B1253 - REBOUND- RETHINKING BORDERS IN AND BY THE EUROPEAN UNION

Learning outcomes

The aim of this course is to explore the role of the European Union in the (re)definition of borders. Students are expected to get familiar with the performative function the (re)definition of borders has played for the EU’s own self-identification process and with the different forms of power the EU’s has exerted when engaging in hard and soft forms of bordering in different realms.

Course contents

Language: main: English; other: Italian, Russian

Timetable:

• 10/10 h 11-13
• 14/10 h 11-13
• 17/10 h 11-13
• 18/10 h 13-15
• 20/10 h 11-13
• 21/10 h 11-13
• 24 /10 h11-13
• 26/10 h 13-15
• 27/10 h 11-13
• 28/10 h11-13
  
• 3/11 h11-13
• 4/11 h11-13
• 10/11 h11-13
• 17/11 h11-13
• 1/12 h11-13
• 2/12 h11-13
• 5/12 h11-13
• 12/12 h11-13
• 13/12 h13-15
• 15/12 h13-15

REBOUND is about BORDERS.

Historically, the European Union has engaged in processes that have significantly modified its internal and external borders. Starting with the integration process, through the enlargement phases and strengthened cooperation with third countries internal and external borders have changed ensuing the EU’s own evolution or attempts at solving crises situations. Recently, the refugee crisis, the Covid-pandemic and the following economic slowdown have underlined and sometimes even ignited a process of deep rethinking of EU’s border in practical and narrative terms.

Borders and boundaries widely intended have opened/closed, have filtered/selected, have included/marginalised at the same time, touching upon multiple issue areas, from health to economy and mobility among others. The reiterated reintroduction of internal controls at national borders in the Schengen territory since the 2015 refugee crisis testifies their malleability and their all but fixed demarcation in time and space.

Borders can be hard (walls, fences, surveillance systems, agencies operations among others) or soft (socially constructed boundaries having to do with processes of self-identification). But what do they mean? How do they frame the EU and what do they tell us of the EU?

The Course offered aims at considering the ‘re-bordering and de-bordering’ power of the EU, looking at different dimensions: internal, external and international. Each dimension is looked at from the point of view of narratives used and practices enacted and privileged realms of examination are EU’s global role in the liberal order, the governance of migration and the impact of and reactions to globalization dynamics. The proposal for a multilingual Course is innovative and relevant in two main ways: first, to emphasise how languages are in themselves powerful bordering device in cognitive terms, conveying specific understanding of ‘otherness’ or ‘affiliation’; and second, to strengthen inter-disciplinary and inter-departmental collaboration.

Last, this Course is extremely interdisciplinary, mirroring in this sense advanced programs offered in international Degrees; perspectives about borders and boundaries are explored in specific fields (Critical geography; History of European Integration; political thought; History of Eastern Europe and Central Asia; International relations).

Readings/Bibliography

Readings are made available to Students on VIRTUALE or will be available online.

Do notice that the Course will host contributions from more Professors of the Department and beyond. Professor Cecccorulli will be in charge of most of the Classes offered.

 

Introduction

Course presentation. Talking of borders

Topic 1. Geopolitics and borders: a critical reflection on the relation between geopolitics and borders in the contemporary world. Prof. Claudio Minca (2h)

Tuathail, G. Ó. (1996), Critical Geopolitics, London: Routledge. Chapter 1 “Geopolitics” 16-43 and Chapter 5 “Critical approaches to geopolitics”, 112-147.

