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Societies
Special Issues
Borders, (Im)mobility and the Everyday
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Borders, (Im)mobility and the Everyday

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 5358

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Raffaela Puggioni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of International Affairs, Jindal Global University, Sonipat 131001, India
Interests: (im)mobility; activism; citizenship; border and border security in the EU
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sweta Sen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of International Affairs, Jindal Global University, Sonipat 131001, India
Interests: civil conflict; forced displacement; humanitarian negotiations; refugee needs; health-seeking behavior
Dr. Christine Moliner

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of International Affairs, Jindal Global University, Sonipat 131001, India
Interests: religion; secular governance; undocumented migration in Europe; minorities in South Asia

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

People are inherently mobile. As the ‘mobility turn’ (Urry, 2016) highlights, our everyday life is built around many forms of mobility: walking, exercising, traveling, meeting people, shopping, working, and returning home. Mobility is thus ‘central to what it is to be human’ (Cresswell 2006). Starting from the premise that mobility is part of our daily life, this Special Issue explores the many creative modalities through which people counter, reinvent, and (re)shape their lives in response to voluntary or forced (im)mobility. This includes but is not limited to economic and social migration, conflict, environmental degradation, bordering practices, and cross-border daily activities. The concept of bordering practices suggested here goes beyond the physical or statist frontiers. It essentially encompasses any political, legal, social, cultural, or ethnic racist barriers that exclude, separate, and prevent mobility, mobilization, and activism. In other words, theoretical and analytical attention here is on how borders are lived, or transformed into, spaces of activism, hospitality, solidarity, and humanitarianism against dominant states’ violent (re)bordering politics. By adopting a critical perspective on borders and mobility, we aim to investigate the modalities through which a variety of needs, activities, practices, and behaviors—both at the individual and collective level—transform and reshape the (daily) lives of diverse groups, including migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, IDPs, diasporic communities, border people, cross-border individuals, and communities.

This Special Issue aims to examine how borders and everyday mobility are experienced. How does mobility reshape borders and border communities? Which activism, if any, occurs along the borders? Which (counter-)practices of adaptation, resilience, or creativity emerge? Which rights, needs, or entitlements are activated, claimed, or created? In this Special Issue, we are keen to explore a variety of mobile and creative practices and subjectivities that reshape borders and border life. We welcome contributions from any geographical areas that engage conceptually, methodologically, or empirically with themes such as the following:

  • Borders, (im)mobility, and creativity;
  • Everyday cross-border mobility;
  • Border activism and humanitarianism;
  • Everyday (forced) displacement;
  • (Im)mobility, dissent, and rights’ claims;
  • Creativity in (forced) exile;
  • Border-crossing, insecurity, and subjectivity;
  • Border (in)security and responsibility;
  • Border experience: everyday lives of cross-border refugees;
  • Borders, b/ordering, and othering practices;
  • Diasporic communities and transnational political practices;
  • Climate change and (im)mobility;
  • (In)security, (im)mobility, and creativity.

Contributions have to follow one of the journal’s three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper or review) and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Raffaela Puggioni
Dr. Sweta Sen
Dr. Christine Moliner
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • borders
  • (im)mobility
  • migration
  • refugees
  • activism
  • creativity
  • subjectivity
  • mobile subjects

