Borderscape Networks by Ion Maleas

Module: Conflicts & Negotiations 2014-2105

Student Number: 33360383 Supervising Professor: S.Schupli, Supervising PhD: S.Barber

Table of Contents

A. Contextualizing I. Introduction....................................................................................................................................... p. 1 II. Of Borderscapes & Networks........................................................................................................... p. 1 III. Of Commodities & their Mobilities................................................................................................. p. 3 B. Researching I. Fresh Fruits & Vegetables.................................................................................................................. p.5 II. "Cultivating" Morocco..................................................................................................................... p.7 III. Crossing the Mediterranean............................................................................................................ p.9 IV. Southern Europe............................................................................................................................. p.10 V. Getting to the UK.............................................................................................................................. p.13 C. Concluding D. Referencing I. References........................................................................................................................................ p.17 II. Appendix.......................................................................................................................................... p.22

[word count: 7986]

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... Borderscape Networks ... by Ion Maleas

A. Contextualizing

I. Introduction

In contemporary European reality there is a complex entanglement between migrants and agriculture.

This relation is actual and situated within Europe -migrants consisting a large percentage of the European

agricultural work force-, as much as it is conceptual and situated beyond Europe -much of the fruits and vegetables

that Europe imports today being from developing countries, countries of origin of migratory flows- (Easterling

2005; Stevis 2013). This essay interrogates the parallels between the movement of migrant bodies and agricultural

produce; the fact that they may share countries of origin, or even similar movements through European borders;

the fact that borders could be extremely porous or dense, depending on the subject or object crossing them and in

relation to the demands of the European markets. By assuming that the EU 'borderscape' (Mezzadra and Nielson

2013) functions as a complex network who's countless 'actants' (Latour 1997) relate to each other in surprising and

often problematic ways, the question raised is: within the context of what Anna Tsing calls 'supply chain capitalism'

(2009), how do governing bodies like the EU and it's member-states seek to 'moderate, control and regulate these

variously powerful [...] flows' (Urry 2000, 1) of subjects and objects crisscrossing borders daily? Focusing on

specific nodes of this vast network, the essay follows the route of certain fresh fruits from their production sites in

Africa or Southern Europe, to their consumption sites in the UK, thus illustrating the depth and intricacy of

relations behind the "simple" act of buying raspberries in London.

II. Of Borderscapes & Networks

'We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of near and far, of

the side by side, of the dispersed.'

(Foucault 1984, 1)

The notion of a linear border corresponding to a 'geopolitical line of separation between nation-states'

(Mezzadra and Neilson 2013, 3) is obviously anachronistic and proves to be inadequate for describing

contemporary European borders. In their book Border as Method (2013) Sando Mezzadra and Brett Nielson offer

an insightful approach to the issue of borders, analyzing and explaining their multiplicity, flexibility, heterogeneity

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and functions. The proliferation of borders today is viewed as a regulatory apparatus 'of inclusion that selects and

filters people and different forms of circulation in ways no less violent than those deployed in exclusionary

measures' (2013, 7). The concept of borders establishing 'multiple points of control along key lines and

geographies of wealth and power' (2013, 7) informs this essay throughout its entire analysis. However, these

'points of control' are not to be understood as to their spatial qualities only, but more as nodes in a complex

network that incorporates diverse themes and dynamics of the political, financial, and cultural, alongside its

geographical elements. In an effort to incorporate the multiple aspects of the contemporary border, Mezzandra

and Nielson often use the term 'borderscape' instead, a term widely adopted in this essay.

The essay's analysis focuses on the European borderscape as an apparatus of governance, that exercises

its power through the regulation and control of mobilities of subjects and objects. Describing this apparatus as a

network allows us to more accurately approach the ontology of its functions. Bruno Latour's 'Actor-Network-

Theory' (ANT) is particularly useful for the freedom it provides in defining the different 'actants' within such

networks as well as the ways these 'actants' / 'nodes' of networks are associated to one another. In his 1997 paper

On Actor Network Theory: A few clarifications (1997) Latour states that ANT's 'key point is that every entity,

including the self, society, nature, every relation, every action can be understood as "choices" or "selections" of

finer and finer embranchments going from abstract structure -actants- to concrete ones -actors.' (1997, 6). Latour

dismantles the human / non-human divide, by defining the 'actors' / 'actants' of his networks as 'something that

acts or to which activity is granted by others. It implies no special motivation of human individual actors, nor of

humans in general. An actant can literally be anything provided it is granted to be the source of an action' (1997,

5). In order to be able to rebuild an understanding and describe the very nature of societies, ANT 'does not limit

itself to human individual actors but extend[s] the word actor -or actant- to non-human, non individual entities'

(1997, 2). Furthermore, Latour attempts to distance ANT from previous notions of network such as technical,

geographical, sociological. ANT dismantles a number of restrictive, binary concepts of networks such as 'far/close',

'small scale/large scale', 'inside/outside', 'foreground/background'. There are no predetermined associations, 'no

compulsory paths', 'no a priori order relation' (1997, 2-4) between the various nodes of networks. Put 'too simply',

in ANT 'instead of thinking in terms of surfaces -two dimensions- or spheres -three dimensions- one is asked to

think in terms of nodes that have as many dimensions as they have connections' (1997, 2).

At this point it is worth mentioning that in Latour's actor-network approach, history is denied as having an

overarching character, as well as society having hierarchical structure. In the analysis of borderscapes however, it

is possible to trace a historical continuity in the evolution of their configurations; 'borders have a history; the very

notion of border has a history' as Balibar argues (2002, 77). It is also necessary to maintain certain concepts of a

powerful hierarchy within borderscapes, since 'borders never exist in the same way for individuals belonging to

different groups' (2002, 79), or objects belonging to different groups one might add. With describing the European

borderscape as an actor-network the intent is not to de-politicize it's violent nature, but to gain a certain freedom

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in the association of subjects and objects, of human and non-human actors, of distant geographical locations and

practices, and of disperse chronologies, thus shedding new light on its multiplicity. The intent is to productively

combine the 'borderscape' as an apparatus of enforcing power, with the elaborative, polysemic character of an

'actor-network'.

