Reviews:
“Miguel Díaz-Barriga
and Margaret E. Dorsey’s argument that the role of the state in fomenting
violence remains unrecognized and depoliticized is powerful and utterly
convincing. With its superior scholarship and compelling ethnographic material,
Fencing in Democracy will garner interest from scholars and the public
alike.”
—Patricia Zavella,
author of I’m Neither Here nor There: Mexicans’ Quotidian Struggles with
Migration and Poverty
“Miguel Díaz-Barriga
and Margaret E. Dorsey deliver a groundbreaking exposé of the distorted logics,
policies, and politics that underpin the construction of border walls. Focusing
on the US-Mexico border wall, Fencing in Democracy is a deeply
thoughtful and thoroughly researched investigation that reveals the backstories
behind ever-expanding processes of securitization and militarization, and the
death and destruction that result. Not for the fainthearted, this book is for
concerned citizens of the world looking to comprehend what the popular media
and powerful politicians distort and a wake-up call about what gets destroyed
in the name of safety.”
—Alisse Waterston,
author of My Father’s Wars: Migration, Memory, and the Violence of a Century
Description:
Border
walls permeate our world, with more than thirty nation-states constructing
them. Anthropologists Margaret E. Dorsey and Miguel Díaz-Barriga argue that
border wall construction manifests transformations in citizenship practices
that are aimed not only at keeping migrants out but also at enmeshing citizens
into a wider politics of exclusion. For a decade, the authors studied the
U.S.-Mexico border wall constructed by the Department of Homeland Security and
observed the political protests and legal challenges that residents mounted in
opposition to the wall. In Fencing in Democracy Dorsey and Díaz-Barriga
take us to those border communities most affected by the wall and often ignored
in national discussions about border security to highlight how the state
diminishes citizens’ rights. That dynamic speaks to the citizenship experiences
of border residents that is indicative of how walls imprison the populations
they are built to protect. Dorsey and Díaz-Barriga brilliantly expand
conversations about citizenship, the operation of U.S. power, and the
implications of border walls for the future of democracy.
Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Politics of Bisection: A
Visual Ethnography of Rebordering and Rajando
Chapter 2. Not Walls, Bridges: Rituals
of Necrocitizenship
Chapter 3. Necrocitizenship Enacted:
Raping White Women and Consolidating the State of Exception
Chapter 4. Bleeding like the State: The
Open Veins of Latin America
Chapter 5. Necrocitizenship Kills
Conclusion
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index
About the Authors:
Margaret E. Dorsey is Associate Professor of
Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Richmond.
Miguel Díaz-Barriga is Professor of
Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Richmond.
Target Audience:
People
interested in political science, sociology and anthropology.