Perspectives on the European Border Regime: Mobilization, Contestation and the Role of Civil Society

This issue examines politics and practices that challenge the European border regime by contesting and negotiating asylum laws and regulations, practices of separation in refugee camps and accommodation centers, as much as political acts by undocumented migrants and activists seeking alternative ways of cohabitation. The different contributions all highlight the role of civil society initiatives during the migration movements in 2015 and 2016 in Europe by discussing critical perspectives on the European border regime and by looking at migration as a contesting political force. Topics related to mobilization and the appropriation of public spaces to actively declare one’s solidarity, political activism to contest borders and boundary-making approaches (no border movements) and the engagement into voluntary work are critically reflected

Perspectives on the European border regime: mobilization, contestation and the role of civil society

This issue examines politics and practices that challenge the European border regime by contesting and negotiating asylum laws and regulations, practices of separation in refugee camps and accommodation centers, as much as political acts by undocumented migrants and activists seeking alternative ways of cohabitation. The different contributions all highlight the role of civil society initiatives during the migration movements in 2015 and 2016 in Europe by discussing critical perspectives on the European border regime and by looking at migration as a contesting political force. Topics related to mobilization and the appropriation of public spaces to actively declare one's solidarity, political activism to contest borders and boundary-making approaches (no border movements) and the engagement into voluntary work are critically reflected

Recapturing the Gefahrengebiet: (Klobürsten-)Proteste in der "Kreativen Stadt"

"Im Januar 2014 protestierten BewohnerInnen und AktivistInnen in den Hamburger Stadtteilen Sternschanze, Altona und St. Pauli gegen die polizeiliche Maßnahme der Einrichtung eines 'Gefahrengebietes', in dem die Polizei zu umfassenden Personenkontrollen und Einschränkungen der Bewegungsfreiheit berechtigt war. Die Proteste erreichten aufgrund ihrer kreativen Protestformen - insbesondere des Einsatzes von Klobürsten als Protestsymbol - ein hohes Maß an medialer Aufmerksamkeit. In meinem Artikel setze ich mich mit der Protestaktion 'Danger Zone - The Real Life Game' auseinander, die im Zuge der Proteste stattfand. In deren Verlauf begegneten AktivistInnen den polizeilichen Maßnahmen mit spielerisch-performativen und narrativen Praktiken des Protests und einer damit einhergehenden intensiven Verbindung von Online- und Offline-Aktivismus. Am Beispiel dieser Protestaktion veranschauliche ich, welche Relevanz diesen Praktiken in aktuellen protestförmig ausgetragenen sozialen Konflikten um den sozioökonomischen Wandel des urbanen Raumes hin zur unternehmerischen Erlebnisstadt zukommt." (Autorenreferat

Narratives of “Welcome Culture”: The Cultural Politics of Voluntary Aid for Refugees

Drawing on an ethnographic and discourse-analytic study, this article examines the meaning and function of narrative in the civic engagement of volunteers who provided humanitarian aid to refugees during the migratory movements of 2015. I argue that a group of self-organized volunteers in a German town used different kinds of narrative during their engagement to advance their own views on the migratory movements and on voluntary work with refugees. A collective narrative in terms of a cognitive structure evolved during the event that shaped the relationship between the volunteers and authorities

Alltagsverstand.Zu einem hegemonietheoretischen Verständnis alltäglicher Sichtweisen und Deutungen

(VLID)170511