III. Of Commodities & their Mobilities

To further understand the highly political nature of the dismantlement of the human/non-human divide

within the EU borderscape network, a number of Marxian analyses orbiting the concept of the commodity inform

the narrative of this essay. Marx's own definition contains the following:

'[...] the commodity reflects the social characteristics of men's own labor as objective characteristics of

the products of labor themselves, as the socio-natural properties of these things. Hence it also reflects

the social relations of the producers to the sum total of labor as a social relation between objects, a

relation which exists apart from and outside the producers. Through this substitution, the products of

labor become commodities, sensuous things which are at the same time supra-sensible or social.'

(Marx 1976, 164)

These few lines by no means exhaust what Marx defines as commodity. Nevertheless, they express certain

qualities pertinent to this essay, such as the commodity's connection to the producer and their labor, which also

conveys a social dimension to it. According to Arjun Appadurai it is useful to consider that 'commodities, like

persons, have social lives' (1986, 3). He argues that historically objects and subjects have not always been so

divorced as they are considered to be today, pointing towards Marx's notoriously complicated concept of

"commodity fetishism". Appadurai draws attention not to follow the 'excessively dualistic' anthropological

concept of ' "objectification of persons" versus "personification of things" ', but rather to 'approach commodities

as things in a certain situation, a situation that can characterize many different kinds of thing, at different points of

their social lives' (1986, 12-13). Therefore, to understand the commodity, 'focusing on its total trajectory from

production, through exchange / distribution, to consumption' (1986, 13), is of crucial importance, especially since

'from a methodological point of view it is the things-in-motion that illuminate their human and social context'

(1986, 5). The nature of commodities therefore adds political verticality, to the horizontality of the distribution

network. Commodities are multidimensional complicated objects, involving labor, social substance, matter, use

and exchange value, a "biography" of travel and production, etc. They are dynamic elements that are illuminated

by -and at the same time redefine- their social and cultural context, in a reciprocal relationship that illustrates the

many levels at which a commodity can be understood and unraveled.

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Beyond defining the commodity as the social product of labor, as being a certain 'phase' of the 'social life

of things' (Appadurai 1986), it is crucial to address one specific commodity due to its quality of being 'inseparable

from the human body' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 19). This is the commodity of labor power, 'which at once

describes a capacity of human bodies and exists as a good traded in markets at various geographical scales' (2013,

19). This creates a tension between the abstract conception of the commodity form of labor power, and the

reality that ties it to a human living body. Therefore, the mobilization of labor power as a commodity means the

migration of bodies, regulated by the borderscape according to the demands of labor markets. Or, as Mezzadra

and Nielson write: 'The processes of filtering and differentiation that occur at the border increasingly unfold

within these markets, influencing the composition of what, to use another Marxian category, we call living labor'

(2013, 19). Much before Mezzadra and Nielson, Gyorg Lukacs had also attempted to address the 'reification' of the

human body 'based on the idea that, in the world of commodity values, subjects are themselves evaluated and

transformed to things' (Balibar 2014, 69). We are presented with an inversion of Appadurai's 'things-in-motion'

illuminating the human condition, where now humans-in-motion (as living labor) allow for a particular vantage on

the world of things.

Within the network of the EU borderscape, under the term of 'commodity' one finds objects and subjects,

human and non-human actants, all of them parts of nodes of the network, connected to each other in various

ways that will be examined throughout this essay. What remains to be addressed is the essence of the topic which

lies in the mobilities of these actants, these commodities. In his book Sociology beyond Socities (2000) John Urry

debates that the traditional notion of society is being challenged by the proliferation of global networks and flows

of goods, people, images, technologies, information, in one word commodities, traversing long and well

established borders and boundaries. Although Urry's flows seem to all too effortlessly move through these

boundaries (something that will be shown that the EU borderscape strongly contrasts), they provide a useful

insight on the contemporary importance of commodity mobilities. However, the most pertinent resource for this

discourse is the field of Commodity Chain Analysis, which explicitly devotes itself to the interrogation of such

movements and connections. In this conceptual framework many different words are used to describe the nature

of commodity movement. Among others, the word chain serves as 'the most pervasive metaphor for thinking

about the links between the production, distribution and consumption of goods' (Hughes and Reimer 2004, 2).

Problematically though, it conveys a sense of linear continuity and simplicity which are misleading. For the

purposes of this essay the term Commodity Network is deployed, not only for its common wording with Latour's

Actor-Network-Theory, but because 'the idea of a network helps to conceptualize the complex and multi-stranded

ways in which different types of nodes (people, firms, states, organizations, etc.) are connected' (2004, 4).

Additionally, commodity networks convey further 'verticality' to the borderscape network in question, since they

'include such dimensions as place, gender, class and ethnicity' (Barrett et al 2000, 21-22) adding to the horizontal

spatiality of 'chains'.

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B. Researching

I. Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

'The European Union is the world’s biggest importer of foodstuffs — by a big margin.' (European Commission 2014a, 14)

According to the European Commission's publication The EU explained: Agriculture, in 2014 the European

Union's agricultural imports from developing countries was worth approximately €72 billion -more than New

Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan and USA's import values combined- (2014a). As a resident of a European

metropolis such as London, one is continuously confronted by the fact that much of the agricultural products

consumed are imported. A visit to a local Sainsbury's brings the London consumer in contact with a variety of

different countries of origin, registered on the labels of these fresh fruits and vegetables. This personal, everyday

feeling of largely imported produce is confirmed in a 2014 governmental report of the Department of Environment

Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) which states that 45% of fresh vegetables and 90% of fresh fruit supplied in the UK are

indeed imported (2014a). However it is not only the economic magnitude and intensity of the sector that draws

attention.

The commodity network that provides the EU with 'high value foods (HVFs) such as [...] fresh horticultural

products has become increasingly globalized' (Barrett et al. 2004, 19). As Barrett, Browne and Ilbery further inform

us, these products have seen an increased consumer demand in the European and UK markets. In a network that

is considered to be 'buyer-driven', retailers have responded to these demands offering year-round supplies of high

value vegetables which 'are of considerable interest for the global food system because they must be moved

swiftly from point of production to consumption and are subject to constant change in retailers requirements'

(2004, 25). Such a network therefore 'relies on efficient and rapid interchange of knowledge, information and

ideas, as well as speed in transit of the product' (2004, 25). Not only speed and efficiency are vital, but for retailers

'fresh produce is considered to be a "window" on their store, setting a marker for quality and signifying their target

market' (2004, 27). They are what Urry describes 'tourists-objects [...] for whom movement is all' (2000, 65), in

that they are minimally transformed from production to consumption and their mobility from a distant 'other' is all

that authenticates them. In other words they mobilize a certain 'geographical imagination' of the consumer

(Castree 2001).

