The project examines the construction of state space and the contestation of the EUropean borderscape through the work of non-state actors in the Mediterranean Sea. In response to the precarity of irregularized migrant journeys, there has been a rise in Search and Rescue (SAR) NGOs committed to assisting people on the move through upholding the basic human rights and dignity of migrants. Increasingly, NGOs are criminalized for providing basic necessities like food, water and shelter to migrants passing through the peripheral spaces of the state. Not only does irregular migration through the borderlands of the Global North directly confront state efforts to exclude through violent bordering practices, but NGO acts of solidarity also transform the harsh environment of the sea into contested spaces of political action. The lifesaving actions of NGOs operating in the Mediterranean directly challenge state authority and governance at sea while laying bare the violence inherent in state bordering practices. Conversely, the disruptive politics of these NGOs serve as a form of resistance to these same bordering practices and operate as a means of contesting state exclusion. Situating NGO SAR operations within the wider context of the securitization of borders, the repression and criminalization of solidarity in the Mediterranean highlights state efforts to reassert sovereign authority over the sea. This ongoing research contextualises the spatial politics of the Mediterranean borderscape at the intersections of migration governance and acts of solidarity by European NGOs. The research conducted for my doctoral project was driven by an ethnographic methodology that included six months working with SAR NGOs active in the Central Mediterranean while gathering over 50 interviews with activists working in the region. More directly, this also involved three months living and working alongside the German SAR organization, Sea-Watch, in France and Italy during periods of legal and administrative detention. My work bridges the opportunity to write about these movements and resistance efforts, with direct involvement in these struggles for rights, recognition, and freedom of movement, in solidarity with people on the move. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

University lecturers have a job that is characterized by flexible working conditions and lack of boundaries. This study investigates how this is experienced by lecturers at a Swedish university and how they manage the flexibility in order to achieve a balance between work and leisure. The empirical part of the study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with five senior lecturers within the Faculty of Social Sciences. Boundary theory and Work / Family Border Theory are used to interpret the informants' stories. The study shows that senior lecturers have a mixed experience of flexible working conditions. On the one hand informants expressed positive aspects of having choices in their work in terms of time, space and content; on the other hand, informants recounted the difficulties that can arise when it comes to finding an appropriate balance between work and leisure. The strategies individuals deploy to manage flexible working vary in line with variations in experience and awareness.

