Sealing Borders? Rethinking Border Studies in Hard Times
- This working paper is based on the keynote lecture held at the International Conference
“B/ORDERS IN MOTION. Current Challenges and Future Perspectives” on November 15,
2018. The talk starts with a couple of snapshots from developments and conflicts in the
Mediterranean in the summer of 2018 in order to conjure up the high stakes of border
studies today. The attempt to seal the maritime border performed in particular by the
Italian government is then discussed within a global framework andThis working paper is based on the keynote lecture held at the International Conference
“B/ORDERS IN MOTION. Current Challenges and Future Perspectives” on November 15,
2018. The talk starts with a couple of snapshots from developments and conflicts in the
Mediterranean in the summer of 2018 in order to conjure up the high stakes of border
studies today. The attempt to seal the maritime border performed in particular by the
Italian government is then discussed within a global framework and against the background
of recent developments in (critical) border studies. The point is made that in
order to understand even the most exclusionary border policies and regimes, there is a
need to take into consideration a multiplicity of heterogeneous bordering devices which
prompt and shape wider transformations of political, social, and economic orders. The
talk closes with an outline from this point of view of some of the main challenges for
border studies in Europe and beyond emerging from the current conjuncture.…