So where does this 'geographical imagination' take us? For the EU, the leading 'developing country'

supplier for fresh fruits is South Africa, and for fresh vegetables the two leading suppliers are Morocco and Egypt

(CBI 2014). Agricultural produce consumed in the UK is also largely imported either from Africa directly, or from

the rest of the EU, which in turn heavily imports from Africa (Defra 2014b, 26). During 2013 the UK imported

nearly 5 million tones of vegetables and nearly 4 million tones of fruits; 66% of cauliflower, 58% of lettuce and

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82% of tomatoes consumed originated from different countries around the globe (Defra 2013a; Defra 2014a; CBI

2014). During winter months all types of berries are entirely imported, with 92% of raspberries originating from

outside the UK (Defra 2014a). Leading berry suppliers inform us through their websites: S&A entirely imports

strawberries, November to May, from Spain, Morocco and Egypt; British Summer Fruits also imports strawberries

from Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Israel, imports raspberries from Spain, Morocco and the USA and blueberries from

Spain and South Africa among others; Berryworld follows the same pattern with certain countries of origin being

consistent throughout all these examples: Spain, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, etc (S&A 2015; British Summer

Fruits 2012; Berryworld 2015).

These examples do not aspire to exhaust the list of fruits and vegetables imported, nor their countries of

origin; they do not aim towards a specific commodity or geographical location. They rather begin to trace the

nodes of the network at place, illustrating its vast size in amounts of produce being mobilized around the globe, its

enormity and complexity in economic and geographical terms. Throughout the research for this essay nearly 40

different academics in Agricultural Economics, fruit and vegetable importers / retailers, and journalists with work

pertinent to the topic were contacted. Although many of the scholars provided useful insights to the nature of

these commodity networks, none were able to provide specific information of a single product and its entire

"journey". The importers / retailers on the other hand either ignored the efforts to contact them, or denied any

details under the theme of "commercial and business sensitive information" (see Appendix1). A single berry

grower / importer provided the following:

'Some of the questions you have asked are Commercial sensitive but I will try my best.

Morocco - Strawberries / Raspberries / Blueberries / Blackberries - "Chouaffa Kenitra Morocco". The

lorry goes through Spain gets on the Ferry to Dover / Felixstowe and then to Marden. When it arrives in

Marden it is then packed and labelled according to Supermarket packaging specification.

Spain - Strawberry / Raspberries / Blueberries / Blackberries - "Huelva Spain". Same as above.'

(S&A Supply Chain Manager)

This therefore provides a spatial-temporal geographical narrative for us to follow. It is important to once again

stress that this narrative will not describe the whole of the network in question. In contrast, the difficulty of

obtaining this type of information about commodities consumed in London daily, reaffirms the intricacy of the

network, and highlights the significance of the questions that this essay seeks to raise. Consequently, this

narrative merely provides a frame through which to focus on certain nodes and actants of this vast network; nodes

that will be deployed to illustrate the political, financial, geographical violence of the EU bordercape apparatus.

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II. "Cultivating" Morocco

Morocco has a long and well established relationship with Europe, having signed their first commercial

agreement in 1969 with the then called European Economic Community (MEDEA 2015). In 2000 the EU-Moroccan

Association Agreement began to be enforced (signed in 1996) further establishing these ties, reinforcing 'the

liberalization of services, free movement of capital and competition rules, the strengthening of economic co-

operation on the widest possible basis', as well as pointing towards a 'progressive and reciprocal liberalization of

trade for agricultural products' (EEAS 2015). In 2013 the EU imported just over €1.3 billion worth of agricultural

produce from Morocco (European Commission 2014b), and according to Moroccan World News in the same year

agriculture employed 40% of the country's workforce (Flah 2013). Considering that the UK is the 3rd EU country in

fresh fruit consumption, and 5th in vegetable -with a share of 10-12% of the entire EU import market- (CBI 2014), it

is safe to assume that many Moroccan agricultural products are consumed in the UK.

In commodity networks however, there is not just a flow of produce from production towards

consumption, but 'there is a reverse flow of power', and in the UK where 'corporate retailers dominate the sale of

imported fresh horticultural products [...], both directly and through their intermediaries, retailers are able to

impose this power on growers' (Barrett et al. 2004, 26-34). Importers must ensure year-round supply and agile

response to the ever-changing market demands. In this sort of 'industrialization process' already from his early

writings Marx identifies 'an increasingly rapid destruction of traditional agricultural production forms' (Murdoch

and Miele 2004, 105). In contrast to small scale producers who cannot meet the markets demands, 'large-scale

farmers have resources of knowledge, literacy, technology and infrastructure that permit them to reach

supermarkets requirements' (Barrett et al. 2004, 32). Morocco's king Mohammed VI is the owner of Domaines

Royaux, one of 'the biggest exporters of fresh produce and a key player in domestic agribusiness' (Karam 2013).

He has been ironically nicknamed 'the king of the poor', and is considered to be 'one of the world's richest

monarchs as a result of an unholy marriage between power and business' (Anouzla 2014). What is apparent is that

the process of "safeguarding" the supply that quenches European markets demands, is often at the expense of

local economies and livelihoods. Perhaps the metaphor of flow is misleading here, due to its fluid nature, and

James Ferguson's concept of 'global hops' are more appropriate where nodes of the network 'connect in a

selective, discontinuous "point-to-point" fashion' (Ferguson 2006, 14).

Consequently, the EU borderscape network performs what Whatmore and Thorne call 'network

lengthening' in their effort to capture the concept of extension of 'power associated with global reach' (1997, 291).

