The Politics of (Un)fixity and the Vernacularisation of Borders

Abstract

The paper offers an alternative interpretation of borders, one not centred on a familiar state–security–mobility nexus. It outlines a “vernacularised” border studies which emphasises the role of ordinary people in bordering activity and the potential for connectivity that borders often display, coupled with a recognition that borders are not always a possession of the nation state. The paper outlines ways in which border politics are manifest in processes of fixity/unfixity; in a “world in motion” borders are structures of fixity that lend order to everyday interactions (ontological security). Moreover, borders are a political resource that a range of actors can draw upon in everyday life. The framework for a vernacularised border studies is applied to three cases: the “Stroud pound”, an example of bottom-up securitisation via a vernacular border; and the EU's Frontex border and the UK's offshore border, both of which show an ambivalence between fixity and unfixity. In these cases the intentionality of the borders is not matched by their accountability. The paper ends by relating the discussion of vernacularised borders to Appadurai's interpretation of “production festishism” in order to further highlight the complex interaction of the local and the global in bordering practices.