Kaiserslautern Borderland

The area around the German city of Kaiserslautern - or K-Town in American parlance - is home to approximately 50,000 Americans who live within the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the largest organized settlement of American citizens outside the U.S.A. This book comprises the first study to use the concept of the border in order to analyze this bi-national encounter of otherwise transatlantic neighbors. Presenting thick descriptions of the geographical, legal, political, economic and cultural contexts of this German-American borderland, the author highlights similarities and differences to conventional international border situations and elucidates the impact of the special temporal and spatial circumstances on the contact region.

Autorentext

Jörg Zorbach studied American Studies, Sociology, and Social Anthropology at the Universities of Mainz (Germany) and Canterbury (United Kingdom).

Inhalt

Contents: American military presence in Germany - German-American relations - Rhineland-Palatinate - Kaiserslautern Military Community - German-American bi-national contact space - Border region - Border concept - Borderland theory - Little America - Enclave model - Space and place - Asymmetry of time.