This idea of 'extension' also informs Europe's 'long standing imperial practice of importing out-of-season

vegetables from the colonies' (Easterling 2005, 40). It is important to disassociate this neo-colonial practice from

its pure geographical character and bring it closer to Lenin's idea of an 'actual division of the world' which is

established 'in proportion to capital' (1975, 79). Or rather, it is important to understand how these practices of

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financial expansion of capital's frontiers, and the neo-colonization of the 'world market' as an abstract space, are

associated with geographical aspects and how they 'enter into complex territorial assemblages, in which they

intertwine with political borders' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 72), and transcend them. Mezzadra and Nielson

further inform these concepts with that of the creation of 'semi-periphery' as a 'necessary structural element in a

world-economy [that] works as a kind of compensation chamber that articulates and mediates the more brutal

relationships of domination and dependency between core and periphery' (2013, 73; emphasis added).

'Another important chapter of the Association Agreement refers to the question of migration and social

affairs' as the European Union External Action website informs us about the EU-Moroccan agreement in 2000

(EEAS 2015a), and of course these type of agreements are not limited to Morocco. 'The EU has finalized Dialogues

on Migration, Mobility and Securities with Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan. More Dialogues with other Southern

Mediterranean countries are under consideration.' (European Commission 2015a). In 2004 the European Council

advocated the establishment of "reception facilities" and "transit processing centers" in Northern Africa, and

today a number of detention centers are reported to exist throughout northern Africa as well as along the cost of

Turkey (Global Detention Project 2015a; 2015b). Furthermore, the EU is currently considering outsourcing

Mediterranean border patrols to Northern African countries (Traynor 2015). Back in Morocco, beyond the

notorious "fences of death" around the Spanish enclaves of Cueta and Melilla (BBC 2005; Camara 2014; Mezzadra

and Nielson 2013), the NY Times report police violence and a general culture of discrimination against Sub-Saharan

migrants trying to get to Europe (Alami 2012). Moroccan academic Ali Bensaad writes: 'Europe wishes to "deport"

or "decolonize" its contradictions. […] it recruits Maghreb countries for the role of "advanced guards", calling on

them to fill the function of dams holding back the flood of African migrations' (Bensaad 2006, 16). The EU

bordersape extends its financial and political borders well beyond its geographical territory, thus creating a buffer

zone that serves to protect and provide further governing power over the flows attempting to penetrate it.

The EU borderscape network has deployed many nodes across Morocco, across Northern Africa and other

African countries. These nodes include actants from farmers to kings, from Morocco to Turkey, from violent

fences to irrigation and transport technologies, from raspberries to international trade agreements. The

assemblage of actants establishes a financial 'semi-periphery', a political and geographical 'buffer zone' that

ensures the power to regulate the flows -or hops- of commodities into European space -both geographical and

financial. These commodities include agricultural produce, but also include labor power. The mobilization of fresh

fruits and vegetables is associated to the mobilization of migrants bodies, all seeking to move through the network

towards European soil, towards European economies, and some towards the UK. The next geographical element

to face is the Mediterranean sea.

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III. Crossing the Mediterranean

The sea has a long history of serving as a captivating source of inspiration and analytical metaphors for

the academic world. The vast, kinetic nature of oceans, their materiality as 'wet, mobile, dynamic, deep, dark

spaces that are characterized by complex movements and interdependencies' (Steinberg 2013, 159) have provided

a productive arena for presenting a world of "smoothness", of "interchanges" and "connectivities" that challenge

traditional political and legal notions of states. Contrarily, they also provide an apt descriptor for worlds that are

'slushy, violent, conflicted and dangerous' (Easterling 2005, 70); spaces characterized by a 'variegated process of

segmentation, hierarchization, and logistical coordination' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 209). Whatever the

approach, seas must not be conceived as 'being spaces of legal voidness' (2013, 208), but rather as spaces 'where

many transnational systems, practices and imaginaries intersect and overlap' (Bremner 2013, 1). Philip E. Steinberg

urges us to consider the physicality of oceans, that includes both human and non-human actors (2013), as well as

understand the ocean as a 'social construction' where each of these actors favor certain policies that offer a

redefinition of its status. Consequently, 'the overall competition among the various actors would serve to

reproduce the ocean as a uniquely constructed space with a complex regime designed to serve a multiplicity of

functions' (Steinberg 2001, 4).

For the actants of our network involved in the mobilities of agricultural produce, the Mediterranean is

seen as a transportation surface. For the European consumers the 'sea is a provider' (Steinberg 2001), and for

retailers/transporters it represents the 'least expensive means of transporting commodities from point of

production to point of sale. It enables the company to reproduce geographical hierarchy and the global division of

labor' (2001, 2), and in this way facilitates the transportation of value, of labor and capital embedded in these

commodities, across distances that permit profit realization. According to Arjun Appadurai 'as distances increase,

so the negotiation of the tension between knowledge and ignorance becomes itself a critical determinant of the

flow of commodities' (1986, 41). These distances provide the necessary frame through which 'gaps, discrepancies,

conflicts, and encounters as well as borders are understood not as obstacles but as parameters from which

efficiencies can be produced' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 206). As John Urry points out: 'obviously objects travel

often in conjunction with the movement of people [and] follow diverse and complex routes' (2000, 64). However,

the migrant subjects attempting to cross the Mediterranean face a very different space than the objects previously

discussed. The way the EU borderscape network functions in relation to such movements, reveals its most violent

and biopolitical operations.

According to Migrants Files (an investigatory journalist group) since the beginning of the century an

estimated 28,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross into Europe, the majority of these deaths documented

in the Mediterranean (Migrants Files Team 2015). In 2014, the UNHCR estimates 3,500 lives lost in the

Mediterranean with an additional 1,700 already in 2015 (BBC 2015). Foucault argues that 'biopower', the form of

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power exercised through biopolitics, is the power 'of making live and letting die'. For when the problem is 'life',

then 'power literally ignores death' (Foucault 2004, 245-249), words that take on a hauntingly literal meaning in

this case. Through this extreme exercise of biopower, the EU borderscape becomes a racist apparatus. For

Foucault, contemporary states that function in biopolitical mode, are inherently tied to racist actions. If the

definition of racism is power's control over 'the break between what must live and what must die' (Foucault 2004,

254), then inevitably 28,000 deaths of "others" at European borders cannot be considered anything else. The

accusation is not of course, of direct murder. Once again Foucault's words are strikingly relevant: 'When I say

"killing", I obviously do not mean simply murder as such, but also every form of indirect murder: the fact of

exposing someone to death, increasing the risk of death for some people, or, quite simply, political death,

expulsion, rejection, and so on' (2004, 256).

