Sovereignty Entrepreneurs' and the Production of State Power in Two Central African Borderlands

Bibliographic Data

ID3948243
AuthorsJulian Hollstegge (0000-0002-0799-6731, University of Bayreuth, corresponding author), Martin Doevenspeck (0000-0002-6518-1426, University of Bayreuth)
Year2017
Volume22
Issue4
Pages815-836
Publication date2017-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2017.1359160
OpenAlexW2748713855
LanguageEN
Citations received9

This article advances a subaltern geopolitics of sovereignty production at the borders of the DR Congo – the supposedly most fragile – and South Sudan – the youngest state in Africa. Moving beyond critiques of representing postcolonial statehood and sovereignty in terms of ‘lack’ and ‘failure’, we localise and ground analysis by drawing on Butler’s figure of the ‘petty sovereign’‘ to analyse the agency of border officials at the DR Congo/Rwanda and the South Sudan/Uganda border who we refer to as ‘sovereignty entrepreneurs’: officials who, tasked with managing and controlling the border, in constant face-to-face negotiations and closely linked to resource competition prescribe, set and decide on the terms and conditions of border crossing. It is argued that in the context of the DR Congo and South Sudan, where the states’ claims to territorial sovereignty face similar internal and external challenges, the border work of sovereignty entrepreneurs, characterised by the ability to tax, threaten and discipline with impunity, represents a form of sovereign power that renders the state’s capacity to act excessively visible at its borders

Geography · Geopolitics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Subaltern · China's Global Influence and Migration · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Peacebuilding and International Security