Mobile Borders and Turbulent Mobilities

Mapping the Geopolitics of the Channel Tunnel

Bibliographic Data

ID3948202
AuthorsChenchen Zhang (0000-0001-5784-1191, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume24
Issue3
Pages728-755
Publication date2019-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2017.1379994
OpenAlexW2766112023
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited54

This article investigates the making and contestation of mobile borders around the Channel Tunnel, the fixed link connecting Britain and the European continent. It suggests that the bordering of the infrastructural and vehicular spaces is both an object of inquiry in its own right and a productive lens for reflecting on questions related to European Union (EU) territory, the heterogeneous nature of borders as well as the interplay between regimes of control and resistance. The article starts by reviewing the legal and institutional frameworks in which the Channel Tunnel area is governed and envisioned as an interstate and European/Schengen borderzone. It then examines the uncoordinated efforts of national, private and European authorities in managing the episodic migration controversies around this area, which bring together the interconnected rationales of security, economy and humanitarianism and expose the dissonance between and within them. Finally, the article considers how the acts of turbulent mobilities interact with this contingent assemblage of mobility governance and realise the radical potential of territorial borders

Business · Cognitive dissonance · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · European union · Geopolitics · International trade · Mobilities · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · European Criminal Justice and Data Protection · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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