Topic 2. Comunità di confine: il multiculturalismo e l’Unione Europea - Bordering communities: multiculturalism and the European Union’. Prof. Maria Laura Lanzillo (4h)

Cordeiro Rodrigues, L., Multiculturalism, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002, https://iep.utm.edu/multicul/

Braidotti, R. (2002), Gender, Identity and Multiculturalism in Europe. First Ursula Hirschmann Annual Lecture on Gender and Europe, 8 May 2001, EUI RSCAS DL, 2002, http://hdl.handle.net/1814/8069

Angeliki , M. and Arvanitis, É. (2019), Multiculturalism in the European Union: A Failure beyond Redemption?, in «The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations: Annual Review », available online

Topic 3. Historical borders of the EU (2h)

Randall, H. (2003), Migration to Europe since 1945: its History and its Lessons, The Political Quarterly, 74, s1, pp. 25-38.

Uçarer, E. M. (2013), ‘The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’, in M. Cini et al. (2013), European Union Politics, Oxford University Press, pp. 281-296.

Topic 4. EU, borders and identity

Waever, O. (1995). Identity, Integration and Security: Solving the Sovereignty Puzzle in E.U. Studies, Journal of International Affairs, 48, 389-431.

Wallace, W. (1999). Europe after the Cold War: Interstate order or post-sovereign regional system?, Review of International Studies, 25, 5, 201-223.

Topic 5. The ‘migration crisis’: disputing Schengen

Bauböck, R. (2018), ‘’Refugee Protection and Burden Sharing in the European Union’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 56, 1, 141-156.

Ceccorulli, M., (2019) Back to Schengen: the collective securitisation of the EU free-border area, West European Politics, 42, 2, 302-322, available online

Kriesi, H., Altiparmakis, A., Bojar, A. and Oana, I.E., (2021) Debordering and re-bordering in the refugee crisis: a case of ‘defensive integration’, Journal of European Public Policy, 28, 3, 331-349.

Topic 6. The impact of the COVID crisis on borders

Mortera-Martinez, C. (2020), Will the Coronavirus pandemic deliver a coup de Grȃce to Schengen?, CER Bulletin, Issue 134, October/November 2020, available online

European Parliament (2020), The impact of coronavirus on Schengen borders, Infographic

Wolff, A, Ripoll Servent, A. and Piquet, A. (2020) Framing immobility: Schengen governance in times of pandemics, Journal of European Integration, 42,8, 1127-1144.

Ramji-Nogales, J. and Goldner Lang, I. (2020) Freedom of movement, migration, and borders, Journal of Human Rights, 19,5, 593-602.

Topic 7. Compounded EU’s crises and bordering efforts

Guild, E. (2021), Schengen Borders and Multiple National States of Emergency: From Refugees to Terrorism to COVID-19, European Journal of Migration and Law, 23, 4, 385-404.

Karamanidou, L and Kasparek, B. (2022), From Exceptional Threats to Normalized Risks: Border Controls in the Schengen Area and the Governance of Secondary Movements of Migration, Journal of Borderlands Studies, 37, 3, 623-643.

Topic 8. Borders out

Boswell, C. (2003), The “external dimension” of EU immigration and asylum policy, International Affairs, 79, 3, 619-638.

Zaiotti, R. (2016), Mapping remote control, in R. Zaiotti (ed), Externalizing Migration Management, Routledge, 3-21.

Johansson-Nogués [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0010836717750197#con], E. (2018), The EU’s ontological (in) security: Stabilising the ENP area … and the EU-self?, Cooperation and Conflict, 53,4, 528-544.

Topic 9. Borders control and technology

Aradau, C. et al. (2021), ‘Data and new Technologies, the hidden face of mobility control’, Brief Migreurop 12, available online

Students’ research and presentation of borders’ techniques

Topic 10. Recent ‘refugee crises’ and borders dynamics

Ranking, J. (2021), Fortress EU is beating Belarus, with refugees as pawns in cruel game, The Guardian, 15 November

Wollard, C. (2022), EU Displacement Response Turned Upside Down in Ukraine and So It Should Remain, ECRE Editorial, available online

Material provided by the Professor for in-class work

Topic 11. The Future of borders in and out of the EU

Greenhill, K. M. (2016), ‘Migration as a Weapon in Theory and Practice’, Military Review. November-December 2016 and ‘Introduction’, in Weapons of mass migration. Forced displacement, coercion, and foreign policy, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London.

