Session: #269

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
1. Archaeologists and Archaeology Here and Now
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
More than Walls and Fences - The Importance of Space and Boundaries in Systems of Violence and Oppression
Content:
The intentional organization of physical and social space, which is also manifested in material forms, can be geared to contribute to practices of violence and oppression. This becomes clearly visible in various types of secluded spaces, from attempts to seal state borders against unwanted mobility to more confined versions of immobilization in camps, prisons, or other forms of internment.
These forms of containment include both a culture of restrictions to foster acceptance of these boundaries from legislature to public discourse, and stigmatization and defined spatial zones of material fortification. The latter contains architectures to combine maximized ability (up to impunity) for guards to act, secured confinement of persons, and limited access and visibility for outsiders. These normative, discursive and material elements are connected through sets of measures and practices to mutually secure each other. The result is a far-reaching and boundary-based stratification of both space and human agency. In other words, its exploration requires integrated interdisciplinary efforts.
This session brings together contributions on questions about how the structuring of space was (or is) used to enable and/or consolidate the exercise of physical, psychological, and symbolic violence and oppression and how it influences the social organization of space and the agency of different groups of people, for example regarding forced camps, prisons or, on a large scale, national and transnational borders. By inviting archaeological, historical, social science, remote sensing and geophysical expertise, we aim to inspire interdisciplinary exchange and to enhance the mutual understanding of different empirical and methodological approaches for the joint exploration of the meaning of space and boundaries in systems of oppression and violence.
Keywords:
borders, camps, internment, violence, space
Session associated with MERC:
yes
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
yes
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Claudia Theune (Austria) 1
Co-organisers:
Christoph Rass (Germany) 2
Frank Wolff (Germany) 2
Peter Hinterndorfer (Austria) 1
Christin Bobe (Germany) 2
Affiliations:
1. University of Vienna
2. University of Osnabrück