Achille Mbembe: Borders in the Age of Networks

'The government of human mobility might well be the most important problem to confront the world during the first half of the twenty-first century. Worldwide, the combination of ‘fast capitalism’ and the saturation of the everyday by digital and computational technologies have led to the acceleration of speed and the intensification of connections. Ours is, in this regard, an era of planetary entanglement. Yet, wherever we look, the drive is also towards enclosure.  The belief that the world would be safer if only risks, ambiguity and uncertainty could be controlled and identities fixed once for all and secured is gaining momentum. Risks management techniques as a means to govern mobility are proliferating. Carried by mobile bodies, the biometric border is extending into multiple realms of social life. Were this trend to persist, tomorrow’s world might be at risk of becoming a gated world, with myriad enclaves, culs-de-sacs and corridors. Here Achille Mbembe  explores  the consequences of these trends and examine the ways in which they shape and reshape an new 'Nomos of the Earth', the main features of which will be the object of our conversation.' -- The New School