The discourse regarding the violence exercised on migrant subjects by apparatuses of power is one of

great historical depth and significance. Any discussion of the European borderscape would be incomplete without

a reference to such aspects. However, within the scope of this essay such a discourse couldn't possibly be

exhausted. Rather, by following the narrative further into the description of the actor-network in place, the

production of fresh views on specific functions of the borderscape is attempted, through associating subjects with

certain objects traversing it. The geographical journey therefore now takes us to the southern shores of Europe.

IV. Southern Europe

'One day humanity will play with law as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them

to their canonical use but to free them from it for good.'

(Agamben 2005, 64)

For a migrant subject that reaches European soil, there is either the possibility of reaching undetected

- thus undocumented by the apparatus-, or the subject faces apprehension in a detention facility of the receiving

country. There they await for their asylum applications to be examined, through which they get legal permission

to stay in the country, or face deportation. Giorgio Agamben is an influential figure for understanding the political

implications of such spaces, such 'camps', where subjects are 'taken into custody independently of any criminal

behavior, solely to avoid danger to the security of the state' (Agamben 1998, 167). However, Mezzadra and

Nielson urge us to look beyond the harsh reality of the camps. Without losing sight of the violence performed by

the European power apparatus at these spaces, it is useful to consider certain temporal functions detention

centers and procedures perform in relation to labor markets. Linking these detention centers and procedures to

those of Northern Africa is crucial for understanding the role they play as yet another "portal" of these buffer

zones.

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In David Harvey's reading of 'Marx's thesis of the annihilation of space and time', he introduces the

concept of ' "time-space compression" of both human and physical experiences and processes' (Urry 2000, 124), in

an effort to encapsulate the velocity and agility of capitals contemporary functions of global expansion. Urry

argues that this concept is best illustrated through its 'relationship to corporeal mobility' (2000, 124), and it is

pertinent to consider the aspect of 'corporeal mobility' in the context of the EU borderscape network as one

subjected to "time-space expansion", as well as "compression". The notion of the borderscape thus acquires a

'temporal thickness and diversity [...] where the compression, elongation and partitioning of time exerts effects of

control, filtering and selectivity' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 132-133) of the subjects in question; of living labor.

Mezzadra and Nielson further inform the discourse by drawing attention to 'the apparatuses of power that bear on

migratory movements, in particular the methods of selection and filtering that seek to match these movements to

the real and phantom needs of cities, states and regions' (2013, 149). They argue that focusing on these temporal

dimensions contributes to a redefinition of techniques of migration control and associates them with the shaping

of labor markets. It is therefore fruitful to understand the detention center as what they call a ' "decompression

chamber" that equilibrates, in the most violent of ways, the constitutive tension that underlie the very existence of

labor markets, [through] restricting access to freedom in specifically calculated and strategic ways that manipulate

and twist the classical relation of supply and demand' (2013, 149-150).

This concept is further understood by following our narrative to Spain, through where the S&A supply

chain manager informed us his company's berries travel through, but are also imported from. Spain is the EU's

biggest fresh fruit and vegetable producer, the biggest exporter of fresh fruit and second biggest in fresh

vegetables (CBI 2014). The region of Almeria, in the south of the country around the small town of El-Ejido, best

exemplifies this flourishing of "agribusiness", in a process that Keller Easterling calls the 'new colonization of

photosynthesis' (2005, 40). While writing about the area that is reported as being one of Britain's important

resources for agricultural products (Lawrence 2011), Easterling reaffirms the connection of the agricultural labor

market to migration flows, and addresses the tens of thousands of Northern African migrants that respond to

'covert "calls" for workers among growers' (2005, 52). In Spain, detention time of "illegal" migrants cannot exceed

the threshold of 60 days, upon which migrants are either deported, or if a deportation procedure cannot be

carried out by authorities, they are issued a deportation notice and released with the obligation to voluntarily

leave the country within a legally required and specified time (Global Detention Project 2015b). Similar laws are in

effect in Italy and Greece, with a detention period of up to 18 months, followed by the issuing of a deportation

notice to leave within 30 days (Global Detention Project 2015b; Greek Ministry of Interior 2011). It is a safe

assumption to make, that someone who has fled their homeland (for whatever reason), spent a large amount of

capital (up to $2500 per head according to Easterling - 2005, 52), and risked their life in order to reach Europe, will

not voluntarily leave in such a situation. According to Eurostat, in 2014 there were 626,000 asylum applications

submitted in the EU - highest number in more than 20 years, from which less than half resulted in a positive

outcome (Eurostat 2015). This can alternatively be read as potentially hundreds of thousands of people exposed to

12

the violence of "illegal" labor. It is worth noting that Eurostat's numbers do not of course include undocumented

migrants that also contribute to this "illegal" workforce.

By being recognized in a legal framework only through their exclusion from it, these "illegal" migrant

subjects are exposed to a number of exploitations. Some individuals may be completely undocumented, some

might manage to obtain fake documents, a drivers license, or a credit card, etc, thus producing certain "levels of

legality". However, all of these subjects are potentially deportable:

'The "illegal" migrant also becomes a deportable subject, whose position in both the polity and the labor

market is marked by and negotiated through the condition of deportability, even if actual removal is a

distant possibility or a threat.'

