friction

Tsing's elaboration on 'Frontier' was very helpful in forming her critique of late capitalism based on post-colonial logic.

That the narrative developed by capitalism, to be successful, "require[d] de Guzman [to] wander alone on an empty landscape, (66)" shows any space, real or imaginary, is suspect to commoditification. This newly discovered threat is worked out by means analyzing 'frontier-ness'; Tsing describes a frontier as an "imaginative project," rather than an actual place, this project is one fundamentally paradoxical, as the frontier brings with it notion of known and unknown, legitimate and taboo (33). Furthermore, being a "space of desire" for vastly different communities, individuals and financial institutions makes a frontier a perfect place for Tsing's multifaceted concept of friction, with its polysemic origins and results. Is this frontier, which creates its own demands through binary opposites (explorable-off limits etc.) a requirement for friction?