InterventionBetween crises and borders: Interventions on Mediterranean Neighbourhood and the salience of spatial imaginaries
Section snippets
Revisiting political geographies of Neighbourhood: politics of in/visibility
James W. Scott
An impressive body of international research has engaged with the rationales, dynamics and societal consequences of micro and macro-level regional integration projects (e.g. Celata and Coletti, 2015, Sidaway, 1998, Söderbaum, 2009, Telò, 2007). This research has also offered robust templates for critical analyses of globalization, shifting state territorialities and the networked nature of territorial and ideational hegemony (Perkmann and Sum, 2002, Sidaway, 2002, Sparke, 2006).
Bordering or borderscapes? New migrant agencies
Chiara Brambilla
In their article entitled ‘The Mediterranean Alternative’ (2010:346) Giaccaria and Minca offer us an interesting reflection on the Mediterranean as ‘fertile ground’ for the exploration of alternative spatial imaginaries to modern geopolitical thinking. In this light, the Mediterranean speaks directly to some of the key preoccupations of critical border studies that concern a need to critically revisit its now standard conceptual and methodological toolbox in order to grasp the
The politics and perils of external Europeanization
Filippo Celata and Raffaella Coletti
If recent events are any reliable measure, the internal consolidation and external projection of the EUropean territory seems to have reached a dead end. At the time of this writing six EU countries have reintroduced border controls which could lead to a de-facto suspension of the Schengen agreement. At the same time, the construction of a post-national European polity is challenged by the rise of nationalist and anti-EU governments, parties and political
Politics of selective in/visibility in the Mediterranean Neighbourhood: the Arab Spring experience
Hans-Joachim Bürkner
The achievement of regional cooperation and partnership between the EU and southern Mediterranean states reflects considerably reduced expressions of EU actorness albeit at a high human cost in terms of border securitization and inadequate responses to migration. One argument that can be raised is that the EU has responded to this situation by focusing on a redoubled politics of in/visibility. At one level this has to do with the EU's attempts to maintain a semblance of
Ceuta and Melilla as a Euro-African borderscape – more than states of exception within the exception of the state?
Xavier Ferrer-Gallardo and Lorenzo Gabrielli
The Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are emblematic monuments to bordering. They have received much attention in critical political geography as prime examples of frontiers, borderlands and outposts epitomizing the spatial imaginary of Fortress Europe. Over the last two decades, these two cities have gained widespread media attention as a frontline in the attempt to secure Europe's borders from unwanted migration and terrorist threat. These
Conflict of interest statement
None.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the support of the EUBORDERSCAPES research project, funded by the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (Contract 270995). We also wish to acknowledge James Sidaway's helpful encouragement in the elaboration of this intervention.
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