(Mezzadra & Nielson 2013, 146)

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that reports of poor labor conditions for migrants across Europe continually

surface in the press. In Italy, the 2012 Amnesty International Report details 'wages below minimum standards,

arbitrary reductions, delays or non-payment of wages and long hours of work' (Amnesty International 2012). In

Greece, in 2013 30 Bangladeshi workers were shot in a pay dispute with a farm owner (BBC 2013). Spain, and El-

Ejido in particular, has also repeatedly caught the eye of the press (BBC 2000; Economist 2000; Tremlett 2005;

Lawrence 2011), all reporting on problematic conditions of Moroccan and other African migrant workers in the

agricultural fields of Almeria. Easterling describes El-Ejido as 'sited in a pivotal location' and functioning as 'a

translocal valve of labor, race, and migration problems in Europe' (2005, 46). The 2007 documentary El Ejido: the

law of profit (Rhalib 2007) interrogates this problematic situation and documents the lives of such migrants

producing an insightful view on the sociality of these individuals and the communities that are formed within this

context. In one scene, a number of migrants are interviewed while waiting at a corner of the town for any farm

owner that would hire them for the day. Through Google Street View one can today access imagery of this specific

site and still see individuals waiting on that same corner (see Appendix2). Both Easterling and the Guardian report

on the instability of such work, on migrant workers getting paid half of what a Spanish would - half of the legal

minimum wage, on deportation threats as a way of keeping workers disciplined, elements all mentioned

repeatedly in the documentary as well (Easterling 2005; Lawrence 2011; Rhalib 2007). We also see many of these

people living in the fields they work in, and we are presented with one of the greatest ironies of this network,

where the objects and subjects are "housed" in the same space; what Easterling describes as 'temporary shelters

that have become sites of both people and vegetables' (2005, 48).

Such deplorable labor conditions do not leave the European consumer indifferent. 'Retailers are under

pressure to address the demands and ethical interests of the "new consumer", who is concerned about issues such

as fair trade, worker exploitation and environmental impacts within production sites in the developing world'

(Barrett et al. 2004, 27), and should be concerned about them within Europe as well, as has been shown. In the

13

mid 90's a number of reports criticized different aspects of the food supply network and had a strong impact on

the sector (such as Christian Aid's The Global Supermarket - 1996, or SAFE alliance's The Food Miles Report - 1994).

Soon after a number of initiatives such as the Eurepean Good Agricultural Practice (EurepGAP) - 1997 (EurepGAP

has since "expanded" and renamed GlobalGAP), or the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) - 1998, had been founded in an

effort to 'check and monitor labor conditions' (Barrett et al. 2004, 27) among other concerns. It is important to

understand these as initiatives lead by big companies in the private sector, in an effort to 'redress current

imbalances in power relations embodied in global commodity chains' (Hughes 2004, 215) aiming to address their

customers concerns. They have questionable results and have been criticized for only catching "easy to spot"

problems, for their inability to penetrate the dense webs of supply networks, their overemphasis on

standardization and paperwork rather than actual improvement and results, for the fact that they once again favor

the larger producers who have the capacities to respond to all the requirements, for marginalizing local practices,

authorities and laws (Hughes 2004; Barrett et al. 2004; Hughes and Reimer 2004; Murdoch and Miele 2004). As

Hughes pertinently notes:

'While country of origin information sometimes appears on retail products, the ethical status of the

producer goes unmarked. [Although] piecemeal improvements are being made [...], current ethical

trading practice cannot yet be heralded as the answer to redressing large-scale economic and social

inequalities experienced in the workings of global commodity networks. With its operation remaining

firmly within the neo-liberal model of private interest regulation, these new trading initiatives are best

labeled as "virtually ethical" '.

(Hughes 2004, 226-229)

Interestingly enough, the previously mentioned Guardian article which reported that 'Spain's salad growers are

modern-day slaves' (Lawrence 2011), sparked controversy, with Andalucía's horticulture industry claiming to abide

by standards set by auditors from farmers co-operatives and international retailers. Lawrence follows up with a

second article interrogating this 'gap in perception', and concludes that such 'gaps' are no exception in the world of

food trade and commodity networks (Lawrence 2011).

V. Getting to the UK

'If it can help it, the State does not dissociate itself from a process of capture of flows of all kinds,

populations, commodities, money or capital, etc. [...] the State never ceases to decompose, recompose

and transform movement, or to regulate speed.'

(Deleuze and Guattari 1986, 59-60)

14

After leaving Spain, and the southern shores of the EU, the narrative swiftly takes the commodities

through Spain on lorries towards ports on the northern shores of continental Europe, from where they cross into

the UK. Commodity movement, both of objects and subjects -their labor power-, within the EU has been

facilitated with the founding of what William Walters calls 'Schengenland' (2002). The Schengen agreement

enhances the right of European subjects to 'travel, work and live in any EU country without special formalities' by

abolishing border controls within the Schengen area, 'while tightening controls at the external borders' (European

Commission 2015b). Walters argues that 'Schengenland' is based on economic logic, since 'the border becomes an

irrational anachronism, obstructing the realization of a greater "European" economy' (2002, 3), pointing towards

the transition from national to global economic spaces that Mezzadra and Nielson argue are a 'general

characteristic of the emerging spatiality of globalization' (2013, 238). However this economic union should not be

read as a loss, but rather as 'a mutation in the form that sovereignty is taking' since it is accompanied by an

assemblage of biopolitical technologies, of 'a more diffuse, networked control apparatus that is no longer

territorially fixed', of intensification of more 'decentered and dispersed "internal" controls', while responding to

'the neo-liberal project of market-building and flexibilization' (Walters 2002, 6-11). It is more a process of

'multiplication', of 'reworking' and 'heterogenization' of borders which is crucial for these 'postdevelopmental

geographies' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 238).

Within 'Schengenland' consequently, commodity mobility is facilitated. This contributes to the narratives

apparent ease of movement through continental Europe until the ports of the North. With the UK not being a

Schengen country however, and 'due to its island geography, Britain has been able to rely on strict border controls

concentrated in sea- and airports, the principal gateways into its territory' (Walters 2002, 11). These ports

therefore are important nodes in the borderscape network described. 'Ports have been historical holding zones

where a multiplicity of techniques for filtering and surveying movements of people and things have been invented

and refined', and today they are 'a privileged site of logistical operations' (Mezzadra and Nielson 2013, 206-207). If

earlier the sea was presented as a complex space of 'logistical coordination', then ports are what Easterling calls

'logistic cities' involved in 'the control of virtual packets of information, but also the movement of enormous

amounts of material' (2005, 99). The regulating function performed strongly reminds us of previous

"decompression chambers" of the network, and can be read as yet another "portal" of the borderscape. Ports

regulate the flows of the agricultural produce as well as the flows of human capital, of labor force, of the migrant

subject. In the large port-cities of Santander and Bilbao in Spain, Calais in France, Zeebrugge in Belgium, Hoek van

Holland in the Netherlands migrant "problems", attempted crossings or deaths, are reported in the press (Channel

4 2014; El Diario 2014; Guardian 2015; LA Times 2001; 2003; Nou Diari 2015). Dover, which is one of the ports of

our narrative, connects to the French city of Calais where the notorious "jungle" is situated on the outskirts of the

city, the campsite/shack town home to approximately 2,500 migrants attempting to cross into the UK (BBC 2014a).

