Burdened Solidarities Beyond the Impasse

Abstract This special issue focuses on sites of relational and cultural practice at which border violence is challenged by solidarity, a major technology of resistance to border regimes. This form of collective action describes the social formation among displaced peoples crossing borders. It also describes the social formation of anyone who enters into solidarity with those displaced people crossing borders. The issue assembles articles that highlight solidarity relationship building in the face of forced displacement and amid the violence that structures national borders. It also touches on experiences of failed, disappointed, and seemingly impossible solidarities. This introduction brings together the discourses that inform the thinking the issue exemplifies and reflects on some of the lessons it teaches.