Conduit & Pacification

Operation Gatekeeper:the rise of the "illegal alien" and the making of the U.S.-Mexico boundary      by Joseph Nevins

The border is simultaneously a line of control to keep things out (immigrants and drugs) and a gateway for authorized goods, services, and people.

So much stress is placed on the “the image of a secure border.” But I wonder about the border as an actual place, a place where people live and cross daily to work.  Is all that matters the image?

According to Joseph Nevins, the border is a permanent construction site.  Constructing fences, walls, national identities and exclusivities.

conduit |ˈkänˌd(y)oōət; ˈkänd(w)ət|

•Facilitates interaction between national spaces

• a channel for conveying water or other fluid : a conduit for conveying water to the power plant | figurative the office acts as a conduit for ideas to flow throughout the organization.

• a tube or trough for protecting electric wiring

pacification |ˌpasifiˈkā sh ən|

• A process, in constant flux and one that social actors must reproduce to maintain

• Territorial order in which infrastructural power dominates & despotic power is deployed only occasionally

To pacify:

• to quell the anger, agitation, or excitement of

• bring peace to (a country or warring factions), esp. by the use or threatened use of military force