Beyond the Space of the Project: The Politics of Representation and Contributions to Knowledge

Abstract

We live in a world where mechanisms to exclude people seen as ‘other’ which were once considered ‘exceptional’ have now become ‘normal’. People seeking protection in European countries, and elsewhere, are detained, dispersed and deported, their lives treated as ‘waste’ or ‘reject’. As part of this politics of exclusion , there is an increasing number of liminal spaces, between and within borders , in which such people are detained or forced to live, kept waiting in often inhumane conditions, and often for years at a time. The Irish Direct Provision system is part of this increasing network of liminal spaces. The increasing ‘fragmentation’ of labels used to designate refugees and asylum seekers and the often negative representation in mainstream media and government discourse, and the ‘othering’ and stereotyping that this creates, serve to justify various mechanisms of exclusion and to further exclude those people.