Books by Benjamin J Muller
Selected Publications by Benjamin J Muller
Papers by Benjamin J Muller
The authors in this collective discussion engage, disaggregate and unpack the triangulation of se... more The authors in this collective discussion engage, disaggregate and unpack the triangulation of security, technology and architecture, across a range of contemporary spaces/places. Reflecting diverse interdiscipli-nary commitments and perspectives, the collective discussion considers security, technology and architecture in urban environments and global/local interfaces, borders, borderlands and ports of entry, and even the sensorium, from soundscapes of the airport to teargas laden environments. From quotidian to high-tech, these interventions tease out the increasing ferocity of architecture and/in its relationship with technology and security.
The American Historical Review, 1999
Copyright © 1998 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a revi... more Copyright © 1998 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage ...
Geopolitics, Jan 1, 2011
ABSTRACT
Making Things International edited by Mark B. Salter
Mark B. Salter, ed., Making things International (University of Minnesota Press) forthcoming.
How can we think, imagine, and make authoritative claims about contemporary refugee politics? I b... more How can we think, imagine, and make authoritative claims about contemporary refugee politics? I believe this question must precede investigations into struggles/movements advocating rights and political voice for refugees. It is important to come to terms with the changing terrain of refugee politics, in order to (re)conceptualize it and provide some idea of how/where such struggles might be fought. Focusing on the colliding commitments to globalization and security, particularly since September 11, 2001, I argue that "paradox" is a core element of refugee politics. To some extent, this has been rehearsed elsewhere, and I point to the highlights in the existing literature. I suggest that an approach sensitive to Foucault's account of governmentality and biopolitics is particularly helpful, stressing the diffuse networks of power in refugee politics among private and public actors, the increasing role of "biotechnology," and some (re)solution to the globalization -domestic security paradox, leading to what I call the "biopoliticization of refugee politics." Examined here are the politics of asylum and refugee movements in the UK. In particular, the 2002 government White Paper on immigration and asylum -Secure Borders, Safe Haven -provides an example of the changing terrain of contemporary (post-September 11) refugee (bio)politics.
Geopolitics, 2011
The proliferation and development of media during the current war in Iraq and the opening of the ... more The proliferation and development of media during the current war in Iraq and the opening of the Iraqi media landscape, which had heretofore been dampened through authoritarian state control and international isolation due to economic sanctions, has played a role in political articulation and identity formation throughout the occupation in a fashion not seen during previous conflicts. The adoption of media tools, emerging as both technology and its applications – often referred to as Web 2.0 – impacted both combatants and civilians caught within the conflict providing them the opportunity to capture and articulate their own experience in a fashion never before available. This investigation points to the potential impacts on current political action, the resourcefulness of opposition access to media, as well as dangers posed through the emotive content most often produced. We argue that while such media production is disassociated from surrounding events (or decontextualised), its nonetheless trusted and impactful due to its viral distribution and sourcing networks and diverse in its impact on those not intimately involved due to its lack of overarching narrative and production away from sites of power.
Citizenship Studies, 2004
... As spaces and bodies find themselves disciplined in particularly totalitarian modes, one must... more ... As spaces and bodies find themselves disciplined in particularly totalitarian modes, one must ... of such acts makes an impressive contribution to the contemporary politics of resistance. In much the same way that cinematic representations of biometric technologies are vital to ...
Geopolitics, 2011
This article considers the emerging security dispositif, particularly in terms of the growing rel... more This article considers the emerging security dispositif, particularly in terms of the growing reliance on risk, risk management, and technologies of risk in relation to contemporary border security. With the ongoing application of biometrics in the contemporary mobility regime in mind, the article argues that the use of these technologies, in combination with the widespread reliance on risk management, contributes to the re-imagination of borders and the bodies that cross them. The contention that the securitisation of mobility and bodies that results from this emerging logic of rule and the accompanying commitments to specific identification technologies (biometrics), also relies on a nuanced and complex reading of securitisation well beyond the caricatured accounts of the Copenhagen School.
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2008
Citizenship Studies, 2010
To what extent are emerging strategies to manage and secure the US border contributing to a redes... more To what extent are emerging strategies to manage and secure the US border contributing to a redesign of citizenship? This article considers the specific architecture of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), the panoply of compliant programs and documents, primarily trusted traveller programs such as NEXUS, and the accompanying commitments to ‘governing through risk’ as conditions of possibility for contemporary citizenship (re)design. In particular, the article considers borders and the politics occurring there to be critical sites where ‘designing safe citizens’ is worked out on the ground. The article asserts that to a certain extent, the border and contemporary bordering practices are designed into contemporary citizenship, as both borders and related practices proliferate far beyond the spatial coordinates of the geographic border. The emerging redesigned citizenship shares much with conceptions of ‘netizens’ raised in relation to the effects networks have on economy, society and politics. Specifically, it feeds on a similar ‘naïve instrumentalism’ that presents the implementation of surveillance and biometric technologies, to name just two, that are integral to contemporary bordering practices, in distinctly ahistorical and apolitical manners. Moreover, citizenship is (re)designed as ‘safe’ according to the logic of ‘governing through risk’, where one's integration into the database renders the citizen ‘safe’ insofar as they are a knowable, manageable and governable subject, thus mitigating potential risk.
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Books by Benjamin J Muller
Selected Publications by Benjamin J Muller
Papers by Benjamin J Muller