Method as border: tuning in to the cacophony of academic backstages of mgration, mobility and border studies

This thematic issue is a collection of articles reflecting on methods as border devices of hierarchical inclusion spanning migration, mobility and border studies. It maps some key concerns and responses emerging from what we call academic backstages of migration, mobility and border research by younger academics. These concerns are around (dis)entangling positions beyond Us/Them (i.e. researcher/researched), delinking from the spectacle of migration and deviating from the categories of migration apparatuses. While these concerns are not new in themselves the articles however situate these broader concerns shaping migration, mobility and border studies within specific contexts, dilemmas, choices, doubts, tactics and unresolved paradoxes of doing fieldwork. The aim of this thematic issue is not to prescribe "best methods" but in fact to make space for un-masking practices of methods as unfinished processes that are politically and ethically charged, while nevertheless shedding light in (re)new(ed) directions urgent for migration, mobility and border studies. Such an ambition is inevitably partial and situated, rather than comprehensive and all-encompassing. The majority of the contributions then enact and suggest different modes of reflexivity, ranging from reflexive inversion, critical complicity, collective self-inquiry, and reflexive ethnography of emotions, while other contributions elaborate shifts in research questions and processes based on failures, and doubts emerging during fieldwork. We invite the readers to then read the contributions against one another as a practice of attuning to what we call a ‘cacophony of academic backstages,’ or in other words, to the ways in which methods are never settled while calling attention to the politics of knowledge production unfolding in everyday fieldwork practices

Everydayness and Otherness in the border areas between Mexico/USA and Holland/Germany

Emerging from a discomfort in border studies that is unable to relate the Dutch/German borderlands and US/Mexico borderlands beyond the ontological separation between so-called “spectacular”/violent (often Mexico/U.S. or the external EU borders) and “boring” borders (often internal EU borders such as the Dutch/German borderlands), we instead ask what connects the Mexico/U.S. (Tijuana/SanDiego) and Dutch/German (Nijmegen/Kranenburg/Kleve) borderlands? We build on Bustamante’s notion of everydayness and Otherness in borderlands to map three dimensions of the power asymmetries producing these borderlands relationally. These are asymmetries of cross border immobilities, in/visibilisations of border infrastructure in everyday life, and using border proximity for life improvement. Based on this we argue that attuning to the ways in which border power asymmetries play out differentially in producing a relational sense of place of borderlands, opens a path for bringing seemingly disparate borderland spaces in relations of becoming Other.Peer reviewe

Languaging as refusal

How are we refusing to be the bridge in ‘diversity’ responses in academia? What processes open up when we refuse the word and the singular language of ‘borders’ circulating in border studies and gender studies in the Netherlands? Where are we refusing from? Who is the subject-object of refusal? What is the language of refusal? How to speak from our burning guts that refuse to refuse in a language that doesn’t speak to our daily lives and struggles? How are we refusing the violence of research processes promoting the individual ‘trophy’ academic/artist in academic and cultural institutions while holding one’s own and each other’s bodies and power asymmetries shaping our writing processes for healing? How does one listen to the silences in histories of slavery, war, patriarchy, colonial trauma, and gender violence passing through our bodies while writing? In this essay we reflect on these questions by interspersing pieces of texts, experiences, excerpts (from thesis/thesis-related events), visuals, and poetry, by entangling biographies, traumas and memories situated in our everyday contexts and processes of teaching, writing for healing and for a living.  Languaging becomes a location where we speak from, inspired and yet in tension with Anzaldúa (Hamzah 2020). Languaging (Kramsch et al. 2015) is our practice of refusal to refuse in one dominant language. We language a call for a poetics of refusal. We intentionally make the fleeting process known to each other and open it up to the reader, in holding each other’s bodies as they are collapsing and healing. In doing so we invite the reader to struggle with us in the process of naming our struggles that emerge from refusing to refuse singularly in English, refusing to write by partitioning our guts and everyday battles with patriarchy, refusing the writing subject as fully knowing what one is refusing

Cotidianidad y Otredad en las zonas fronterizas entre México/ EEUU y Holanda/Alemania

