The Post-humanistic Border: Moving between territorial ambiguity and human belongingness

Keywords: post-humanistic border, borders in motion, territorial ambiguity, human belongingness
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Wednesday
Session Start / End Time: 4/7/2021 08:00 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/7/2021 09:15 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 15

Abstract

Borders, like many other human constructs in our contemporary world, are beyond human agency. Climate change, although impacted and perhaps even ignited in our time by anthropogenic forces, is out of human hands and may alter human life on the planet. Similarly, other globalized phenomena, borders among them, are set in motion that may no longer be managed and controlled by humans. Although I would argue that borders are set in motion when they are established, the motion has achieved thresholds of resonance and dissonance in globalization that extend beyond the power and grasp of the state and its inhabitants. In this presentation, I explore how borders in motion have created anxiety among people and generated confusion and complexity in border governance and institutions. Moreover, borders in motion are conceptualized as asynchronous with the architecture and process of the state system, even though their expanded and enhanced motion may seem to be seen as human efforts to extend the viability of borders in globalization. I suggest that the post-humanistic border is moving between territorial ambiguity and human belongingness, and that this motion is in part directed by human agency and in part unleashed by post-human forces unlocked in globalization.