Lecture by Paolo Novak
March 28, 2014
6:30-8:30pm
Room 9206 CUNY GC
Marxism and Postcolonialism are two influential approaches within the field of border studies. They both offer a radical critique of global hierarchies, capitalism, modernity, and contemporary systems of knowledge production, yet for the most part, they have neglected each other. With the aim of contributing to a dialogue between these two epistemological perspectives, the paper focuses on one particular subset of contributions, namely those by Marxists and postcolonial geographers concerned with the notions of space, scale, and territory. In particular, the paper sets in conversation Marxist concerns with the functional role of borders vis-à-vis capitalist accumulation, and postcolonial scholars’ sensitivity to the fluidity, situatedness and hybridity of the territories and identities defined by such borders. It seeks points of encounter and potential articulation between these approaches by bringing to the fore the tension between the inescapable materiality of borders and the incompleteness of the spaces they define. The incompleteness of borders thus conceived simultaneously captures their world configuring functions and their fluid and situated social existence, as they concretely articulate with each other in context. Put differently, the paper argues that fruitful points of contact and articulation between Marxist and postcolonial border studies can be found by focusing our gaze on ontological as opposed to epistemological questions.
Paolo Novak is a Lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. His research is concerned with the relation between borders and the development process at large, and is located at the intersection of critical globalisation, migration and development studies. He is particularly interested in exploring the definitional boundaries of development’s analytical units, and the tensions between state- and non-state centred units of analysis and representation. His articles on borders, refugees, NGOs, imperialism, appear in journals across the field of social sciences.
