Urban Miscellanea
2020-2022, 2025
Urban Miscellanea is an experimental multimedia anthology that celebrates creativity situated within the urban.
2020/21: States of Apprehension
2021/22: Urban emergency / urban rhythms
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Abiba Coulibaly
2020/21
Fluid Borderscapes: People and Frontiers in Flux
Essay
Bio
I am a recent graduate of an Urban History and Culture MA which allowed me to develop my interest in the city as an arena for social and environmental struggles, and the unique (sub)cultures and practices that emerge in highly diverse urban areas, particularly amongst displaced and diasporic populations.
An essay examining the convergence of two of the most pressing ‘emergencies’ of our times, that of migrant ‘crisis’ and ecological crisis, involving an exploration of how the effects of climate change (primarily coastal erosion and sea level rise) are reshaping the borders of the Mediterranean basin.
While migration is often simplified as an urban phenomenon, this essay seeks to ‘zoom out’ in order to explore urban-rural connectivities, whilst questioning the different scenarios and potential for positive change that could be brought about by an emergency. This essay is accompanied by cyanotype maps illustrating potential future borderscapes of the Mediterranean.
Full text:
Fluid Borderscapes: People and Frontiers in Flux
I
This essay explores the convergence of two of the most pressing ‘emergencies’ of our times; that of the migrant ‘crisis’ and the ecological crisis, via an examination of how the effects of climate change are reshaping borders. While these are issues with a global, though uneven reach, I will use the Mediterranean basin as a case study. A combination of geopolitical factors following the ’Arab Spring’ has seen the area become the busiest migration route in Europe, and the most lethal in the world (IOM, 2020, p22). As well as its deep implication in this unprecedented humanitarian emergency, the Mediterranean will also be a key terrain in the environmental crisis, having been identified as one of the most responsive regions to future climate change scenarios (Giorgi, 2006, p1).
These concentrations of humans enacting their right to freedom of movement, and unpredictable climate patterns rely upon and dictate borders respectively. Compelling ethical arguments have been made for doing away with borders, but their obsoleteness may also be affirmed via logical reasoning rooted in the accelerating geophysical consequences of climate change and its repercussions.
II
This essay builds upon the themes of ‘mobility justice’ and ‘moving borders’. Mimi Sheller has authoritatively conceptualised the former as an effort to triangulate crises of migration, urbanisation, and sustainability. Whilst it is relatively easy to conceive of migration as a literal crisis of mobility, she astutely points out that climate change is also essentially about physical movement; deserts expanding, glaciers melting, and in relation to the sea, that of ‘oceans warming and swelling’ (Sheller, 2018 p3).
My first encounter with this line of enquiry however, was reading about the Italian Limes project on moving borders by Italian visual research agency Studio Folder. The initiative sets out to ‘question the relevance and the meaning of the border in a context of climate change and shrinking glaciers’ (Folder Studio, 2016, p21) interrogating the Alpine watersheds that constitute the Italian-Swiss border, ultimately finding them fluid. This phenomenon has also been acknowledged by the governments of Italy, Austria, and Switzerland who in 2006 introduced the legal concept of a ‘moving border’ in recognition of borders’ dynamic tendencies resulting from geophysical processes. Similarly, the Evros River which delineates the Turkey-Greece border, meanders seasonally creating a frontier that is in constant flux.
III
Building on these case studies and Sheller’s multi-scalar approach to questions of mobility, I was encouraged to zoom out, and look at the possibility of exploring changing borders of the Mediterranean basin as a whole, in light of its status as a key site in relation to both migration and climate vulnerability.
Whilst borders and configurations of the continents and oceans have always been changing slowly over time, the current anthropocene presents a scenario in which changes occur at a much faster pace, making them visible in decades rather than millenia as has previously been the case.
Precisely predicting these developments and mapping changing borders depends on numerous variables. The most rigorous research into how these variables interact and manifest come from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who in their most recent publication presented several Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), scenarios that collate information around possible socio-economic trajectories and potential greenhouse gas concentration respectively, in order to predict various future climate scenarios as accurately as possible. SSP2-4.5 and RCP4.5, are both ‘intermediate’ scenarios which see global temperatures rise by 2.1 to 3.5 celsius by 2100 and are therefore the most often referred to. In these scenarios, sea level rise is predicted to increase by 0.5 to 1.0 meters by 2100.
In turn, sea level rise combined with more frequent, energetic storms (also a product of climate change) will increase coastal erosion to which the Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable. On its European shores 18% of coastline shows signs of erosion, while only about half can be considered stable. Similarly, on its African shores 47% of coastal areas are endangered or very endangered (Hzami, 2021). The IPCC reports that ‘[b]y 2100, median shoreline retreats of around 50 meters under RCP4.5, increasing to around 80 meters under RCP8.5’ are predicted in the Mediterranean (IPCC, 2021, p69).
IV
The implications of these developments are numerous, and as with all environmental changes will most significantly affect already vulnerable communities, migrants included. Changes in sea level and coastal erosion intersect with migration patterns to present ambivalent scenarios and the need to question the relevance and accuracy of borders in the age of ecological crisis.
The retreat of coastline as a result of erosion and sea level rise suggests longer, more perilous journeys. Though relatively small distances, every meter matters, particularly when one considers the increasingly turbulent seas and unpredictable currents that climate change will generate. Combined with projected increased desertification (traversing the Sahara is for many the prequel to the merciless journey across the Mediterranean) this phenomenon further provides an opportunity for the weaponisation of ‘natural’ landscapes as a deterrent as so lucidly illustrated by Forensic Oceanography (Pezzani, 2019).
