderline. Located on both sides of the boundary, interpretation centers and border museums display different activities and border spatialities. As experiential and cultural places, these sites b/order meanings through a material and relational affectivity that casts the border, in terms of cultural governance, as a space of representational syncretism.