A city of sanctuary: the relational re-imagining of Sheffield’s asylum politics
A city of sanctuary: the relational re-imagining of Sheffield’s asylum politics
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庇护之城：谢菲尔德庇护政治的关系重新想象
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发表时间：
2010
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Jonathan Darling
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文献类型：
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作者：
Jonathan Darling
2007年6月，谢菲尔德市正式宣布自己是英国第一个“庇护之城”，这一姿态试图灌输“欢迎和款待寻求庇护者和难民”的精神。通过一系列的访谈和民族志研究，本文批判性地审视了这一姿态，考虑城市的庇护所如何寻求制定一个关系帐户的地方，通过该帐户的谢菲尔德对近距离和遥远的陌生人的责任被突出。本文认为，虽然避难所城市运动整合了关系和领土的政治实践，它也积极追求一个关系的想象，通过提出城市作为一个空间的政治联系和责任。这是通过两个重点来实现的，一个是寻求庇护者和难民在构成城市方面发挥的作用，另一个是谢菲尔德在全国庇护讨论中可能发挥的作用。在此讨论之后，本文期待的庇护所的工作的影响，空间政治的关系帐户，认为一个双重定位的空间责任“内”和“超越”的地方可能更容易阐明在一些网络和流量比其他人。因此，庇护之城的经验表明，关系账户必须在领土实践、政治网络、空间责任和地理想象之间提供一个谈判的空间。庇护之城发展成为一个全国性的城镇和城市网络，促进接待，表明这种谈判对在英国城市发展庇护文化的重要性。
In June 2007, the city of Sheffield officially declared itself to be the UK’s first ‘City of Sanctuary’, a gesture that sought to instil a spirit of ‘welcome and hospitality towards asylum seekers and refugees’. Drawing on a series of interviews and ethnographic work, this paper critically examines this gesture by considering how City of Sanctuary sought to enact a relational account of place through which the responsibilities of Sheffield towards both proximate and distant strangers were highlighted. The paper argues that while the City of Sanctuary movement integrates both relational and territorial political practices, it also actively pursues a relational imaginary through presenting the city as a space of political connections and responsibilities. This is achieved through a twin focus upon the role asylum seekers and refugees play in constituting the city and the role that Sheffield might come to play in national discussions of asylum. Following this discussion, the paper looks to the implications of City of Sanctuary’s work for a relational account of spatial politics, arguing that a dual orientation of spatial responsibilities ‘within’ and ‘beyond’ place may be more easily articulated in reference to some networks and flows than others. The experiences of City of Sanctuary therefore suggest that relational accounts must present a space of negotiation between territorial practices, political networks, spatial responsibilities and geographical imaginations. The development of City of Sanctuary into a national network of towns and cities promoting hospitality indicates the importance of such negotiations for developing a culture of refuge across British cities.