European Commission (2021), Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL addressing situations of instrumentalisation in the field of migration and asylum, COM 2021(890) final, available online

ECRE (2022), ECRE comments on the Commission proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council addressing situations of instrumentalisation in the field of migration and asylum com(2021) 890 final, January 2022, available online

Topic 12. Refugee informal geographies along the Balkan Route and related camp spatialities. Prof. Claudio Minca (2h)

Minca, C. and Collins, J. (2021), The Game: Or, ‘the making of migration’ along the Balkan Route, Political Geography 91, 102490.

Minca, C., Šantić, D. and Umek, D. (2018), Walking along the Balkan Route: The Archipelago of Refugee Camps in Serbia, In I. Katz, D. Martin, and C. Minca (eds), Camps Revisited: Multifaceted Spatialities of a Modern Political Technology, London: Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd.

Topic 13. Guest Lecture – 'Vernacular borders': perspectives from ethnographic fieldwork in the Trieste borderscape - Noemi Bergesio (Department of History and Cultures, UNIBO) (2h)

Cassidy, K., Yuval-Davis, N. and Wemyss, G. (2018), Debordering and everyday (re)bordering in and of Dover: Post-borderland borderscapes, Political Geography 66, 171-179.

Löfflmann, G., and Vaughan-Williams, N. (2018), Vernacular imaginaries of European border security among citizens: From walls to information management, European Journal of International Security 3, 3, 382-400.

Topic 14. Recent changes in Russian understanding of its self positioning between Europe and Asia and the growing intertwining of Russian-led integration processes and migration management. Prof. Marco Puleri (4h)

Shevel, O., (2011), Russian Nation-building from Yel'tsin to Medvedev: Ethnic, Civic or Purposefully Ambiguous?, Europe-Asia Studies, 63:2, 179-202.

Putin, V, V. (2012), ‘Integration of post-Soviet space an alternative to uncontrolled migration’.

Braghiroli, S. and Makarychev, A. (2018), Redefining Europe: Russia and the 2015 Refugee Crisis, Geopolitics, 23:4, 823-848.

Makarychev, A. (2018), Bordering and Identity-Making in Europe After the 2015 Refugee Crisis, Geopolitics, 23:4, 747-753.

Yatsyk, A. (2018), A Popular Geopolitics of the Refugee Crisis in Europe: The Re-actualization of Identity-driven Geopolitical Narratives in Estonia, Geopolitics, 23:4, 803-822.

Topic 15. Borders and the International liberal order. Joint Lecture - Nicolò Fasola and Michela Ceccorulli

Goldgeier, J., Itzkowitz Shifrinson, J.R. (2020), Evaluating NATO enlargement: scholarly debates, policy implications, and roads not taken, International Politcs 57, 291- 321 (2020) (choose one article out of the many offered)

Grappi, G. and Lucarelli, S. (2022), Bordering power Europe? The mobility-bordering nexus in and by the European Union, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 30, 2, 207-219.

Italy and bordering practices – Professor’s presentation

In addition to these contributions, keynote Speakers may be invited to explore further border dynamics.

Teaching methods

Each Professor will engage with the Class differently, as appropriate to the single disciplines. However, a common trait of the Course is its strongly interactive fashion, which cannot be derogated. Work-groups, presentations, debates and confrontation are recurrent tools within the Course.

Assessment methods

As MIREES Course, attendance is mandatory and only a limited unattendance will be tolerated.

Participation in Class is scored 35% of the final grade.

An essay to be sbmitted by the end of the Course (and presented in Class) is worth 65% of the final grade.

Teaching tools

Power-point presentations; critical analysis of newspapers and media outlets; analysis of official documents

Office hours

See the website of Michela Ceccorulli