Harnessing the Forces of Disorder. New Forms of Control in the Age of Transmigration

Neuerscheinung | Special Issue @ Behemoth. A Journal on Civilization 5(1/2012)

Edi­ted by Elena Buck, Ser­hat Kara­ka­yali, Mathias Rodatz

Open access @ Degruyter

The four arti­cles collec­ted in this spe­cial issue con­tri­bute to the effort of theo­ri­zing emer­ging forms of governing trans­mi­gra­tion. They are explo­ring how the rela­ti­ons bet­ween trans­na­tio­nal “life” and social prac­tice on the one hand, and norms and forms of regu­la­tion on the other hand, are nego­tia­ted and accom­plis­hed in dif­fe­rent cases. While the con­tri­bu­ti­ons cover a wide variety of topics and trends, they are cor­re­spon­ding in that they con­sider migration’s deter­ri­tor­ria­li­zing effects not from the angle of their oppo­si­tion to the »natio­nal« state and »natio­nal« society, but rather as some­thing that is incre­a­sin­gly con­tai­ned by con­cepts of governing.

The com­mon framing of migra­tion as some­thing exter­nal to society, and the cor­re­spon­ding role of the state acting in “defense of society” (Fou­cault) against migra­tion as a cen­tral force of dis­or­der “floo­ding” or “inva­ding” sover­eign ter­ritory, seem to be losing momen­tum. The dyna­mics and velo­city asso­cia­ted with trans­na­tio­nal mobi­lity are incre­a­sin­gly per­cei­ved as cor­re­spon­ding with rather than in oppo­si­tion to the way society orga­ni­zes its­elf. The per­cep­tion of trans­mi­gra­tion and its gover­nance as a neo­li­be­ral pro­ject is pro­bably stron­gly rela­ted to this fact. Con­trol, here, is much more than the taming and preven­tion of dis­or­der in the con­text of the para­digm of sover­eignty cri­ti­ci­zed by Fou­cault, but rather resem­bles a form of laissez-faire aimed at har­n­es­sing the pro­duc­tivity of hete­ro­ge­neous orders. Thus, the dia­gram of power is ren­de­red rela­tio­nal. As such it allows for a tota­li­zing and dysto­pian per­spec­tive, accor­ding to which there is not­hing beyond these powers of con­trol – but at the same time, it reve­als how power always relies on poten­ti­ally hetero­to­pic practices.

Contents/Inhalt

Elena Buck, Ser­hat Kara­ka­yali, Mathias Rodatz | Edi­to­rial [english]

Sabine Hess | Gefan­gen in der Mobi­li­tät. Pre­käre Zonie­rungs­pro­zesse an den Rän­dern Euro­pas [deutsch]

jos­hua j. kurz | (Dis)locating Con­trol: Trans­mi­gra­tion, Pre­ca­rity and the Govern­men­ta­lity of Con­troll [english]

Sebas­tian Sierra Barra | Post­li­be­rale Sou­ve­rä­ni­tät und Datenkörper–Ungeplante Asso­zia­tio­nen [deutsch]

Mathias Rodatz | Pro­duk­tive „Par­al­lel­ge­sell­schaf­ten“. Migra­tion und Ord­nung in der (neo­li­be­ra­len) „Stadt der Viel­falt“ [deutsch]

Rezen­sio­nen [deutsch]

 

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