Mos Maiorum

Yesterday an all too familiar scene at the Italian-Swiss border in Chiasso: a young African, probably from Eritrea or Somalia, is being accompanied the border guards from the Cisalpino train connnecting Milan and Zürich – with no apparent signs of resistance. According to the Swiss newspaper NZZ, since January 2014 5721 Eritreans have demanded asylum in Switzerland, notwithstanding sharper bureaucratic scrutiny since 2012. In the meantime, the massive European police deployment Mos Maiorum apparently generates more state violence against migrants in South Italy. Keep reporting public police checkpoints and identity checks throughout the European Union.

 

Violence on the Margins: book release

9781137333988On 28 August my co-edited volume with Benedikt Korf about ‘Violence on the Margins: States, Conflict, and Borderlands’ came out with Palgrave MacMillan Press (preview).

This boldly multidisciplinary volume surveys African and Asian conflicts through individuals’ lived experiences of territorial borders, as well as the ways these experiences affect political configurations. The contributions gathered here depict borderlands not just as the objects of globalized or state-driven processes, but as actual political units that generate their own actions and outcomes. In particular, these studies demonstrate the explicit transboundary character of conflict and peace. In this way, they explore alternatives to the still-dominant model of contemporary state formation as a centrally guided, top-down process – a model that has led to a deep misunderstanding of borderlands as marginal spaces that either are fraught with savagery and rebellion or linger in dark oblivion (cover picture on this page courtesy Elien Spillebeen).
You may order the book here