Crossing riverborderscapes and a view from in‐between: Passenger ferries in South West England

Abstract

This paper explores the everyday experiences of crossing rivers that form local borders. It proposes and utilises the term ‘riverborderscape’ to bring together the particularities, complexities, and creativities associated with these border crossings. The term draws on three areas of scholarship. First, the riverborderscape draws on recent scholarly attention to the materiality, and effects on understanding space and place, of watery environments. Second, the term draws on scholarship from within border studies and cognate disciplines that highlights the border as a liminal space. Third, landscape geographies are used to examine the imagination and performance of crossing riverborderscapes. The paper reports on research carried out with passengers, crew, and communities on three rivers in South West England where the ferry routes cross local administrative boundaries. Over the course of the research, participants shared their experiences of crossing these river borders through writing and drawings created while on board the ferry, as well as through surveys and interviews. The research highlights the effects of the materiality of the river on the routes and experiences of crossing, the role of humour in the construction and subversion of everyday boundaries, and the river in‐between as a liminal space, a landscape where the imagination may be unmoored and creative licence temporarily set free.