In just 4 months (April to July 2014) 12,000 attempts to cross were stopped by French and UK police forces, a

number that means 100 attempts a day that were discovered by authorities (Channel 4 2014a). Reports and

15

videos in the press illustrate migrants trying to hide in lorries (Channel 4 2014b; BBC 2014b), and here the network

reproduces another stark illustration, wherein objects and subjects attempting the journey may literally be in the

same container.

Reaching the UK is not the end of the narrative, since the UK is no exception to the violence that migrant

subjects are exposed to. In her book Not on the Label (2004), Felicity Lawrence explores certain problematic issues

of the UK food supply network and reveals that in the agricultural sector more than half the workers are migrants,

and from those one third is in the country "illegally". She informs us that the estimated number of "illegal"

workers in the UK is nearly 2 million people exposed to diverse forms of exploitation from what she calls 'mafia-

styled "employment agencies" ' (2004, 38); exploitations concerning wages, working and living arrangements and

conditions, etc. Retailers and farmers unions deny to have profited from such situations. Each of the "big 4"

supermarket companies of the UK (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons share 62% of the UK food market between

them - Defra 2014b) all abide by GlobalGAP and ETI standards (or similar), some of them being proud founding

members of the initiatives (Tesco 2014, 26; Sainsbury's 2015; Asda 2015; Morrisons 2015; GolbalGAP 2015; ETI

2015). However, knowing that 'UK supermarkets demands impose control over all aspects of High Value Food

production' (Barrett et al. 2004, 28), hints that their shelves may not be as "clean" as they claim. The apparatus

that provides fresh agricultural produce to the London consumer, and turns the UK supermarket shelves into a

collection of labels of distant geographies -something reminiscent of its British Imperial past, as if it were a

contemporary "Great Exhibition" of colonizing the world market- is a highly conflicting and problematic one.

There is however, one very important node of the network left to address, the "actant" that is the London

consumer. The fact that commodity networks in the agricultural products realm are considered "buyer-driven" has

been repeatedly mentioned throughout this essay. It is their consumption that the "demand" of the market

represents, that fuels the apparatus and makes it possible for produce to 'be on the shelves of UK supermarkets

within 48 hours of harvesting' (Barrett et al. 2004, 20). The London consumer is what Urry calls the 'consumer

citizen', with their 'consumer rights', and a citizenship constituted in part by 'the objects and services that can be

bought, both within and across national borders' (2000, 185). What underlies his English culture is an assemblage

of 'many different components and elements, including the historical patterns of travel and exchange within the

countries and cultures of "Empire" ' (2000, 149). Demand, and hence consumption, should be considered an

aspect of the political economies of societies that, as Appadurai argues, 'emerges as a function of variety of social

practices and classifications, rather than a mysterious emanation of human needs, a mechanical response to social

manipulation' (1986, 29). Appadurai suggests 'that consumption is eminently social, relational, and active rather

than private, atomic, or passive. [...] It means looking at consumption (and the demand that makes it possible) as a

focus not only for sending messages, but receiving them as well' (1986, 31), and this way he concludes to a

'politicization of demand'. In the Latourian sense of the actor-network in place, the consumer is an "actant" with

many connections, or rather a node connected in such a way to the network that makes it a strong node of high

16

importance. The London consumer must consider their position in the network, must consider a politicized

demand and consumption.

C. Concluding

'Recontextualizing commodities can be an important strategy for critical geographers who want to flesh

out stories of cultural and economic power. These stories are sitting on supermarket shelves, fresh and

ready to pick.'

(Cook et al. 2004, 188)

Bruno Latour describes actor-network as being a theory of a limited, short and simple 'infralanguage' that

provides 'the possibility of describing irreductions' (1997, 7). He argues that the strength of the networks 'does

not come from concentration, purity and unity, but from dissemination, heterogeneity and the careful plaiting of

weak ties' (1997, 2), or in other words of the complexity and multiplicity of actants and connections invloved. ANT

does not attempt to tackle a "whole". In this way, this essay does not aspire to describe the "whole" of the

borderscape networks. It does not aspire to answer questions, but rather to pose them. The narrative provided by

the berry importer allows us to focus on specific nodes of the European borderscape network, and illuminate

certain problematic aspects of commodity mobilities within it. However, each of these nodes is to be understood

as a complicated network in itself, with its own polysemy and hierarchical violence. 'Networks are always

localized, working in real places and at specific times', and the global character is understood as a multiplication of

such networks and their 'extension across space in practice' (Hughes and Reimer 2004, 5). They offer us a model

for thinking simultaneously about the local and the global (Tsing 2009), of what Urry calls the "glocal", a 'process of

globalization-deepening-localization' (2000, 210).

Within the context of these "glocal" networks, it is crucial to question beyond the dualities of affluent

global North vs. destitute global South, of a consuming "core" vs. a producing "periphery". This essay works

towards the illumination of the obscure connections between consumer and producer, between agricultural

commodities and the commodity of 'living labor', between raspberries in a "Sainsbury's Local" and the globality of

migrant mobilities and exploitations. It attempts to the conceptualize the act of buying berries in London as an act

with deep political implications, and interrogate the complexity and violence of the hierarchialized networks that

all subjects and objects are enmeshed in. The aspiration is to contribute to the construction of a consciousness

with international perspectives and solidarities.

