Why Walls Don't Work, by Michael Dear

Abstract

Berkeley Planning Journal, Volume 26, 2013 Why Walls Won’t Work By Michael Dear Oxford University Press, 2013 Reviewed by Daniela De Leo Michael Dear’s 1 latest book offers a new reading of the vast territory along the US–Mexico border, which he describes as one of “the most misunderstood places on earth” (p. xi). In his first nine chapters, the author describes the main purpose of the wall recently installed on the border. This wall was created with the aim of countering illegal immigration and containing the drug wars fomented by the Mexican cartels. The author then explains “why walls don’t work,” arguing that such borders can be considered largely ineffective and indeed destructive for the space that surrounds them. Professor Dear and his students carried out research for the book while traveling up and down both sides of a border that runs 1,969 miles from Tijuana to Brownsville, focusing on the people who live within this “defensive/offensive system” 2 rather than upon the physical reality of the wall itself. Dear refers to the people who inhabit the “in-between” space between two nation-states as a “third nation” and argues that this third nation, which preexisted the wall, has its own economy, environment, law, politics, and culture. His book is the story of this complex transitional area that may be considered a “nation” despite the fact that it does not itself constitute a nation-state 3 . In his conclusion, Dear notes that people always find ways around the walls. Literally, they pass over them, through them, and around them. This is due to the fact that governments and private interests continue to open passages and gaps in the wall. In order to support his thesis, he reminds us that the demographic composition of the United States has long-since been characterized by a substantial Hispanic population, despite the periodic “resurgence of racism,” while Mexico, despite its many problems, 1. Professor of City and Regional Planning, College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley. 2. Considerable literature exists on this issue. Peter Marcuse, “Walls as a Metaphor and Reality,” in S. Dunn, Managing Divided Cities (Ryburn Publishing, 1994), 41–52, or Teresa Caldeira, City of Walls (Berkeley: UC Berkeley Press, 2000), give an idea of the debate. 3. But one of the critical questions might be whether this third nation can do anything without being a State?