This dissertation explores the importance of tourism and tourability to contemporary global politics. I argue that the global movement of tourists (declared by the UN World Tourism Organization as a ‘right to tour’) is made possible in part through what I call the production of tourability – the capacity of particular places, bodies, or experiences to be toured and to be seen as worthy of touring. Rather than a natural result of difference, tourability is a political process that involves contestations over what and who counts, how space should be organized, and how and what histories are told. I show that touristic movement is based on a specifically neoliberal mobility – a form of free movement that lays claim to ‘borderlessness’ and infinite access along lines eerily familiar to those claimed by contemporary capital – and use this to argue that the work of making places tourable is also designed in specific ways to facilitate this kind of movement. Thus, being tourable is part of the transnational politics of contemporary governance and is useful to constructing the boundaries of (in)appropriate movement. At the same time, the continual expansion of tourism across the Global South has given ‘being tourable’ important economic and political stakes for life, subjectivity, and land. To understand the interweaving of these stakes and the transnational mobility being produced, I examine two sites where tourability has been thrown into question by those whose work produces it. The first is situated at the tri-border region of the Colombian Amazon on the shores between Brazil and Peru that has, in recent years, seen a boom of tourism development and visitors. This boom has largely operated on the neoliberal designs of movement and contemporary development that promote access to tourable places as an enactment of freedom. Against this backdrop, a story circulating in early 2011 highlighted the decision by members of Nazaret, an indigenous community along the river, to refuse tourists and tour companies entry. Taking up this small and messy act, I interrogate around this refusal to examine how touristic mobility is being made (im)possible in this small corner of the Amazon. The second site is a tour designed by the indigenous Hñähñu community of El Alberto, Mexico, that takes participants on a simulated border-crossing to experience, as so many of these community members have, what it is like to cross the U.S.-Mexico border as an undocumented migrant. Impressive, provocative, complex, and controversial, this tour throws into question both how mobilities are addressed within touristic sites and the creative potential of those who are toured to make use of its practices in ways that further other aims. Using concepts of work, landscapes, circulation, and friction, I explore both production and refusal to elaborate on the transnational politics of tourism as neither a panacea nor as an afterthought, but as a sticky, messy, and significant part of global political life. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Border delineations and walls have been used to protect cities and towns throughout history. In the present age of modern surveillance and advanced military technology however, physical walls have much less significance for the protection of present-day states and nations and have become artifacts of mostly symbolic significance. In an increasingly connected world with the potential for becoming more compassionate, the symbolic significance of the border wall, barrier, and delineation demands to be reassessed and reapproached. This opens the possibility of designing a new binational border typology with functions of business, tourism, cultural education, hospitality, and public assembly that can mutually benefit bordering regions. The site of this thesis is the 1949 Armistice Agreement, or Green Line, on the perimeter of the West Bank of Palestine – a prolonged border conflict of our time and a powerful example of spatial injustice. Through a combination of ancient and modern materials, this thesis explores the potential of hospitality through the design of a roadside inn to recognize the history of its place and create a physical and symbolic bridge for future cooperation. In addition to lodging for travelers, the program incorporates a museum, artist workshops, dining areas, gift shops, and gathering spaces. Straddling the Green Line along the Dead Sea shoreline, it is designed to carry the memory of the land, but also to symbolize a future that joins divided communities. / Master of Architecture / This thesis looks at the problem of border delineations and walls within a modern context and proposes the use of borders for functions supplementary to border control and security – such as local commerce, cultural spaces, tourism, hospitality, and public gathering places. Border delineations and walls have been used to protect cities and towns throughout history. In the present age of modern surveillance and advanced military technology however, physical walls have much less significance for the protection of present-day states and nations and have become artifacts of mostly symbolic significance. In an increasingly connected world with the potential for becoming more compassionate, the symbolic significance of the border wall, barrier, and delineation demands to be reassessed and reapproached. This opens the possibility of designing a new binational border typology with functions of business, tourism, cultural education, hospitality, and public assembly that can mutually benefit bordering regions. Spatial justice involves the fair and equitable distribution within a space of resources and opportunities. The site of this thesis is the 1949 Armistice Agreement, or Green Line, on the perimeter of the West Bank of Palestine – a prolonged border conflict of our time and a powerful example of spatial injustice. Through a combination of ancient and modern materials, this thesis explores the potential of hospitality through the design of a roadside inn to recognize the history of its place and create a physical and symbolic bridge for future cooperation. In addition to lodging for travelers, the project's program, or scope of work, includes a museum, artist workshops, dining areas, gift shops, and gathering spaces. Straddling the Green Line along the Dead Sea shoreline, it is designed to carry the memory of the land, but also to symbolize a future that joins divided communities.

Based on Berg's (2003) model for document analysis with a supplementary interview of preschool manager, this study examined how far there is an unused space in science and technology at preschools. The study also aims to investigate how documentation work is governed by external and internal borders. The study was conducted at two municipal preschools in central Sweden and was based on the School Act and the preschool's curriculum (Skolverket, 2016) and local documentation in the form of a work plan from both preschools and a common systematic quality report. The documentation was compared to each other and supplemented with an interview to make its external and internal borders visible and examine whether there was an unused space. The result shows that there are many requirements for what the documentation in the preschool should contain and how the documentation work should be carried out. The preschools work with a prioritized development area that can be problematic for the documentation work regarding other goals. The documentation shows a clear structure for how and what should be documented in the operations, both from the requirements of the curricula and the management. In the teaching of science and technology, we can instead find out that there is an unused space based on the documentation, but more research is needed on the subject in order to ensure that this is actually the case.

