1. The Sonoran Borderzone -- Introduction -- The Sonoran Desert -- State Borders And The Governing Of Mobility -- Asymmetric Divisions -- Unauthorised Border Crossings -- Migrant Deaths -- The Intensification And Contestation Of Control -- The Politics Of Control -- Humanitarian Activism Between Migration And Control -- Post/Humanitarian Politics Across The Sonoran Borderzone -- 2. A More-Than-Human Analysis Of Humanitarian Border Politics -- Critical Border And Migration Studies -- The Proliferation Of Borders -- Normalisation And Biopolitics -- Migrant Agency As Given And/Or Denied -- Humanitarian Activism -- Humanitarian Ethics And Law -- Humanitarian Government And Politics -- Humanitarian Politics As Contestation -- A More-Than-Human Analysis -- People, Places, Things -- 3. People, Privilege And Pity -- Toothbrushes In The Green Valley -- Engaging People Through Things -- Documenting Things -- Las Madres, No Mas Lagrimas -- Inscribing Privilege Through Pity -- A Danger Unto Themselves (And Unto Others) -- Violating Clandestine Acts Of Migration -- Exclusionary At Heart -- Cut I: A Pitiful Humanitarianism? -- 4. Places, Violence And Response-Ability -- Water Bottles In The Desert -- Changing The Desert To A Human/E Place -- The Desert As A Site Of Biophysical Violence -- Beyond A 'Minimalist Biopolitics' -- Fighting For People By Transforming Place -- Humanitarian 'Littering' -- Contesting 'The Human' Through Things -- Cut II: A More Response-Able Humanitarianism? -- 5. Things, Gifts And Solidarity -- Hunting For 'Trash' -- Renewing Things Through Exchange -- Things That 'Go To Waste' -- Regeneration Over Preservation -- Humanitarian Recycling -- Fighting For People By Transforming Things -- Gifts As A Collective Force -- Cut III: A Solidaristic Humanitarianism? -- 6. Post/Humanitarian Border Politics.
Summary
What is the significance of the things that migrants leave behind in contemporary border struggles? In what ways do places like the desert play a role in such struggles? And what is the status of people in this context? The author addresses these questions by assessing the politics of different humanitarian interventions in the Mexico-US border region. Examining various artistic and academic engagements of things left behind, as well as legal struggles over the distribution of water bottles and practices of recycling of discarded belongings, this book develops a unique 'more-than-human' perspective on the significance of people, places and things to humanitarian border struggles. While drawing attention to the ambiguities of humanitarian interventions, Squire also focuses on the critical potential of a post/humanitarian border politics that transforms place by fighting for people, through things.
