Gabriel Popescu
dates de séjour
discipline
Fonction d’origine
Institution d’origine
pays d'origine
projet de recherche
Rearticulating Border Spaces: Technology, Bodies and Networks in the Age of Mobility
The production of borders in the globalization era is driven by the demands of unimpeded mobility on the one hand and of reliable territorial security on the other hand. Of particular interest for my research are the spatial outcomes these border discourses generate, as we are witnessing the emergence of complementary forms of state borders that evade the norms of territorial linearity. Risk management strategies associated with the quest to securitize transnational mobility have triggered a technological race to close the ultimate frontier - the human body. Accordingly, bodies are imagined as spaces to inscribe borders on. The problem is that techno-embodied borders construct a human subject that is detached from its human context. These developments increase the power of borders to order people's lives precisely at a time when these lives become more spatially mobile.
biographie
"I am a political geographer with interests in the ongoing influence of space on the relationships between states and societies. My recent scholarship is located at the intersection of power, borders, and digital technology. More specifically, my research focuses on understanding how new developments in information technology generate essential transformations in the nature of borders and territory, and how these changes affect citizenship rights, identity, and the ways in which people relate to space. I study the circumstances in which biometric and wireless technologies are routinely embedded into bodies, travel documents, phones, drones, and other products in order to enable the circulation of flows and to achieve control of mobility at the smallest possible scale. I am interested in theorizing the emerging modes of territorial organization, and how they are impacting human wellbeing and democratic practices."