The fullest and most comprehensive unpacking of the term finis has yet to be achieved. Studies have narrowly focussed on the idea of border, boundary or frontier, without even entertaining the prospect of interpreting the study from the ancient point of view. This investigation considers the use of the word finis in Livy and attempts to recreate a conception of finis which mirrors as closely as possible that of a Roman of the Republic up to the very Early Empire. Besides the remarkably high usage of the term by Livy, the author’s work is also useful due to its chronological nature, which allows for broad investigation throughout the Republican Period, as well as shedding light on the Early Imperial concept of finis. The main aim of this dissertation is to provide a collective analysis of diverse cases, which together can help build a complete picture of the detectable features related to the term finis. As well as this, the analysis of the contexts – in which the term finis is used has also cast light on those features of finis – that have remained fixed despite the different historical contexts in which they appear. For example, throughout my study, two fundamental concepts will continue to pop up in front of the reader’s eyes: a) the inapplicability of modern conceptual categories to the idea of finis and b) finis – if translated as border, boundary or frontier – as a concept applicable not to a line, but to a spatial element. On the basis of Livy’s evidence – drawn from his work Ab Urbe Condita – this study attempts to present a reconstruction of the term through the identification of an entirely new concept. This study is conceived in terms of a crescendo, which begins with the basic definitions attached to finis and evolves, adding an increasing number of evidences until it reaches a climax, whereby the reader can see both those invariable features of finis in Livy’s account and the 4 Introduction: Research guidelines evolution of the term as fines are applied within different political contexts. Rome – a city that rose on a finis, the Tiber River – reinvented or remodelled the concept of finis, demonstrating behaviour antithetical to the notion of confining herself behind a ‘single line’. Once identified as a finis, the natural features helped the Romans to exert their imperium, which was itself an embodiment of the features contained within the concept of finis. The establishment of the fines provided an ‘imaginary’ subdivision of the territory subjected to the Roman imperium in a series of land strips. This is documented by Livy through Rome’s expansionist ‘finis-system’, from a single occupation of the Janiculum Hill to the scientific approach and setting of the treaty of Apamea. Although the lacunae in Ab Urbe Condita – from 168 B.C. onwards – do not permit a direct connection between the Late Republic and the Early Empire, some elements can be used to evidence an intimate relationship between Livy’s and Augustus’ thinking and terminology. To some extent, this common intent has made possible this attempted reconstruction of the ‘bordering practices’ used in the last 150 years of the Republic, as well as the possible evolution of such practices in the first 150 about years of the Empire.

This dissertation sets out to explore the animal presence in the novels of contemporary French writer Michel Houellebecq. Focusing on this often overlooked aspect in the growing number of publications dedicated to Houellebecq’s literary production, this study argues that the presence of animals is central to understanding how his novels are structured around borders between not only animals and humans but also between humans themselves. By pitting animals against humans the novels simultaneously show how these borders are created within the narratives only to be repeatedly broken down and/or transgressed. Whereas in previous research a posthumanvision in Houellebecq’s works has been largely attributed to the theme of a technological surpassing of the human, this study advances the idea that animals constitute an inherent part of Houellebecq’s questioning of an anthropocentric worldview. The first chapter of the thesis, which lays the foundation for the study, explores how descriptions structure two major ways in which animals are present: either as a backdrop setting where the characters, while trying to maintain the border between themselves and animals, are transformed into observers of animals in their natural habitat, or as metaphors used to describe appearances and seemingly unwanted personality traits of some of the characters. The second chapter expands on the idea of a frontier between animals and humans but contrary to the previous chapter it studies the porosity of these borders by showing how humans and animals are depicted and narrated in similar ways. Drawing on the theories of Giorgio Agamben, Dominique Lestel and Tristan Garcia the study concludes by proposing to read Houellebecq’s novels both as a form of life stories relating a common history between animals and humans and as an attempt to highlight the untenable project of maintaining an anthropocentric worldview.

