ABSTRACT
The Material Politics of Movement


Abstract
States, in order to make effective their abstract notions of borders, nations, welfare, equality, citizenship, legal protection, rights and territory are in dire need of material articulations. In contrast, the way these notions are presented to us is seldom associated with material infrastructures. It is of importance, to speak of such material articulations as acts of designing. The articulations that states and non-state actors make, fabricate and design involve various levels, shapes and scales.

In this presentation, I will discuss a series of material articulations that state and non-state actors design, produce and distribute in order to configure what bodies are to be recognised as regular, semi-regular or/and irregular in the context of moving and migration. These articulations pertain to passports, camps and borders. They are not mere instruments facilitating oppressive policies of migration. They shape, produce, persuade and perpetuate certain politics of movement in different localities with a tendency towards a global rationality.
Drawing on a series of cases, examples and moments, I will show how materiality and design have been and are involved in shaping the current politics of movement in terms of illegalising certain bodies. I will also show how the very same capacity of design and materiality can generate certain counter-hegemonic interventions in current politics of movement.


PLACE
To be announced