‘We are all borderworkers’ by Paschalina Garidou, Luuk Winkelmolen, Henk van Houtum

Title: Epilogue: We are all borderworkers
Authors: Paschalina Garidou, Luuk Winkelmolen and Henk van Houtum
Publication year: 2024
Publication type: chapter in book
Reference: link to book

Abstract

In this epilogue, we draw upon an inspiring and thought-provoking anthology of chapters on borders, boundaries, liminality, and transgression. We align with the book’s academic position to understand borders not as fixed and delineating devices but as socially constructed, relational meshworks. Yet, this emancipating academic knowledge is faced with extreme political hardliners today, erecting harsh border walls and fences, and drawing new lines in the sand. To wit, shamefully, we are witnessing a genocide taking place in Gaza, in the name of border protection. Meanwhile, the EU is making dirty deals with dictators, thereby drawing a violent line in space and financing and legitimising racist autocracies and militias. Also the brutal Russian invasion in Ukraine, branded by Putin as a ‘holy’ mission, is a case in point. Put differently, border scholars are facing an uphill battle. Considering what is at stake, nothing less than the protection of (international) rule of law, democracy and human rights, we cannot remain silent. Let us become borderworkers ourselves to agonistically counteract this dominant despotic bordering.