Border-as-Flesh: Towards a Theory of Border Reversibility

Abstract: This article theorizes the inability of state borders to implement the forms of separation they aim and claim to enact. To do so, it examines the geopolitical consequences of this failure by thinking the state border through a body of literature that critiques the notion of the body as a border between self and world. In particular, the article draws on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s articulation of the “flesh” to examine how the state border “intertwines” subjects and objects, allowing for their “reversibility.” The article argues that the border-as-flesh opens space for sketching a theory of border reversibility that can help us imagine an alternative politics that seeks to dissolve the border’s repressive political functions.