Home History Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics

  • Caterina Resta
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Mind the Gap: Borders, Limits and Frontiers
This chapter is in the book Mind the Gap: Borders, Limits and Frontiers

Abstract

Globalisation is currently at a pivotal moment. Following a period of expansion characterised by the dissolution of boundaries due to the spread of markets on a global scale, we are now witnessing a significant reversal. The structural phenomenon of migration significantly influences the rise of ‘immunitarian’ politics globally. This term describes emerging nationalist policies motivated by fears of foreign contamination, which are seen as threats to cultural identity and economic stability. ‘Sovereignism’ regards the return to the nation-state and its inviolable borders as the only form of protection against the invasion of the new ‘barbarians.’ Apart from the regressive character of the sovereignist views, which see the border merely as a defensive barrier rather than a crossable boundary, it is essential to examine the very nature of borders and sovereignty, not just politically but in broader terms. In particular, we should analyse the nexus linking the border to the conceptual cluster sovereignty-ipseity-identity-membership-territory, which, since the modern era, underlies what Jacques Derrida called ‘topolitics.’ Only by deconstructing this nexus will it be possible to imagine a different way of thinking about borders and citizenship beyond the immunitarian politics of nation-states and new forms of planetary cohabitation.

Abstract

Globalisation is currently at a pivotal moment. Following a period of expansion characterised by the dissolution of boundaries due to the spread of markets on a global scale, we are now witnessing a significant reversal. The structural phenomenon of migration significantly influences the rise of ‘immunitarian’ politics globally. This term describes emerging nationalist policies motivated by fears of foreign contamination, which are seen as threats to cultural identity and economic stability. ‘Sovereignism’ regards the return to the nation-state and its inviolable borders as the only form of protection against the invasion of the new ‘barbarians.’ Apart from the regressive character of the sovereignist views, which see the border merely as a defensive barrier rather than a crossable boundary, it is essential to examine the very nature of borders and sovereignty, not just politically but in broader terms. In particular, we should analyse the nexus linking the border to the conceptual cluster sovereignty-ipseity-identity-membership-territory, which, since the modern era, underlies what Jacques Derrida called ‘topolitics.’ Only by deconstructing this nexus will it be possible to imagine a different way of thinking about borders and citizenship beyond the immunitarian politics of nation-states and new forms of planetary cohabitation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Part I
  5. Borders as Translation Spaces 1
  6. Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
  7. Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
  8. Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
  9. We Fight for this Land 51
  10. Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
  11. Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
  12. Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
  13. Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
  14. Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
  15. Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
  16. ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
  17. Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
  18. Part II
  19. Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
  20. A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
  21. Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
  22. Contributors and Editors 307
  23. Index 311
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111448473-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Part I
  5. Borders as Translation Spaces 1
  6. Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
  7. Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
  8. Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
  9. We Fight for this Land 51
  10. Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
  11. Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
  12. Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
  13. Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
  14. Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
  15. Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
  16. ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
  17. Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
  18. Part II
  19. Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
  20. A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
  21. Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
  22. Contributors and Editors 307
  23. Index 311
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 30.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111448473-003/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button