Transnational Affective Circuitry

Public Information Campaigns, Affective Governmentality, and Border Enforcement

Bibliographic Data

ID3775355
AuthorsJill M Williams (0000-0002-9957-9520, Southwest Research Institute), Kate Coddington (0000-0002-2297-9809, University at Albany, State University of New York)
Year2023
Volume113
Issue10
Pages2376-2391
Publication date2023-11-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of the American Association of Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2469-4452 • E-ISSN: 2469-4460
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/24694452.2023.2226193
OpenAlexW4385249314
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited58

Geographers have been central to identifying and exploring the shifting spatialities of border enforcement and how different enforcement strategies alter the geography of state sovereignty. Migration-related public information campaigns (PICs) are one strategy that has received increasing attention from geographers and social scientists more broadly in recent years. Although existing research examines the sites and spaces where PICs are distributed, as well as the affective content of their messaging, little research has examined the development of campaigns and the transnational connections that enable their deployment. This article draws on work in the fields of carceral circuitry and transnational enforcement networks to expand our understanding of affective governmentality as a transnational strategy of border governance. Based on data collected as part of a large-scale comparative study of the use of PICs by the U.S. and Australian governments, we argue that this form of affective governmentality relies on transnational circuits through which people, money, and knowledge move to enable the development and circulation of affective messaging. In doing so, we develop the concept of transnational affective circuitry to refer to the often contingent, temporary relations and connections that enable PICs to operate as a form of transnational affective governmentality aimed at hindering unauthorized migration. Our analysis illustrates the transnational connections that enable increasingly expansive and creative forms of border enforcement to emerge while also expanding the scope of examinations of affective governmentality to attend to the relations that undergird and enable this form of transnational governance

Business · Corporate governance · Enforcement · Governmentality · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Sovereignty · Transnational governance · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Sex work and related issues

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