The Language of Pain

Punishment and Intelligibility at the Medical Border

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6433993
AutoresLucas Gillespie (0000-0002-4785-1334, The University of Melbourne, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume40
Fascículo2
Páginas379-394
Data de publicação2024-03-25
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Borderlands Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0886-5655 • E-ISSN: 2159-1229
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08865655.2024.2330059
OpenAlexW4393151959
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas44

Borders require subjects to give an account of themselves so they can be formally "recognised" by the State. This recognition determines whether the subject can cross the border, and any conditions placed upon crossing. By tying mobility – which is so often essential to life – to the capacity to get recognized in the "right" way, borders reveal what is at stake in what Judith Butler calls intelligibility. This article explores the problem of intelligibility with respect to the medicalization of borders, where medical knowledge is co-opted to establish border-crossing criteria. Using Australia's "Medical Evacuation" legislation as a case study, I show how medical borders place an impossible demand on those that come before them: namely, to provide "evidence" of pain and trauma so border crossing can be facilitated, and punishment avoided

Epistemology · Intelligibility (philosophy · Linguistics · Punishment (psychology · Migration, Health and Trauma · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology