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The Uneven Geographies of Politicisation: The Case of the Undocumented Immigrant Youth Movement in the United States
Author(s) -
Nicholls Walter J.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12663
Subject(s) - politics , subject (documents) , hostility , ideology , immigration , sociology , constitution , political economy , construct (python library) , gender studies , political science , law , social psychology , psychology , library science , computer science , programming language
This paper examines the uneven geographies of politicisation through the case of the undocumented immigrant youth movement in the United States, known as the Dreamers. Engaging the “urban political” literature, the paper maintains that politicisation involves the constitution of a subject that disrupts the order through claims for equality. The paper identifies the process of transforming highly marginalised and repressed people into an actual disruptive political subject. It suggests a three‐stage, spatially mediated process. First, “free spaces” are frontline sites that allow marginalised and risk‐averse groups like undocumented immigrants to meet with others, forge emotional bonds, and construct transgressive collective identities. Second, the potential of free spaces to politicise marginalised groups varies by geographical setting. Geographical settings, like large central cities, with high levels of organisational density and some ideological support facilitate politicisation more than settings with low organisational density and high hostility. Third, the uneven geographies of politicisation results in a political subject that is constituted and divided by core–periphery relations.