“Biometric borders extend the governing of mobility into domains that regulate multiple aspects of daily life” (L. Amoore, 2006). Discuss. Flashcards
What is an easy way to engage with this question?
It is not just biometrics which extend borders into everyday life, but a multitude of things
What is an example of one other thing that extends the border into everyday life?
Nyers the hostility of the everyday interaction -> how bordering is brought into the everyday by people’s reactions to others.
What is a useful critique of Amoore’s (2006) argument
That she does not give enough weight to traditional borders, describing them only as one of many
Migration is not novel, rather
the nature has changed significantly. As a proportion of the global population, the number living outside their country of origin is no more than directly preceding the first world war
Other than Nyers, what is another way other than biometrics that the broker is extended into everyday life?
Surveillance
What are the paragraphs?
1) How has political geography understood borders as more than a physical boundary
2) Understanding the border as a verb, as does Newman 2006, rather than as a noun
3) relate to Wendy Brown to critique Amoore
4) relate to the physical border of a country as still important
What do Amoore and Hall 2009 consider
How the x-ray machine at the airport looks at the body itself, rather than simply trying to regulate it.
When discussing how political geography has understood the border, what aspect of Agnew’s territorial trap is useful to draw on?
That there is a misconception of the state as the container for society
Who argues in 2016 that the border produce rather reflect states?
Bridget Anderson
Who acknowledges that, in general, bordering practices go well beyond the border into the state itself?
Balibar 1998
What case study does Amoore use>
USVISIT
What is the US-VISIT programme?
10 biometrics taken of most non-US citizens entering the country
How can Foucault integrate to this idea of biometrics?
The idea of the panopticon; if someone is being monitored everyday life, then this compels conformity to the nation state
If we are talking about borders in everyday life, then what must be understood?
Affect
How does Amoore relate to Bratten’s idea of the stack
She critiques his idea, saying that rather than weakening sovereignty, such technology actually affirms it
How can you engage with the critique that Amoore presents of Bratten’s idea?
Need to say, like Wendy Brown’s walled states idea, that Biometric control is in fact a desperate bid to cling to sovereignty in the context of its decline
what is a good avenue of analysis for arguing that the biometrics border is attempt to control an increasingly incoherent and mobile population?
Short term and long term, in the short term affirms sovereignty but in the longer term it is just a plaster
What concept must be understood as a discourse which allows biometrics to become so well integrated into society?
The emergency, be it in relation to terror or to immigration
What is the consequence of the emergency
The securitisation of everyday life
Who talks about the state of emergency being integrated into the everyday politics of Western societies?
Minca 2005
Who applies the idea of symbolic violence to the US visit programme?
Hakli 2007
What does the US-Visit programme base its classifications on?
Previous databases, mapping previous structures onto the risk of the immigrants
What does the US_VISIT programme do to bodies at the border?
It means that travellers such as business travellers have a smooth entrance, whilst those deemed to be risky are subject to extended checks and delays
What is the technical term for what the US Visit programme does?
Risk profiling
