Brexit at the Irish Border: Applying the Lens of Biopolitics

英国和爱尔兰边境经常发生冲突和争论，直到《耶稣受难日协议》（Good Friday Agreement）为边境地区带来了自1921年签署以来最和平的时期。英国脱欧再次改变了边界的性质，重要的是要了解当前边界实践的好坏，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。由于一些群体的公民身份性质可能会因英国退欧而改变，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群体？或者，更简单地说，他们把它当作一个边界吗？该项目将通过检查超越地理界限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，生物政治实践作用于那些在边境地区生活和工作的人的身体和身份。在此过程中，该研究将填补英国脱欧边境文献的空白，并为边境和关键安全研究的更广泛文献做出贡献，同时研究英国脱欧对英国最敏感地区之一的影响，并提供重要证据，为英国脱欧后的边境实践提供信息。英国政府呼吁创新解决方案来管理边境，这为重新审视边境实践提供了及时的机会。边界的力量体现在那些跨越边界并生活在边界附近的人身上；他们拥有包容或排斥、授权（不授权）和合法化（不合法化）的权力。北爱尔兰是一个独特的例子，因为其公民有权拥有多重公民身份（英国/爱尔兰/两者），而英国和爱尔兰的公民享有相互的投票权和获得欧盟成员国以外的医疗保健的权利。此外，根据共同旅游区（CTA），英国和爱尔兰公民可以不受限制地在每个司法管辖区旅行，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；它们对个人的身体起作用，而不是具体在边界地点起作用，并赋予个人在不同领土上的不同权利和限制。这种做法可能会受到英国退欧的影响；如果整个岛屿的自由流动得以继续，CTA得以维持，爱尔兰海不存在硬边界，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，特别是考虑到其有争议的历史，民族志是进行这项研究的最合适的方法。它将使那些对边境实践的生活现实最具洞察力的人能够突出他们自己的经历；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，产生或具体化权力结构和边界实践。这项研究将重点关注三个群体：英国和爱尔兰、其他欧盟国家的公民，以及生活在边境两侧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国家相关的公民身份性质有直接但不同的影响，他们应该最受边境制度变化的影响。在进行这项研究时，我将与边境领域内的民间社会组织（如跨境研究中心）合作，以确保关键利益相关者（如社区组织和社区本身）的观点和经验能够得到识别和发展，以便他们能够以支持受其影响最大的人的方式告知未来的边界。

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.