CONTESTED BOUNDARIES AND EMERGING PLURALISM

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Abstract
The rise and fall, construction and deconstruction of different types of boundaries - biological, psychological, geographical, cultural, social, political, economic - make up the very story of human civilisation and of contemporary social transformation. Drawing from a wide variety of contexts, this paper shows how new boundaries do not replace the old ones but rather they tend to co-exist. This co-existence is sometimes harmonious but often tension-prone. Life in a society without boundaries will be nasty, brutish and short. On the other hand, societies with a proclivity to maintain boundaries that ignore the pulse of the times will be condemned to stagnation and decay. Thus, boundaries are constantly contested and hence the real challenge is to abolish obsolete boundaries and build desirable new ones which is the essence of pluralism.

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