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The Tensions of the Ceuta and Melilla Border Fences

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EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies ((PSABS))

Abstract

This chapter aims to ‘complicate’ the fences and fencing of Ceuta and Melilla. It discusses the emerging theoretical literature concerned with walls and fences in both historical and contemporary settings and examines the fences within their historical and geopolitical context as well as the tensions between security and humanitarianism that have been progressively reflected in their architecture. Furthermore, the chapter examines the fences as productive sites. This is done through a focus on the communities that encounter the fences in their everyday practice and a discussion of how the fences are producers of and sites of resistance. The chapter contributes to recent work on walls and fences that has argued for a more sociological approach to these complex architectures, seeing walls and fences as more than blockaders of movement or defenders of territory.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Politicologie, Postbus 15578, 1001 NB, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Polly Pallister-Wilkins

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  1. Polly Pallister-Wilkins
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany

    Paolo Gaibazzi

  2. Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat, München, Germany

    Stephan Dünnwald

  3. University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Alice Bellagamba

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Pallister-Wilkins, P. (2017). The Tensions of the Ceuta and Melilla Border Fences. In: Gaibazzi, P., Dünnwald, S., Bellagamba, A. (eds) EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94972-4_3

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