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EU border officials and critical complicity: the politics of location and ethnographic knowledge as additions
[journal article]
Abstract Based on research conducted among EU border enforcement officials, this article embarks on a discussion about complicity and critical analysis within border and migration studies. The study of borders and migration in the context of the EU is a highly politicized issue, and several scholars have poi... view more
Based on research conducted among EU border enforcement officials, this article embarks on a discussion about complicity and critical analysis within border and migration studies. The study of borders and migration in the context of the EU is a highly politicized issue, and several scholars have pointed out that critical research easily comes to serve into a “knowledge loop” (Hess, 2010), or play part in the proliferation of a "migration business" (Andersson, 2014). In this article, I will argue that in order to not reproduce the vocabulary or object-making of that which we study, we need to study processes of scale-making (Tsing, 2000) and emphasise the multiplicity of borders (Andersen & Sandberg, 2012). In the article, I therefore present three strategies for critical analysis: First, I suggest critically assessing the locations of fieldwork, and the ways in which these either mirror or distort dominant narratives about the borders of Europe. Secondly, I probe into the differences and similarities between the interlocutors’ and researchers’ objects of inquiry. Finally, I discuss the purpose of "being there", in the field, in relation to ethnographic knowledge production. I ask whether we might leave behind the idea of ethnography as evidence or revelations, and rather focus on ethnography as additions. In conclusion, I argue that instead of critical distance, we as scholars should nurture the capacity of critical complicity.... view less
Keywords
EU; border protection; migration; civil servant; national border; ethnography; knowledge; analysis; criticism
Classification
Migration, Sociology of Migration
Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnosociology
European Politics
Free Keywords
border and migration studies
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 169-177
Journal
Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4
Issue topic
Method as border: articulating "Inclusion/exclusion" as an academic concern in migration and border research in Europe
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed