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The generalised bio-political border? Re-conceptualising the limits of sovereign power
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Vaughan-Williams, Nick. (2009) The generalised bio-political border? Re-conceptualising the limits of sovereign power. Review of International Studies, Vol.35 (No.4). pp. 729-749. ISSN 0260-2105
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0260210509990155
Abstract
This article is a response to calls from a number of theorists in International Relations and related disciplines for the need to develop alternative ways of thinking ‘the border’ in contemporary political life. These calls stem from an apparent tension between the increasing complexity of the nature and location of bordering practices on the one hand and yet the relative simplicity with which borders often continue to be treated on the other. One of the intellectual challenges, however, is that many of the resources in political thought to which we might turn for new border vocabularies already rely on unproblematised conceptions of what and where borders are. It is argued that some promise can be found in the work of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, whose diagnosis of the operation of sovereign power in terms of the production of bare life offers significant, yet largely untapped, implications for analysing borders and the politics of space across a global bio-political terrain.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JZ International relations |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies |
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Boundaries, Sovereignty, Biopolitics, Globalization, Nation-state and globalization, Boundaries -- Political aspects |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Review of International Studies |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| ISSN: | 0260-2105 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| Volume: | Vol.35 |
| Number: | No.4 |
| Page Range: | pp. 729-749 |
| Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0260210509990155 |
| Status: | Peer Reviewed |
| Version or Related Resource: | An earlier version of this article was presented at the 48th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Chicago, IL, 28 Feb – 3 Mar 2007. |
| URI: | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36448 |
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