Mapping: enclosures, assemblages and commons in geographies, cartographies and the contemporary mappings

This thesis is an attempt to map space as an assemblage of representations, practices and relations that is constantly changing, creates enclosures and, also, commons.Inspired by Foucault’ s views on power relations, Deleuze and Guattari’ s theory and methodology of assemblages and along with the critical politics of mapping and the militant research the dissertation approaches philosophical, epistemological, practical and political issues of geography and cartography.Situated also within the contemporary crisis of the capitalistic system and the neoliberal model, the research aims to point out the increasingly complicated folds of power via two parallel functions; an allegory for mappings and the vocabulary of enclosures and the commons. As a result, the dissertation maps spaces and relations along with representations and practices which intensify segregations and control and others that perform as thresholds for encounters and collective acts of sharing. The concept of assemblages is crucial for the research as it traces various transformations, symbioses and contingencies. Drawing from the work of many theorists, I argue that assemblage thinking is necessary for a novel understanding of mappings, enclosures and commons as being always in process within constantly changing spaces, relations and actions.Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αποτελεί μία προσπάθεια να χαρτογραφηθεί ο χώρος ως μία συνάρθρωση αναπαραστάσεων, πρακτικών και σχέσεων που συνεχώς μεταβάλλεται, περιφράσσει και δημιουργεί κοινά.Έχοντας εμπνευστεί, μεταξύ άλλων, από το έργο του Foucault για τις σχέσεις εξουσίας, τη θεωρία και μεθοδολογία των συναρθρώσεων των Deleuze και Guattari και σε συνδυασμό με την κριτική πολιτική της χαρτογράφησης και την αγωνιστική έρευνα η εργασία προσεγγίζει φιλοσοφικά, επιστημολογικά, πρακτικά και πολιτικά ζητήματα της γεωγραφίας και χαρτογραφίας.Τοποθετημένη, επίσης, στη σημερινή κρίση του καπιταλιστικού συστήματος και του νεοφιλελεύθερου μοντέλου η έρευνα επιχειρεί να αναδείξει τις ολοένα και πιο σύνθετες πτυχές της εξουσίας μέσα από δύο παράλληλες λειτουργίες˙ αρχικά, με μία αλληγορική αφήγηση για τις χαρτογραφήσεις και, στη συνέχεια, μέσα από το λεξιλόγιο των περιφράξεων και των κοινών. Το αποτέλεσμα είναι ότι χαρτογραφούνται χώροι και σχέσεις μαζί με αναπαραστάσεις και πρακτικές που εντείνουν το διαχωρισμό και τον έλεγχο και άλλες που αποτελούν κατώφλι συναντήσεων και συλλογικών πράξεων μοιράσματος. Η έννοια των συναρθρώσεων είναι σημαντική στην έρευνα καθώς αποτυπώνει πλήθος μετασχηματισμών, συμβιώσεων και δυνατοτήτων. Αντλώντας από το σχετικό έργο διάφορων στοχαστών, υποστηρίζω ότι το συναρθρωμένο σκεπτικό είναι αναγκαίο για μία νέα θεώρηση των χαρτογραφήσεων, των περιφράξεων και των κοινών ως διαδικασίες μέσα σε συνεχώς μεταβαλλόμενους χώρους, σχέσεις και δράσεις

Deaths at the borders database: evidence of deceased migrants’ bodies found along the southern external borders of the European Union

Irregular migrants and asylum seekers have died and continue to die attempting to cross the external borders of the EU without authorisation, seeking to enter the territories of its Member States. Yet, remarkably little is known about these ‘border deaths’. In 2015, the Human Costs of Border Control project published the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU, an open-source ‘evidence base’ of individualised information about people who have died border deaths between 1990 and 2013, sourced from the death management systems of Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. It is the first database on border deaths in the EU to be based on official sources as opposed to the news media. The project involved searching 563 state-run death registry archives and deductively selecting the death certificates of persons who died border deaths. This paper describes, in detail, the making of the Deaths at the Borders Database: from the systematic, multi-sited, quantitative data collection and qualitative case studies, to the construction and final results of the Database itself

Deaths at the borders database: evidence of deceased migrants' bodies found along the southern external borders of the European Union

rregular migrants and asylum seekers have died and continue to die attempting to cross the external borders of the EU without authorisation, seeking to enter the territories of its Member States. Yet, remarkably little is known about these \u2018border deaths\u2019. In 2015, the Human Costs of Border Control project published the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU, an open-source \u2018evidence base\u2019 of individualised information about people who have died border deaths between 1990 and 2013, sourced from the death management systems of Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. It is the first database on border deaths in the EU to be based on official sources as opposed to the news media. The project involved searching 563 state-run death registry archives and deductively selecting the death certificates of persons who died border deaths. This paper describes, in detail, the making of the Deaths at the Borders Database: from the systematic, multi-sited, quantitative data collection and qualitative case studies, to the construction and final results of the Database itself