17

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II. Appendix

1. E-mails sent to academics in the field of Agricultural Economics, Importers/Retailers, Journalists: (Variations of the following may apply depending on receiving party, or the responses given)

First email sent: "Follow-up" email:

I am writing to you due to your expertise in the field of Agricultural Economics/Imports. I would like to request information about UK agricultural product supply chains. My name is Ion Maleas and I am an MA student at Goldsmiths, University of London, in the course of "Research Architecture". Our course critically looks at the contemporary city, examining and analyzing it's nature and the ways in which it is shaped, trying to better understand its complex, global character. For my dissertation I have chosen to analyze the way in which a global city such as London is supplied with one of its most essential needs, food. More specifically I am focusing on fresh fruits and vegetables, since they seem to be a good example of an effective global network where speed of distribution is essential. What I would like to ask for is any information you could share on UK agricultural product supply chains, especially ones that have to do with fresh fruits and vegetables. I have read that Mediterranean countries are one of the important sources of UK horticulture imports. Therefore, I would be particularly interested in products that originate from southern European countries, northern African ones, or even sub-Saharan African ones since my intentions are to analyze and illustrate the effectiveness and complexity, or even expose certain problematic aspects of such global networks. In particular I would be interested in any researches, papers, websites, colleagues/students of yours you could direct me to, that would provide me with maps of distribution networks alongside information on actors involved, transports used, etc.

It would be key for my project to find a successful case study for analysis. This could be a specific fruit/vegetable that is largely imported in the U.K. from southern Europe or north Africa. I would then be interested in a number of logistical aspects of its transfer to London. If you know where I could find answers for some of the following questions, it would be very useful: - Which product? What are the most imported fruits/vegetables in the UK? Where do they originate from? - What is the "journey" of such produce? What are their transfer routes/ means? Are they mostly transferred by containers through shipping? By trucks through certain central European highways? Where could I find maps that depict such journeys? What are the European/UK/London central points of distribution? - Logistical details? What kind of "checks" do they have to go through before they reach a supermarket shelf? Where do these "checks" take place? Which is the way of calculating ripening time of the produce, in relation to its transferring time? Are certain products held in ripening chambers before final distribution?

The responses given are presented in chronological order. "No." represents the number of responses. Short descriptions of replies / or selection of quotes from replies, are presented under "Responses". Pertinent sections to the research / essay are highlighted:

Receiver: Occupation: No.: Responses:

Dr. Leinonen Academic 0

Dr. Baines Academic 0

Prof. Davies Academic 0

Prof. Frewer Academic 1 'outside of my research area'

Prof. Warner Academic 0

Dr. Areal Academic 0

Dr. Dawson Academic 1 'Sorry, not my area'

Prof. Park Academic 0

Prof. Bennett Academic 0

Dr. Dorward Academic 1 'Out of office'

Dr. Fisher Academic 0

Dr. Urban Academic 1 'Out of office'

Prof. Poulton Academic 0

Dr. Bakalis Academic 0

Dr.Gkartzios Academic 1 'not my area of expertise'

Dr. Holloway Academic 2 1. provided a number of articles (not used for essay) 2. directed me towards a relevant journal (not used for essay)

Prof. Tiffin Academic 0

Prof. Robinson Academic 0

Dr. Monteiro Academic 1 'need a couple of weeks to get back to you' - didn't.

Dr. Jackson Academic 3 1. provided websites, directed me towards journals (not used for essay) 2. 'Regarding the list of questions below, these are extremely ambitious and they're going to take me a long time to answer.' 3. further websites, articles (not used for essay)

Dr. Bourlakis Academic 2 1.' we will start a new European project in June examining these issues' 2. 'It seems that these issues are more relevant to consulting reports and will be difficult to trace them in academic material.'

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Berry World Importer 0

Poupart Imports UK Importer 0

Berry Gardens

Importer 0

Allan Anderson Importer 0

D&G Fruit

Importer 0

Dr. Manning Academic 3 1. Provided useful articles (among them - Defra 2014b) 2. 'I would suggest you look at strawberries as a case study because they are imported from Egypt, Morocco and Spain in the winter season.' 3. Directed me towards contacting importers/retailers

Dr. Ainslie Academic 1 'not really my area of expertise'

Mr. Renton Journalist 0

HSF Logistics

Importer 0

S&A group (Mr. Bryan Adekoya replied)

Importer 2 1. 'We mainly import Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries from Spain, Morocco, Guatemala. The shipment will ultimately depend on the Growers Country of Origin. i.e. Spain and Morocco will be delivered on road mainly.' 2. 'Some of the questions you have asked are Commercial sensitive but I will try my best. Morocco - Strawberries / Raspberries / Blueberries / Blackberries - "Chouaffa Kenitra Morocco". The lorry goes through Spain gets on the Ferry to Dover / Felixstowe and then to Marden. When it arrives in Marden it is then packed and labelled according to Supermarket packaging specification. Spain Strawberry / Raspberries / Blueberries / Blackberries - "Huelva Spain". Same as above.'

Total Produce Importer 0

TJB Produce Importer 0

ASF Holland

Importer 0

Choice Organics

Importer 0

Fruity Fresh 123

Importer 0

Richard Hochfeld

Importer 0

Ching Ford Fruit

Importer 0

John Pallin

Importer 0

Fruit and Veg UK

Importer 0

MS Veg's

Importer 0

First Choice Produce

Importer 0

TESCO Retailer 1 'we receive so many requests from students to fill in their questionnaire, that we are unable to do this'

Morrison's (Mr. Ansar Mahmood replied)

Retailer 1 'Unfortunately for business and commercial reasons we are unable to provide the type of information that you have requested. You will find that this is common policy amongst retailers.'

Sainsbury's Retailer 1 'We receive many enquiries from students for company information, [...]and unfortunately we are not able to reply to these individually.'

ASDA Retailer 0 ASDA does not provide any contact information. You can only approach them through forms on their website, directed towards specific areas of their business.

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2. Stills, extracted from documentary film El-Ejido: the law of profit (2007), are compared to imagery extracted from Google Street View.

(above a still from El-Ejido: the law of profit (2007), min: 26')

(a couple of seconds later the frame "zooms in", and by extracting part of the frame and "zooming in" further one can read the last word on the sign: "ROQUETAS")

(image taken from Google Street View, at "Carreterra de Roquetas de Mar", Almeria, Spain - @36.715131,-2.694112,19z)