Agnes Horvath is a political theorist and sociologist. She was an affiliate visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UK, 2011 to 2014, and is a Visiting Research Fellow at University College Cork, Ireland. She is a founding editor of the academic journal International Political Anthropology.

Marius Ion Ben¿a is a sociologist, journalist and playwright. He received his PhD from University College Cork, Ireland, and teaches Broadcasting Journalism at the Babe¿-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania.

Joan Davison is Professor of Political Science and a Cornell Distinguished Faculty Member at Rollins College, USA. She has a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and specialises in international relations and comparative politics.

List of figures; Notes on contributors; Preface; Introduction: on the political anthropology of walling (Agnes Horvath, Marius Ion Ben¿a and Joan Davison); Part I: Theorising walling: processes of transformation in history; 1. Walling Europe: the perverted linear transformation (Agnes Horvath); 2. The meaning and meaninglessness of building walls (Arpad Szakolczai); 3. Oppressive walling: Babel and the inverted order of the world (Marius Ion Ben¿a); Part II Contemporary examples for transformations through walling; 4. Walling as encystation: a socio-historical inquiry (Glenn Bowman); 5. Border-crossing and walling states in humanitarian work in Kolkata (Egor Novikov); 6. Liminality and belonging: the life and the afterlives of the Berlin Wall (Harald Wydra); [...] Great Wall of China does not exist (Erik Ringmar); 8. Breaching Fortress Europe: the liminal consequences of the Greek migrant crisis (Manussos Marangudakis); 9. Imaginary walls and the paradox of strength (Arvydas Grišinas); 10. Identities frozen, societies betrayed, communities divided: the US-Mexican Wall (Joan Davison); Conclusion (Agnes Horvath, Marius Ion Ben¿a and Joan Davison); Index