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Bordering the World in Response to Emerging Infectious Disease: The Case of SARS-CoV-2
No full textFacing emerging zoonose SARS-CoV-2, states decided unilaterally to close borders to individuals and revealed deep processes at work ‘bordering of the world’. Smart borders promoted by international organizations have allowed the filtering of indispensables (merchandise, data, capital and key workers) from dispensables (human beings) and, above all, the redefinition of the balance of biopolitical power between state and society. The observation of the unprecedented phenomenon of the activation and generalization of the global border machinery captures a common global dynamic. After a round-the-world tour of border closures between 21 January and 7 July 2020, we concentrate on a few emblematic cases: the Schengen zone, the USA–Canada and USA–Mexico borders, Brazil–Uruguay, Malaysia–Singapore and Morocco–Spain. We interrogate the justification and the strategies of border closure in a context of the global spread of an emerging epidemic, going beyond the simple medical argument. Choices appear to be dependent on ideological orientations henceforth dominant on the function and role of borders. We will discuss the acceleration of the bordering of the world, the forms of its outcome and its difficult reversibility
Section Introduction: Comparing and Contrasting EU Border and Migration Policy – Are They Exemplary?
No full textThis special section (thanks to the Jean Monnet Network, a European Union Erasmus+ Grant) explores the impact of migration crises on European borders, internal and external, from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The following articles adopt comparative, historical, legal, sociological, and discursive approaches in order to confront questions arising from the 2015 Schengen and Dublin political crises, which seem to have put an end to the ideal of a “Europe without borders”. 
New Grounds in Border Studies (review essay)
No full textThis review essay explores the contributions of six recent volumes in border studies
Northern Ireland: Managing COVID-19 Across Open Borders: Managing Covid-19 in Northern Ireland
No full textThe early response to the coronavirus pandemic in Northern Ireland revealed three things. First, although part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is integrally connected in very practical ways to the Republic of Ireland. Policies and practices regarding COVID-19 on the southern side of the Irish land border had a direct impact on those being formulated for the North. Secondly, as well as differences in scientific advice and political preferences in the bordering jurisdictions, a coherent policy response was delayed by leaders’ failures to communicate in a timely manner with counterparts on the other side of the border. And, thirdly, different policies on either side of an open border can fuel profound uncertainty in a borderland region; but this can give rise to community-level action that fills the gaps in ways that can actually better respond to the complexity of the situation. This essay draws on the author’s close observation of events as they happened, including news coverage, press conferences and public statements from the three governments concerned over the period of March-October 2020. 
confined body
No full textI wrote CONFINED BODY during the confinement. I was a prohibited citizen, banned citizen. I had no right to move or to travel. My body has become a frontier. Mobile frontier. The thin and thick membrane barrier between me and the world of contagion. My body was confined. I was observing and watching my body as a fortress and at the same time as an imprisoned organism. Recluded, cut off, isolated, limited, forbidden, confined, in quarantine, in silence, in immobility. I wrote this poem observing my confined body and everything that came out and that I let in inside my body. It was a traumatic experience