Mobility Regimes and Borderwork in the European Community

Abstract

With changing forms of mobility governance in the EU and borderwork as its point of departure, this article examines how borderwork and mobility interweave in a European Community context and, in particular, how mundane politics of mobility co-shapes the borderwork that takes place in contemporary Europe. Borderwork is thus addressed in terms of multiplied processes of differentiation. Pricing policies as key components of the governance of transport flows in Europe influence the way the European Community is formed as an ‘imagined community’ and a territory criss-crossed by connected cities and regions. Furthermore, pricing policies add to intangible borders between the highly mobile Europeans who master complex mobile practices and those without access to the high mobility networks or are slow-moving.

Keywords:

• Ideas of mobility
• Borderwork
• Governmentality
• Mobile subjects
• Common transport policy
• Policy of fair and efficient pricing

Notes

1. In the study, the interviewees were seen as representing rather than being representative of the type agency they share. The group of 12 interviewees was composed of actors who, in a broad sense, could be considered as policy-makers within European transport policy. They were selected to cover the period of time and the different issues relating to the policy of Fair and Efficient Pricing, i.e. from the early 1990s onwards. They were also, selected to represent as broad a slice of the actors engaged in European transport policy-making as possible and included Community officials, politicians, national civil servants, private lobbyists, interest associations and NGO representatives. The qualitative, face-to-face interviews were empathic and open-ended, and subsequently transcribed and coded (Jensen 2006; Kvale 2000; Rubin and Rubin, 2005).

2. In 1996, the Essen List of TEN-T priority projects was launched and since its approval, the Commission has on several occasions (CEC 2001; Commission of the European Communities (CEC) 2005; CEC DG TREN 2008) stressed a strong need for financing the TEN-T projects.

3. CEN is the French acronym for European Committee for Standardization; a private system of formal processes to produce technical standards which is thoroughly integrated in Community policy-making.

4. Author’s translation from Danish: ‘noget som teknisk vitterligt er smart men så kommer der altså en eller anden politiker som, som har en eller anden national kæphest som han er nød til at forfølge eller som hun er nød til at forfølge som gør at de kæmper imod uden at der er, uden det er nemt at se nogen rationel årsag andet end at det handler om at man prøver at tilgodese en eller anden valgkredset eller andet sted’.

5. The Eurovignette Directive specified a need for such a public consultation (Commission of the European Communities (CEC) 2003).