Citizens and Borderwork in Europe

Border Region

Europe

Language(s)

Anglais

Type

Note on a scientific paper, a conference paper, etc.

Main Category

Regional Development – Sustainability

Governance – Power – Cooperation

Introduction

The terrorist threat all around the world have shift the common perception of what we consider as borders. What used to be at the outskirt of the territory are found nowadays in the midst of society. Borders, has expressed by Balibar, are increasingly diffused, differentiated and dispersed.

Summary

This article focuses on a crucial but neglected aspect of borders in Europe’s changing borders: the role of citizens in envisioning, constructing, maintaining and erasing borders. Borderwork is very much the business of citizens, of ordinary people. They are the one involved in constructing, experiencing and contesting them throughout Europe on any spatial scale from the geopolitical to the local. Our everyday life is subject to securisation. From checkpoints outside supermarkets, the use of credit cards while shopping, we face different kinds of borders.

Content

This paper is divided in several sections. After a general introduction about the topic, the author helps us to familiarize with it by developing two points:

1. THE DESIRE OF BORDER

We are living in a world where more and more, for several different reasons, people are attached to borders. These borders work as asymmetric membranes built to allow a certain type of flow, considered as good, and block another one, considered undesirable.

2. UNDERSTANDING BORDERS

The power citizens have on borders is not to underestimate. Citizens can transform the meaning of borders or repurpose them depending on how the use them. More and more, borders, as remote controls, are found within the state. Private actors, travel agencies and others are involved in the process of building, controlling and maintaining borders.

Following these 2 points, the author talks about 3 contexts within which we can understand borderwork:

Borderwork in the face of “Everyday Fear” : We are living in world where people are in a permanent way threatened by several different things to the points that they have nourish the desire to feel protected by borders.
Borderwork as an Expression of People power : With globalization, the idea of global civil society has raised. People, by building more dense networks and increasing the amount of cross-border activities have the potential to erode national and other official borders.
Europe’s cosmopolitan borders : One of the main dimensions to Europe cosmopolitan borders is that many actors now participate in borderwork and borders are not easily owned by political elites and/or institutions of the state. Individuals, businesses and political interests are engaged in borderwork across Europe.

The article ends with a paragraph focusing on democratization of borders. By referring to a series of articles, the author helps us to understand ways borders can be put in the service of men and brought under their collective control.

These articles are organized in 3 groups tackling:

The involvement of citizens in practices of securisation
The different ways in which citizens can “enact Europe” through their borderwork
The erosion of borders internal to EU space and the opportunities for borderwork created by the changing nature of these borders.

Conclusions

This article brings to light several different points concerning citizens and borderwork in Europe:

Citizens play a very important role in envisioning, constructing, maintaining and erasing borders. They are at the center of border issues. It is citizens that are experiencing borders and how they perceive the environment around them defines their need of borders.
Since people are living in permanent fear state due to terrorism and other reasons, borders have become parts of our everyday life. Lahay and Guiraudon talk about them as “remote control”. From supermarkets checkpoints to access restrictions while using credit card for shopping, we are living in a world of securisation.
Seen as asymmetric membranes, borders are meant to allow specific flows of people or goods and restrict others considered as undesirable. The remaining questions about this system is who defines who/what is desirable or not? What criteria are used to procced to this selection? At the same time, borders can be walls and bridges as expressed by Liam O’Dowd.
Borderworks are not anymore only the matter of central states. Today, private entities, travel agencies and carriers are involved in it. Borders are not easily owned by political élites or/and institutions of the state. Individuals, businesses and political interests are to take into consideration.
People power has grown with globalization at such a point that that it has brought up the idea of global civil society. Networks between communities has been built and the greater they are the most they can impact national or official borders.
Democratization of borders is linked to democratization of Europe according to Etienne Balibar. Citizens play a crucial role to it through their involvement in practices of securisation, ways they enact Europe using borderwork and their ability to change Europe borders’ nature.

Key Messages

This article helps us to understand how important citizens are when it comes to borderwork. More than a political matter, borders are the matter of businesses and citizens. Ways people influence borderwork can be active or passive. In the active way people build, maintain or erode borders when the passive way is more focused on how they experience or perceive them. Terrorism and many other threats people face every day are reasons behind citizens needs of borders. They have installed a state of permanent fear among citizens. Nowadays, Borders are everywhere. There are just different levels of sensitivity to them.

Lead

Chris Rumford

Author of the entry

Perrine

Dethier

Links

https://doi.org/10.1080/13562570801969333

Keywords