Brexit at the Irish Border: Applying the Lens of Biopolitics

英国/爱尔兰边境经常是冲突和叛乱的地点，直到耶稣受难日协议迎来了边境地区自1921年成立以来最和平的时期。英国脱欧正在再次改变边界的性质，重要的是要了解当前边界做法的好与坏，以便为英国脱欧后的边界提供信息，并确保“不回到过去的边界”（2016年5月），未来的边界适合目的。由于某些群体的公民身份的性质可能会因英国脱欧而改变，我们必须问：管理英国/爱尔兰边境的规则和社会关系如何影响不同的群体？或者，更简单地说，他们是否将其视为边界？该项目将通过审查地理分界线以外的边界来解决这个问题;将其概念化为一个社会领域，在这个领域中，生物政治实践对在边境地区生活和工作的人的身体和身份产生影响。在这样做的过程中，研究将填补英国脱欧边境文献的空白，并有助于更广泛的边境和关键安全研究文献，以及研究英国脱欧对英国最敏感地区之一的影响，并提供重要的证据，以告知经常被边缘化的声音的英国脱欧后的边境实践。英国政府呼吁采取创新解决方案来管理边境，这为重新审视边境做法提供了一个及时的机会。边界的力量体现在它们对那些穿越边界并沿着边界生活的人的颁布方式上;它们包含了包括或排除、（取消）授权和（取消）合法化的权力。北方爱尔兰是一个独特的案例，因为它的公民有权拥有多重国籍（英国/爱尔兰/两者），而英国和爱尔兰的公民在欧盟成员国之外拥有互惠的投票权和医疗保健。此外，在共同旅行区（CTA）下，英国和爱尔兰公民可以不受检查地穿越每个司法管辖区，而非英国/爱尔兰（可能很快成为欧盟）国民的过境则受到监控。这些都是生物政治边界的形式;它们作用于个人的身体，而不是具体作用于边界所在地，并在不同的领土上赋予个人不同的权利和限制。这种做法可能会受到英国脱欧的影响;如果岛上的自由流动继续下去，CTA将得到维持，并且在爱尔兰海没有发现硬边界，那么进一步的生物政治认证和授权可能会发挥作用。方法为了公正地对待边境地区经验的范围和复杂性，特别是鉴于其有争议的历史，民族志是进行这项研究的最合适的方法。它将使那些对边界实践的生活现实有最深刻见解的人能够突出自己的经历;确定他们如何被边界对待，他们如何适应和抵制边界，以及这些行为如何颠覆，产生或物化权力结构和边界实践。这项研究将侧重于三个群体：英国和爱尔兰，其他欧盟国家，以及边境两侧边境地区城市地区的非欧盟公民。之所以选择这些群体，是因为英国脱欧对他们与岛上两个州的公民身份性质有直接但不同的影响，并且应该受到边境制度任何变化的影响。影响在进行这项研究时，我将与边境领域的民间社会组织（例如跨境研究中心）接触，以确保关键利益相关者（例如社区组织和社区本身）的观点和经验能够得到确定和发展，以便他们可以以支持受影响最严重的人的方式为未来的边境提供信息。

ContextThe UK/Ireland border was frequently a site of conflict and contestation until the Good Friday Agreement ushered in the most peaceful time in the border region since its creation in 1921. Brexit is changing the nature of the border once more and it is important to understand the good and bad of current bordering practices in order to inform the post-Brexit border and ensure that, as well as "no return to the borders of the past" (May, 2016), the borders of the future are fit for purpose. As the nature of the citizenship of some groups may change as a result of Brexit we must ask; how do the rules and social relations that govern the UK/Ireland border affect different groups? Or, more simply, do they experience it as a border? The project will address this question by examining the border beyond its geographical demarcation; conceptualising it as a social field within which biopolitical practices act upon the bodies and identities of those who live and work in the border region. In doing so the research will fill a gap in the Brexit border literature and contribute to the wider literature on border and critical security studies, as well as examining the effect of Brexit on one of the most sensitive regions of the UK and providing vital evidence to inform post-Brexit bordering practices from frequently marginalised voices. The UK government's call for innovative solutions to manage the border provides a timely opportunity to revisit bordering practices. The power of borders is found in the way in which they are enacted on those who cross and live along them; they contain the power to include or exclude, to (un)authorise, and to (de)legitimise. Northern Ireland is a unique case in that its citizens have the right to plural citizenships (British/Irish/Both), while citizens of the UK and Ireland have reciprocal voting rights and access to healthcare outwith their EU membership. Furthermore, under the Common Travel Area (CTA), UK and Irish citizens can travel through each jurisdiction unchecked, while the border crossing of non-UK/IRE (and potentially soon to be EU) nationals is monitored. These are forms of biopolitical bordering; they act on the body of the individual rather than specifically at the site of the border and bestow on individuals different rights and restrictions in different territories. Such practices are likely to be impacted by Brexit; if free movement is to continue across the island, the CTA is to be maintained, and no hard border is to be found in the Irish Sea, further biopolitical authentication and authorisation is likely to play a role. MethodologyTo do justice to the range and complexity of experience in the border region, especially in light of its contested history, ethnography is the most suitable method for conducting this research. It will allow those with the greatest insight into the lived reality of border practices to highlight their own experiences; to identify how they are treated by the border, how they adapt to and resist the border, and how these acts serve to subvert, generate, or reify power structures and bordering practices. The study will focus on three groups: British and Irish, other EU, and non-EU citizens in urban areas of the border region on each side of the border. These groups are chosen because Brexit has direct but different effects on the nature of their citizenship in relation to the two states on the island and should be most affected by any changes to the border regime. ImpactIn conducting this research I will engage with civil society organisations within the border field, such as the Centre for Cross-Border Studies, to ensure that the views and experiences of key stakeholders, such as community organisations and the communities themselves, can be identified and developed so that they may inform the future border in a way that is supportive of those who are most affected by it.