A theoretical typology of border activism: From the streets to the Council

Abstract

Based on a case study of border struggles within the city of Barcelona since the beginning of the 21st century, this article examines diverse types of border activism. Border activism refers to collective efforts by ordinary people to modify, mitigate or even dismantle a border regime. While several migration and citizenship scholars have analysed migrant protests and struggles, these accounts have been hardly taken into consideration within the field of criminology. My work contributes to this vacuum. Specifically, this article develops a theoretical typology for analysing four different forms of border activism: migrant struggles; de facto citizen struggles; border protests; and institutional border activism. For each form of activism, I consider its framework, the subject position of the political actors involved, the repertoires of contention utilized to achieve change and the impact of the different kinds of local actions for reshaping the border regime and the lives of migrants.