RT Article
T1 Violence and bordering on the margins of the State: A view from South Africa and the southern border of Spain
JF Theoretical criminology
VO 26
IS 4
SP 580
OP 600
A1 Super, Gail
A2 Ballesteros-Pena, Ana
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1823235522
AB This article examines expulsions in and around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and in informal settlements in former black townships in South Africa. These violent bordering processes expose the violent injustices that constitute the boundaries of lawful (liberal) law, and the violence that sovereigns use to secure territories. Drawing on Walter Benjamin we make three main theoretical arguments. First, that the bordering processes in our case studies are instances of law (and State) preserving violence. Second, that absence and responsibilization are central techniques for invisibilizing the role of violence in preserving law, and that abdication of jurisdiction is key to the exercise of state sovereignty. Third, that when the State preserves itself through sharing its monopoly over violence the fictitious distinction between law and violence collapses. We use the term ‘borderline lawful violence’ to highlight the precarious nature of the boundary between lawful and unlawful violence.
K1 Violence
K1 Sovereignty
K1 South Africa
K1 Race
K1 Jurisdiction
K1 Inequality
K1 Expulsion
K1 Ceuta and Melilla
K1 bordering
K1 Benjamin
DO 10.1177/13624806221076422