Thesis

Please bear with me while I figure out how to upload the massive document that is my thesis.

In the mean time, you can email me for a copy: natasha1105@hotmail.com

And here is the contents page

Contents

1. Introduction 5

Locating the issue 5

Initial reflections on the dilemmas of practicing a no borders politics 11

Research design 12

Case Selection 15

Defining key terms 17

Migration and the use of terminology 17

Terming the sovereign state under conditions of globalisation 19

Chapter Outlines 20

2. Methods 25

Introduction 25

Praxis 26

Theory as a part of praxis 27

Putting praxis to practice 29

Outlining some useful methods for creating praxis-based scholarship 31

Ethnography 31

Ethnography and power 33

Positionality 34

Reflexivity 35

Activist research 36

Practicing activist scholarship 'in the field' 39

Locating myself 'in the field' 40

Identifying the scope of the movement: A movement? A movement of movements? 41

Beyond the Network 42

Reflecting on outsiderness and the limitations of reflexivity 44

Blurring the personal and the 'professional' 47

Access and the anti-authoritarian movement 49

Access and migrants 51

Reflecting on partisanship 53

Reflecting on the possibilities and limits of an activist research practice 54

Academia and the limits of making activist research 56

Conclusions 57

Methodological note: An explanation of my choice of case studies 58

3. Defining a No Borders Politics 61

Introduction 61

Summary of my argument 63

Resistance and social movement studies 64

Social movement studies and the globalisation of resistance 66

A praxis-based and movement-centred approach to social movements 68

Foucault: Power / Resistance 69

A no borders politics as contestation 73

Positionality: A means of accounting for differential resistance 75

Contestation as transformative practice 78

A no borders politics as transcendence 79

The limitations of transcendence as a refusal to draw any lines 82

Practical transcendence? A no borders politics as self-determination 83

The autonomy of migration approach 86

Autonomy as prefiguration 89

Conclusion 92

4: The Regime of Migration and Control in Greece 93

Introduction 93

Exploring the politics of control using the autonomy of migration approach 94

Zachariah 96

A Background to the migration regime in Greece 98

Unravelling the regime of mobility in Greece 100

Introductory remarks: Borders, de-territorialisation, re-territorialisation 100

Struggle at the borderlines 101

Struggle in the borderland 105

Differential inclusion 105

Deportability 109

The United Women’s African Association of Greece 109

Asylum as a site of conflict 111

Iraj 111

Dublin II as an example of virtual control 114

Conflicts over space and speed 115

Hisham 115

Internal controls as a struggle over speed 118

The economic and political crisis and migration 120

Ahmed 120

Conclusion 125

5: Migrant-led Resistance: The Hunger Strike of ‘The 300’ 128

Introduction 128

A methodological note on the hunger strike 128

Migrant-led resistance in Greece: An historical overview 129

Introducing the hunger strike of 'The 300' 132

A background to the strike 132

Conceptualising migrant-led resistance within critical citizenship debates 135

‘The 300’ as a politics of disagreement 135

‘The 300’ as acts of citizenship 141

The 300 and the Greek Government: a struggle over discourse, space and speed 145

Reflecting on the outcomes of the strike 148

Dilemmas for a no borders politics 149

Conclusion 156

6: The Anti-racist Movement and Resistance 159

Introduction 159

Locating the Greek anti-racist movement 160

Differentiation within the grass-roots left 160

The emergence of the social left within the grass-roots left 163

The emergence of an anti-racist movement 164

Introducing The Network for Support to Migrants and Refugees 165

Unpacking the relationship between state and race 166

The relationship between race & state in the Network: Contestive ‘dialogue’ 167

The Network and solidarity: Negotiating between people's differential abilities to resist 168

The Network and self-organised resistance 170

The Network and resistance beyond the state 173

The Network and the movement for solidarity with 'The 300' 176

Dilemmas for a no borders politics within the solidarity movement of 'The 300' 180

Beyond the strike: Dilemmas of solidarity 182

Conclusion 188

7: The Anti-authoritarian Movement and Resistance 190

Introduction 190

Methodological note: 'Pinning down' the anti-authoritarian movement 191

Locating the anti-authoritarian movement in Greece 192

The anti-authoritarian movement and perspectives on resistance 194

Autonomy as total freedom 194

Direct action 195

Prefiguration as reflecting a sought for transcendence of sovereign power 197

Autonomy, solidarity, affinity 199

Connections across difference through shared space 203

The movement and migration struggles 203

Anti-fascism 204

Migrants and the anti-authoritarian movement in common modes of resistance 206

The Assembly for Solidarity with Street Vendors 207

The anti-authoritarian movement and the movement for solidarity of 'The 300' 209

Dilemmas: Affinity and exclusivity 211

Conclusion 216

8: Transcendent Resistance? 217

Introduction 217

A second reading of the autonomy of migration approach 219

The autonomy of migration as escape routes 220

Escape as a radical critique of representation 221

Escape as becoming imperceptible 222

Critiques of the second reading of the autonomy of migration approach 224

Connecting escapes 227

The apartment of Mohammed and Alex 227

Nomads, bridges and groundless solidarity 229

The InfoMobil 238

The dilemmas of a potentially transcendent resistance 241

Conclusions 244

9: Conclusions 246

Reflecting on a no border politics and practices of refusal of the border 246

Contributions 254

Contributions to activist scholarship 254

Contributions to activism 256

Limitations of the study and possibilities for further research 258

Situatedness 258

My own ability to recognise resistance 259

Recuperation 260

Making genuinely movement-relevant scholarship 261

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………..262

Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 286