Mapping and countermapping shifting borders
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Author | Alexander Sager |
| DOI | 10.1177/14748851211065130 |
| Subject Matter | Symposium on Shachar’s The Shifting Border |
Mapping and
countermapping
shifting borders
Alexander Sager
Portland State University, USA
Abstract
Ayelet Shachar’sThe Shifting Border deploys a powerful map metaphor to support
rethinking of borders and their functions. I interrogate this metaphor, developing
some of the representational, constructive, and normative functions of maps, along
with their connections to legal mechanisms for decoupling migration from territory.
I survey three responses to the extra-territorialization of migration: a cynical response
that rejects the possibility of migration justice, an abolitionist response connected to
open borders, and a revisionist response that advocates for widescale institutional
reform. The revisionist response illuminates how Shachar’s essay challenges us to reflect
on what sorts of maps and accompanying social and political organizations would best
support migrant justice.
Keywords
Borders, methodological nationalism, refugees, territory, mapping
It is a pleasure to engage with Ayelet Shachar’s important essay The Shifting Border.
Political philosophers and legal theorists are beginning to realize that the dominant
model of political and territorial organization and sovereignty has little connection to
reality. States have made Westphalian conceptions of territory and sovereignty obsolete
through a variety of legal fictions and political maneuvers. They employ a variety of tech-
niques such as maritime interceptions and offshore processing to expand, bend, and
Corresponding author:
Alexander Sager,Philosophy, Portland State University, 393 Neuberger Hall, 724 SW Harrison, Portland, 9720,
USA.
Email: asager@pdx.edu
Symposium on Shachar’sThe Shifting Border
European Journal of Political Theory
2022, Vol. 21(3) 601–607
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14748851211065130
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