The Border as a ‘Broken Middle’: Pursuing an Ethical Approach to Bordering

Abstract

ABSTRACT Critical border studies is increasingly articulating ethical approaches to borders and bordering practises. In this paper, I heed this impulse, by articulating a notion of the border as a ‘broken middle’ in which the bounds of the absolute are challenged and held answerable for injustices. The ‘broken middle’ is a concept developed by British theorist Gillian Rose, for whom it represents a dialectic conceptual space both between and within apparent binaries. The broken middle requires a reassembly of the bounds of each—a confrontation of self—in the pursuit of an evasive yet hopeful ethics. The application of the broken middle to the border illuminates the ambiguities of its physical space, and the ways in which bordering practises represent the imposition of unjust binaries. I finish by considering how a work by Beit Sahour-based collective, Decolonising Architecture Art Residency (DAAR), begins the difficult, pragmatic, and ever-hopeful work of the broken middle in the border.