Holey Union: Contested European Frontier Zones

Abstract

Especially since the creation of the Schengen Area (1985; 1995; 2005), the establishment of the European agency Frontex in October 2004 and the successive implementation of integrated border patrol missions, the European Union and allied states manifests itself to irregular migrants as a maneuverable body of relatively loosely interrelated, treacherous, frontier zones. In consideration of the current trend to diffuse two major elements of the liberal rule-of-law, that is, jurisdiction and accountability, also as a result of the European Union’s Integrated Border Management, this article sets out to explore a variety of options to make such zones of post-Westphalian governmentality public, and to engage with the passion for democracy other than in a managerial sense. More specifically, this article outlines prevalent elements of Europe’s governmental operations in frontier zones and then looks at the question: what acts of dissent are becoming visible that not only cut through former national borders, but also traverse and subvert frontier zones while exposing chances for political association and responsiveness that are not those legitimated by the liberal democratic state? In order to exemplify such acts of dissent, this article refers to the contemporary Refugee Protest Camp Vienna movement, to the Forensic Architecture research project, and also to the Hotel Gelem artistic project. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and argue in favor of the different possibilities of challenging the increasing institution of European frontier zones by waging acts of dissent that are elicitive.