In January, 2009, I joined Bikes Across Borders, a local grassroots organization, on their yearly bike caravan to Mexico. The group works to promote bicycles, both here and in Mexico, as an environmentally and financially sound alternative to motorized transportation. Each winter, members ride bicycles they build out of salvaged parts to border cities in Mexico. They give these bicycles to maquiladora workers who would otherwise spend a large portion of their income on transportation. These workers make a fraction of what they would in the U.S. and live in shacks amid the pollution from the factories they work in. This is the story of one group’s attempt at making a difference in the lives of these workers. / text

Experts estimate that by 2013, every adult in the world will own a mobile phone. Mobile technologies are one of the fastest growing and most widely adopted technologies in history. This study seeks to understand the impacts of an increasingly mobile culture in the United States, focusing on how being “always on” impacts individuals' relationships with work. Being always on refers to an individual’s propensity to remain continuously connected to the world through a web-enabled, mobile technology device, such as an iPhone or BlackBerry. Influenced by Clark's (2000) work-family border theory, I conducted 49 in-depth interviews, in order to develop a communicative model of being always on. The model is characterized by using new mobile technologies, needing to be connected, blurring boundaries between work and non-work spheres, identifying with work, working long hours, and having work-life balance. Being always on is linked to a strong work identity and desire for control over one's time. However, being constantly connected with a smartphone also means being more connected to work; it has become easier to work longer hours, have work leak into personal time, and slowly but ultimately lose control over the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Ironically, individuals who are always on in order to gain more control over their time may actually end up giving up more control than they gain. However, always-on individuals actually feel like they have an appropriate work-life balance, which complicates traditional understandings of the meaning of “balance.” Instead, these findings suggest always-on individuals actually “atomize,” a term that refers to the breaking down of communicative tasks into small pieces to can be completed anywhere, at any time, enabling flexibility and control. / text

In her article “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (1975) Laura Mulvey explains how film portrays the female characters as passive sexualised objects, on display for the male (erotic) gaze. Although, Mulvey did make amendments to the original article after it was criticised, her original article is still influential and referenced in academic writing on film. This dissertation investigates how the three selected mainstream American films, namely, Alice in Wonderland, Monster and Transamerica, have female protagonists who deviate from Mulvey’s initial standpoint and enact a new dynamic, whereby the female characters possess active bodies. In order to explain this new dynamic, the dissertation provides an overview of relevant theory in order to establish the necessary analytical tools to investigate the representation of the female body. These tools are taken from feminist notions of the body, most importantly Mulvey’s notions, in order to establish what constitutes an active female body that subverts the male gaze. This subversion is most notable when examining the iconography of the active female body. The dissertation also draws from the overview the importance of place and space, the embodiment of the characters’ inner workings in specific locations, and their relationship with the locations in which they are depicted. Since all three films include a physical journey on which the respective protagonists embark the examination of borders and border crossings is included. The dissertation shows that journeys bring with them the opportunity for the body to be active, as each female protagonist is on a journey to self-discovery. The changing settings in which the protagonists find themselves are an embodiment of their inner workings. Topographical borders mark the entering of new locations. However, concomitant symbolic and epistemological borders are also crossed. The female protagonists need to make choices concerning their lives and as a consequence alter the representations to reflect bodies that subvert the male gaze. These female bodies are active. However, they are active in different ways. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, delves into her psyche to emerge a changed and independent Victorian woman. Bree, from Transamerica, heals the relationships with her family and is able to have her gender reconstructive surgery to become a physical woman. These two female protagonists have positive representations of the active female body. The protagonist from Monster, Aileen, is represented in a constant state of abjection and her active body is portrayed in a negative light. Whether represented in a positive or egative light, these chosen films all portray an active female body that does subvert the male gaze, and hence represent a new dynamic different from the one Mulvey described. / MA (Language Practice), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014