Resonance beyond regimes: Migrant’s alternative infrastructuring practices in Athens

Mirjam Wajsberg and Joris Schapendonk
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Mirjam Wajsberg: Radboud University, The Netherlands
Joris Schapendonk: Radboud University, The Netherlands

Urban Studies, 2022, vol. 59, issue 11, 2352-2368

Abstract: In migration studies, there is an increasing interest in understanding how migration processes are shaped by different forms of brokerage and mediation. We relate these debates to the everyday struggles of migrants in the city of Athens. In so doing, we propose a shift from the all-encompassing view on infrastructures, that is, as systematic entities of facilitation/control to the infrastructuring practices of migrants. This implies a focus on how migrants create dynamic social platforms, and how these platforms relate to formal infrastructures and industries. We analyse these infrastructuring practices through a conceptual lens of resonance that is sensitive to the constitutive (how things, people and processes are brought together) as well as travelling capacities of these practices (how the platforms shift to other places). With an ethnographic approach, we create in-depth insights into the ways in which migrants mediate im/mobility in the urban environment of Athens through infrastructuring practices. The paper concludes by reflecting on the promises and limitations of the infrastructuring practices as sites of solidarity. We thereby argue that there are many links to make within the mobile commons debate. At the same time, our findings highlight that the transformative potential of infrastructuring practices does not always go along with a clear claim on solidarity.

Keywords: EU migration regime; Greece; migration infrastructure; people as infrastructure; resonance; 欧盟移民制度; 希腊; 移民基础设施; 人作为基础设施; 共振 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:11:p:2352-2368

DOI: 10.1177/00420980211044312

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