A partir del descontentament amb els estudis fronterers per la seva incapacitat de definir la frontera neerlandesa/alemanya i les fronteres EEUU/Mèxic més enllà de la separació ontològica entre les anomenades fronteres "espectaculars"/violentes (usualment la frontera Mèxic/EEUU o les fronteres exteriors de la UE) i les fronteres "avorrides" (sovint les fronteres internes de la UE, com la neerlandesa/alemanya), ens preguntem: ¿Què connecta les fronteres entre Mècix/EEUU (Tijuana/San Diego) i les holandeses/alemanyes (Nijmegen/Kranenburg/Kleve)? Ens basem en la noció de Bustamene sobre la quotidianitat i l'Alteritat a les zones frontereres per cartografiar tres dimensions de les assimetries de poder que produeixen aquestes zones frontereres relacionalment. Es tracta de les assimetries de les immobilitats, les in/visibilitzacions de la infraestructura fronterera en la vida quotidiana i l'us de la proximitat ala frontera per millorar la vida. Basant-nos en això, sostenim que la sintonia amb les formes en que les assimetries de poder de la frontera juguen de manera diferencial en la producció d'un sentit relacional del lloc de les terres frontereres, obre un camí per a portar espais fronterers aparentment dispars en les relacions d'esdevenir Altre.From the dissatisfaction with border studies for its inability to define the Dutch/German border and the US/Mexico borders beyond the ontological separation between the so-called “spectacular”/violent borders (usually the US/Mexico border or the external borders of the EU) and “boring” borders (often the internal borders of the EU, such as the Dutch/German), we ask ourselves: what connects the borders between Mexico/USA (Tijuana/San Diego) and the Dutch/ German (Nijmegen/Kranenburg/Kleve)? We rely on Bustamante's notion of everyday life and Otherness in border areas to map three dimensions of the asymmetries of power that these border areas produce relationally. It is about the asymmetries of the immobilities, the in/visibility of the border infrastructure in daily life, and the use of the proximity of the border to improve life. Building on this, we argue that attunement to the ways in which border power asymmetries play out differentially in producing a relational sense of borderland place opens a path to bringing seemingly disparate border spaces into relations. to become Other.A partir del descontento con los estudios fronterizos por su incapacidad de definir las frontera neerlandesa/alemana y las fronteras EEUU/México más allá de la separación ontológica entre las llamadas fronteras “espectaculares” /violentas (usualmente la frontera México/EEUU o las fronteras exteriores de la UE) y las fronteras “aburridas” (a menudo las fronteras internas de la UE, como la neerlandesa/ alemana), nosotros nos preguntamos: ¿Qué conecta las fronteras entre México/EEUU (Tijuana/San Diego) y las holandesas/alemanas (Nijmegen/Kranenburg/Kleve)? Nos basamos en la noción de Bustamante sobre la cotidianidad y la Otredad en las zonas fronterizas para cartografiar tres dimensiones de las asimetrías de poder que producen estas zonas fronterizas relacionalmente. Se trata de las asimetrías de las inmovilidades, las in/visibilizaciones de la infraestructura fronteriza en la vida cotidiana, y del uso de la proximidad de la frontera para mejorar la vida. Basándonos en esto, sostenemos que la sintonía con las formas en que las asimetrías de poder de la frontera juegan de manera diferencial en la producción de un sentido relacional del lugar de las tierras fronterizas, abre un camino para traer espacios fronterizos aparentemente dispares en las relaciones de convertirse en Otro

Book review: Staying with doubt, not yet dancing with Azis : Miglena S Todorova, Unequal Under Socialism: Race, Women, and Transnationalism in Bulgaria, Toronto University Press: Toronto, ON, Canada, 2021, 218 pp., ISBN 148752840X.

Non peer reviewe

Languaging as refusal

How are we refusing to be the bridge in ‘diversity’ responses in academia? What processes open up when we refuse the word and the singular language of ‘borders’ circulating in border studies and gender studies in the Netherlands? Where are we refusing from? Who is the subject-object of refusal? What is the language of refusal? How to speak from our burning guts that refuse to refuse in a language that doesn’t speak to our daily lives and struggles? How are we refusing the violence of research processes promoting the individual ‘trophy’ academic/artist in academic and cultural institutions while holding one’s own and each other’s bodies and power asymmetries shaping our writing processes for healing? How does one listen to the silences in histories of slavery, war, patriarchy, colonial trauma, and gender violence passing through our bodies while writing? In this essay we reflect on these questions by interspersing pieces of texts, experiences, excerpts (from thesis/thesis-related events), visuals, and poetry, by entangling biographies, traumas and memories situated in our everyday contexts and processes of teaching, writing for healing and for a living.  Languaging becomes a location where we speak from, inspired and yet in tension with Anzaldúa (Hamzah 2020). Languaging (Kramsch et al. 2015) is our practice of refusal to refuse in one dominant language. We language a call for a poetics of refusal. We intentionally make the fleeting process known to each other and open it up to the reader, in holding each other’s bodies as they are collapsing and healing. In doing so we invite the reader to struggle with us in the process of naming our struggles that emerge from refusing to refuse singularly in English, refusing to write by partitioning our guts and everyday battles with patriarchy, refusing the writing subject as fully knowing what one is refusing

Everyday life and Otherness in the border areas between Mexico/USA and Holland/Germany

From the dissatisfaction with border studies for its inability to define the Dutch/German border and the US/Mexico borders beyond the ontological separation between the so-called “spectacular”/violent borders (usually the US/Mexico border or the external borders of the EU) and “boring” borders (often the internal borders of the EU, such as the Dutch/German), we ask ourselves: what connects the borders between Mexico/USA (Tijuana/San Diego) and the Dutch/ German (Nijmegen/Kranenburg/Kleve)? We rely on Bustamante's notion of everyday life and Otherness in border areas to map three dimensions of the asymmetries of power that these border areas produce relationally. It is about the asymmetries of the immobilities, the in/visibility of the border infrastructure in daily life, and the use of the proximity of the border to improve life. Building on this, we argue that attunement to the ways in which border power asymmetries play out differentially in producing a relational sense of borderland place opens a path to bringing seemingly disparate border spaces into relations. to become Other.Peer reviewe

The topological arrangements of Nijmegen’s ‘Walk of the World’ : From a military march to ‘martial entrepreneurialism’

Since 1916, the Dutch city of Nijmegen annually organizes the Four-Day Marches, the world's largest international walking event, shaping the city along the way. This paper studies the 'coeval becoming' of the March and city through the lens of 'glocal' topological arrangements, drawing on a 'wheeling' racialized assemblage perspective. This wheeling, we argue, scripts Nijmegen and its March through four topological arrangements: Nijmegen as Host, Nijmegen as Global Node, Nijmegen as Haunted Body, and Nijmegen as Empty Green. In conclusion, we find a strong emphasis on able-bodies and branding, yielding a characterization of 'martial entrepreneurialism'.Peer reviewe