excluding mechanism and can once again reinforce the separation between centre and periphery, highlighting the issue that outside the city there is something else — something that requires an higher price in order to be reached, a price which is not simply a monetary one. All these messages are conveyed by a simple, dotted line drawn on the public transport map: a border which is invisible, yet implicit and absolutely powerful. Conclusions Many are the implicit barriers that we don’t acknowledge but nevertheless influence our daily experiences, provoking fears or stimulating hopes. These two short tales have tried to depict very different situations that we may experience in cities and tried to point to a wider, background awareness: borders exist and their effectiveness appeal to often implicit dimensions. Just like many other cases, these examples demand that we should not underestimate borders and that we should question their broader consequences, drawing on what we experience every day. Maybe, while we try to understand and even challenge them, borders should make us ask: who is really afraid of the dark?
Notes Aas, M. (2009), Screens and Hedges, http://www.marteaas.com/works/15_ screens_hedges.php Augé, M. (2009), Pour une anthropologie de la mobilité, Paris: Payot Bauman, Z. (2003), City of fears, city of hope, London: Goldsmith Raffestin, C. (1980), Pour une géographie du pouvoir, Paris: Librairies Techniques Vergilius, P. M., Bucolicae Movies: Kassovitz, M. (1995), La haine Cantet, L. (2008), Entre les murs
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