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 1217 KB  
Article
On Est Ensemble: Stories of a Shipwreck, a Missing Pirogue, and Potential Migrants in Senegal
by Luca Queirolo Palmas and Federico Rahola
Societies 2025, 15(7), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15070203 - 18 Jul 2025
Viewed by 610
Abstract
This article focuses on the story of a pirogue shipwreck that occurred in early September 2024, less than two miles from the coast of Mbour, about 90 km south of Dakar. It traces an ethnographic account of that tragic event through the lenses [...] Read more.
This article focuses on the story of a pirogue shipwreck that occurred in early September 2024, less than two miles from the coast of Mbour, about 90 km south of Dakar. It traces an ethnographic account of that tragic event through the lenses of different voices, standpoints, and testimonies from the survivors, the relatives and friends of the victims, and those involved in the organization of both the aborted ocean crossing and the rescue operations in various ways. By situating this extreme story of “potential migrants” among other accounts of migrants who disappeared at sea and of missing pirogues, the focus shifts to the different weights and possibilities of movement when dealing with disappearance and death, the unknown and known facts, addressing that which remains unknown even within this unambiguous and tragic event. Faced with the dense plot of ties at the core of that failed escape, we suggest that the reasons for the shipwreck are excess demand and solidarity, in terms of the impossibility of denying passage onboard the boat to friends, relatives, and neighbors. “On est ensemble” is therefore a way to recognize that there is no clear distinction or distance between captain and passengers, survivors and the dead, or victims and spectators, since in Mbour, everyone perfectly understands both the reasons and the risks, and the reason for the risks, of any illegal attempt to cross sea and land borders towards Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Borders, (Im)mobility and the Everyday)
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16 pages, 231 KB  
Article
Immigration Lawyers as Para-State Actors: Deportation of Non-Residents in Aotearoa New Zealand
by Timothy P. Fadgen and Luke D. Oldfield
Societies 2025, 15(4), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15040108 - 19 Apr 2025
Viewed by 610
Abstract
This article considers the role of lawyers and immigration advisers in the deportation process for non-resident visa holders in New Zealand. In the process, this article adds to a small but growing literature on the role of immigration officials in the immigration policy [...] Read more.
This article considers the role of lawyers and immigration advisers in the deportation process for non-resident visa holders in New Zealand. In the process, this article adds to a small but growing literature on the role of immigration officials in the immigration policy space. We use Lipsky’s concept of the street-level bureaucrat and Lakhani’s notion of ‘para-state’ actors—those outside the formal apparatus of the state who nonetheless serve a central role in policy implementation—to advance our understanding of the deportation process. This qualitative study engaged in in-depth interviews with twenty-two (22) immigration lawyers and advisers to explore their experiences. We identify several themes about the importance of formal and informal networks for developing advocacy skills and tactics; how the features of the immigration system, lower levels of judicial scrutiny of decisions, and lower evidentiary requirements create spaces for lawyer advocacy and creativity; and how participants shared a commitment to social justice and camaraderie in their work that was essential to interactions with state officials and others. We contend that these efforts have the potential to reshape the state’s bordering practices yet are an often-overlooked area of study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Borders, (Im)mobility and the Everyday)

Other

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 282 KB  
Concept Paper
B/Ordering Emotions: Fear, Insecurity and Hope
by Raffaela Puggioni and Maria Julia Trombetta
Societies 2025, 15(6), 168; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15060168 - 18 Jun 2025
Viewed by 663
Abstract
By focussing on the emotional and affective dimensions of borders, this article suggests integrating the negative emotions that the European Union (EU) states’ border politics aim to instil—including fear, anxiety and trauma—with the positive emotions that the dream of a life in Europe [...] Read more.
By focussing on the emotional and affective dimensions of borders, this article suggests integrating the negative emotions that the European Union (EU) states’ border politics aim to instil—including fear, anxiety and trauma—with the positive emotions that the dream of a life in Europe encourages. Drawing upon the psychological and philosophical approaches to hope, this article highlights the centrality of hope in shaping agency, stimulating alternative visions, and overcoming difficulties. What is the impact of hope and daydreams in shaping migrants’ decision to engage with risky journeys? To what extent might the dream of Europe counterbalance the EU’s securitarian technologies? This article introduces and explores the processes of b/ordering and the role that emotions, as spatially grounded, play in it. This article will ultimately contend that, once confronted with the uncertainties of long and risky journeys and the prospect of a bright and dreamed future, the latter often prevails. Under this scenario, states’ deterrent systems might not be as effective as hoped, as the dream of Europe overrides the fear and anxiety that EU states’ border security aims to generate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Borders, (Im)mobility and the Everyday)
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