Retreating coastlines present new configurations for maritime borders, and therefore maritime patrol, jurisdictional technicalities and search and rescue missions, all of which already constitute a contentious geopolitical minefield. Typically, maritime zones extend 12 nautical miles from land borders, and have repeatedly and selectively been taken advantage of by Mediterranean states to either eschew humanitarian responsibility with fatal consequences, or enact pushbacks contravening international human rights law. The increased hostility towards and criminalisation of independent humanitarian missions in the sea further compounds this issue.
Firmly demarcating maritime borders in the region remains disputed. The closed-off nature of the Mediterranean sea means that there are numerous overlaps between countries’ potential jurisdictions, and the stakes have been raised owing to the recent discovery of hydrocarbon resources in the area. Whilst a maritime border agreement has been reached, it remains contested and is unrecognised by Greece, Egypt and Cyprus (Shama, 2020). These boundaries also influence search and rescue missions at sea, and while all countries involved have a deplorable track record in this realm, some are better than others and all are preferable to the Libyan sea guard, highlighting the intricacies and inconsistencies that a carved up seascape engenders. With land borders set to continually shift due to the effects of climate change, boundary policy will require constant reappraisal, demonstrating the weakness and declining relevance of the concept of ‘fixed’ borders.
Overall, the effects of climate change - namely sea level rise and coastal erosion - on coastline morphology expose the volatility of borders at both land and sea, thereby necessitating a less rigid and otherising framework through which to approach territory and movement.
V
But what place do oceans and littoral zones have in a discussion of urban areas? Migration is often simplified as an urban phenomenon, but heightened restrictions and surveillance on movement mean that it is increasingly mediated by ‘natural’ landscapes which find themselves deployed by governments as instruments of militarised border control. There is a growing consensus (Steinberg, 2009; Brenner & Schmid, 2011) on the need to examine the important but overlooked role of rural and ‘wild’ spaces such as oceans, deserts and mountains in the dynamics of migration not in opposition, but in relation to urban theory, for a more holistic and nuanced understanding of the topic.
Rather than positioning them as binary, it can prove fruitful to explore rural and urban spaces as part of a continuum. ‘[M]igration flows are driving global urbanisation’ affirms Sheller (2018, p6.) Any thorough exploration of said flows requires a critical engagement with their entire trajectory, in which non-urban spaces are a recurring feature. Whilst migrants generally have cities as their intended destination, there are often multiple, non-linear stages and spaces passed before reaching them due to long-distance travel, push-backs, deportations and evictions for example. As such, we can understand ‘urban settings as extending into networked regions of rural [and I argue natural and oceanic] connectivity’ (Sheller, 2018, p17.)
Furthermore, this specific case study also involves the erosion, flooding and potential disappearance of many cities as the Mediterranean is one of the most densely populated and highly urbanised coastal regions in the world. Some include hubs of emigration which have recently emerged as ‘transit cities’ such as Nador, Ceuta and Melilla in North-Eastern Morocco. Others include historically important urban centres such as Venice and Alexandria, whose existence is now seriously endangered after centuries of settlement.
VI
It is well established that migration drives urbanisation. In turn, urbanisation drives the climate emergency whilst concentrating climate risk. A frightening feedback loop emerges - the climate crisis will only increase flows of migration as environmental refugees grow in number, making it clear that tackling these issues must be approached holistically, requiring radical empathy towards both people and the planet.
The Mediterranean provides a pointed example as an arena in which some of the most intense occurrences of human mobility and ecological fragility play out. Its status as one of the most romanticised and evocative ‘imagined geographies’ in the world undeniably adds to fascination and concern with the region. However, if we zoom out again, the issues that it faces which have been examined here speak to regions across the world and some, such as the Pacific, find themselves at much more imminent risk.
For all the anxiety-inducing connotations of the word, one overriding positive aspect of ‘emergencies’ are their ability to provoke action, reckonings, and responses of such intensity that cannot be elicited during more complacent times. If these intertwined emergencies of migration and climate can be seized upon as a call to action, they provide the pressure and perhaps the final opportunity for enacting radical change. Doing so could present a world in which borders are not significantly reshaped by flooding or erosion, but their permanence does not act as a tool of necropolitical demarcation either.
References
Brenner, N. and Schmid, C. 2011. Planetary Urbanism. In: M. Gandy, ed., Urban Constellations. Berlin: Jovis.
Charef, M. and Doraï, K. 2016. Sub-chapter 3.1.2. Human migration and climate change in the Mediterranean region. In Moatti, J., & Thiébault, S. (Eds.), The Mediterranean region under climate change: A scientific update. IRD Éditions. doi:10.4000/books.irdeditions.23727
Folder Studio, 2016. Italian Limes. Migrant Journal, (01).
Franzen, J., 2019. What if We Stopped Pretending?. The New Yorker,.
Giorgi, F., 2006. Climate change hot-spots. Geophysical Research Letters, 33(8).
Hzami, A., 2021. Toward the end of the beaches on the southern Mediterranean coast?. IRD,.
IOM, 2020. World Migration Report 2020. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.
IPCC, 2021. Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I. Chapter 12.
Pezzani, L., 2019. Liquid violence: investigations of boundaries at sea by Forensic Oceanography. Architectural Review,.
Shama, N., 2020. Geography and Resources: Maritime Borders in the Mediterranean. ISPI.
Sheller, M., 2018. Mobility Justice. London: Verso.
Steinberg, P. 2009. Sovereignty, Territory, and the Mapping of Mobility: A View from the Outside. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99(3).