Mobility as a Practice : Border Externalisation and Colonial Encounters at the Euro-Senegalese Borderlands
Pacciardi, Agnese LU
(2025)
- Abstract
- What do we learn about borders and migration policies when we examine them from the perspective of communities living in the borderlands, and through the theoretical lenses of mobility?
This thesis explores the effects of EU border externalisation policies on those most affected by them, focusing on the lived experiences of Senegalese communities throughout Senegal. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, it investigates how individuals and communities navigate, adapt to and contest the constraints imposed by externalised borders whether or not they are on the move. Drawing on and contributing to critical border and migration studies, and grounded in feminist decolonial epistemologies, this research shifts the analytical gaze... (More) - What do we learn about borders and migration policies when we examine them from the perspective of communities living in the borderlands, and through the theoretical lenses of mobility?
This thesis explores the effects of EU border externalisation policies on those most affected by them, focusing on the lived experiences of Senegalese communities throughout Senegal. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, it investigates how individuals and communities navigate, adapt to and contest the constraints imposed by externalised borders whether or not they are on the move. Drawing on and contributing to critical border and migration studies, and grounded in feminist decolonial epistemologies, this research shifts the analytical gaze from the border itself to mobility as a multidimensional practice: imagined, embodied, and political. In doing so, it reveals how the spillover effects of border externalisation extend far beyond individual border-crossers, embedding violence, death, and precarity into everyday life across entire communities. Yet, it also shows how these same individuals and communities reappropriate and resist these constraints through creative and strategic expressions of agency, making visible a broader range of possibilities that challenges dominant migration and border regimes.
(Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Vad kan vi lära oss om gränser och migrationspolitik när vi betraktar dem ur perspektivet hos de samhällen som lever i gränsområdena – och genom mobilitetens teoretiska linser?
Denna avhandling undersöker effekterna av EU's politik för gränsexternalisering på dem som påverkas mest av den, med fokus på de levda erfarenheterna hos senegalesiska samhällen runtom i Senegal. Genom omfattande etnografiskt fältarbete undersöks hur individer och samhällen navigerar, anpassar sig till och utmanar de begränsningar som skapas av externaliserade gränser – oavsett om de befinner sig i rörelse eller inte.
Med utgångspunkt i och som ett bidrag till kritiska gräns- och migrationsstudier, och förankrad i feministiska dekoloniala... (More) - Vad kan vi lära oss om gränser och migrationspolitik när vi betraktar dem ur perspektivet hos de samhällen som lever i gränsområdena – och genom mobilitetens teoretiska linser?
Denna avhandling undersöker effekterna av EU's politik för gränsexternalisering på dem som påverkas mest av den, med fokus på de levda erfarenheterna hos senegalesiska samhällen runtom i Senegal. Genom omfattande etnografiskt fältarbete undersöks hur individer och samhällen navigerar, anpassar sig till och utmanar de begränsningar som skapas av externaliserade gränser – oavsett om de befinner sig i rörelse eller inte.
Med utgångspunkt i och som ett bidrag till kritiska gräns- och migrationsstudier, och förankrad i feministiska dekoloniala epistemologier, flyttar denna forskning det analytiska fokuset från själva gränsen till rörlighet som en mångdimensionell praktik: föreställd, förkroppsligad och politisk. Därigenom visar den hur gränsexternaliseringens spridningseffekter sträcker sig långt bortom de enskilda gränspassagerna och väver in våld, död och osäkerhet i vardagslivet hos hela samhällen. Samtidigt visar den också hur dessa individer och samhällen återtar och motstår dessa begränsningar genom kreativa och strategiska uttryck för handlingskraft, och synliggör därmed ett bredare spektrum av möjligheter som utmanar dominerande migrations- och gränsregimer. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/62645042-d158-4cd8-96f8-83127c1a67bb
- author
- Pacciardi, Agnese
LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Associate Professor Schapendonk, Joris, Radboud University
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-10
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- border externalisation, mobility, migration, gender, West Africa, decoloniality
- pages
- 379 pages
- publisher
- Media-Tryck, Lund University, Sweden
- defense location
- Edens hörsal, Allhelgona kyrkogata 14, Lund
- defense date
- 2025-11-07 10:00:00
- ISBN
- 978-91-8104-641-0
- 978-91-8104-640-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 62645042-d158-4cd8-96f8-83127c1a67bb
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-06 12:11:00
- date last changed
- 2025-10-20 09:44:09
@phdthesis{62645042-d158-4cd8-96f8-83127c1a67bb,
abstract = {{What do we learn about borders and migration policies when we examine them from the perspective of communities living in the borderlands, and through the theoretical lenses of mobility? <br/><br/>This thesis explores the effects of EU border externalisation policies on those most affected by them, focusing on the lived experiences of Senegalese communities throughout Senegal. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, it investigates how individuals and communities navigate, adapt to and contest the constraints imposed by externalised borders whether or not they are on the move. Drawing on and contributing to critical border and migration studies, and grounded in feminist decolonial epistemologies, this research shifts the analytical gaze from the border itself to mobility as a multidimensional practice: imagined, embodied, and political. In doing so, it reveals how the spillover effects of border externalisation extend far beyond individual border-crossers, embedding violence, death, and precarity into everyday life across entire communities. Yet, it also shows how these same individuals and communities reappropriate and resist these constraints through creative and strategic expressions of agency, making visible a broader range of possibilities that challenges dominant migration and border regimes.<br/>}},
author = {{Pacciardi, Agnese}},
isbn = {{978-91-8104-641-0}},
keywords = {{border externalisation; mobility; migration; gender; West Africa; decoloniality}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Media-Tryck, Lund University, Sweden}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{Mobility as a Practice : Border Externalisation and Colonial Encounters at the Euro-Senegalese Borderlands}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/229199814/Agnese_Pacciardi_thesis.pdf}},
year = {{2025}},
}