Sorting Machines

The Reinvention of the Border in the 21st Century

By: Steffen Mau, Nicola Barfoot (Translator)

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Paperback | 23 December 2022 | Edition Number 1

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Paperback
174 Pages

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21.4 x 14.0 x 1.5

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It is commonly thought that, thanks to globalization, nation-state borders are becoming increasingly porous. Steffen Mau shows that this view is misleading: borders are not getting more permeable in the era of globalization, but rather are being turned into powerful sorting machines. Today they fulfil their separation function better and more effectively than ever.

While the cross-border movement of people has steadily increased in recent decades, a counter-development has taken place at the same time: in many places, new deterrent walls and militarized border crossings are being created. Borders have also become increasingly selective. Supported by digitalization, they have been upgraded to smart borders, and border control has expanded spatially on a massive scale, even becoming a global enterprise that is detached from territory. Steffen Mau shows how the new sorting machines create mobility and immobility at the same time: for some travellers, borders open like department-store doors, but for others they remain closed more firmly than ever. While a small circle of privileged people are allowed to travel almost everywhere today, the vast majority of the world’s population continues to be systematically excluded. Nowhere is the Janus face of globalization more evident than at the borders of the 21st century.

Industry Reviews

"Elegantly written and sharply argued, Steffen Mau's book examines the changed function of borders in the era of globalization. Selective citizenship, algorithmic governance and the securitization of mobility are some of the mechanisms through which freedom of movement is shown to be the privilege of only a few wealthy elites. An essential and eye-opening analysis of territorial authority in the 21st century."
—Lea Ypi, London School of Economics and Political Science

"Territorial borders are complex institutions by which states organize hierarchies of (un)desirability of non-citizens. Steffen Mau employs his great analytical sensitivity to investigate border regimes in policy areas such as migration, labour markets and health, EU integration, separatism and war. As the building of fences and walls has again become a global growth industry, this timely and highly readable book offers important insights on the politics of territoriality."
—Claus Offe, Hertie School of Governance

"compelling and eminently readable"
—European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology

"a concise analysis of the impact of globalization on borders"
—Journal of Borderland Studies

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