The talk will take as a point of departure the current proliferation and hardening of borders in many parts of the world. It will critically take this trend as a key feature of a global political conjuncture characterized by the surge of nationalism as well as by various degrees of combination between neoliberalism and authoritarianism. The proliferation and hardening of borders will be analyzed from several points of view, including their implications for contemporary capitalism and the increasing criminalization of “humanitarianism” and more generally of solidarity. The stubbornness of migration, the persistent challenge that movements and struggles of migration pose to borders will be also emphasized. This analysis will provide the background for an attempt to develop in the second part of the talk a “left case” for freedom of movement and open borders, with a specific focus on Europe.

The lecture will be held in English with simultaneous translation into Ukrainian.

Sandro Mezzadra teaches political theory at the University of Bologna and is adjunct research fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society of Western Sydney University. He has been visiting professor and research fellow in several places, including the New School for Social Research (New York), Humboldt Universität (Berlin), Duke University, Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris), University of Ljubljana, FLACSO Ecuador, and UNSAM (Buenos Aires). In the last decade his work has particularly centered on the relations between globalization, migration and political processes, on contemporary capitalism, as well as on postcolonial theory and criticism. He is an active participant in the ‘post-workerist’ debates and one of the founders of the website Euronomade (www.euronomade.info). Among his books: Diritto di fuga. Migrazioni, cittadinanza, globalizzazione (“The right to escape: Migration, citizenship,  globalization”, ombre corte, 2006), La condizione postcoloniale. Storia e politica nel presente globale (“The postcolonial condition: History and politics in the global present”, ombre corte, 2008) and In the Marxian Workshops. Producing Subjects, London, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. He has worked on several European and international research projects. He is currently coordinating the Horizon 2020 project PLUS (“Platforms, Labor, Urban Spaces”).