Photo: José Ángel Molina
E-mail: ruben.andersson@socant.su.se
Ruben Andersson is professor at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, and an associated researcher at Stockholm University's Department of Social Anthropology. Ruben's research has been concerned with migration, borders and security, with a focus on the West African Sahel and southern Europe. His book Illegality, Inc.: Clandestine migration and the business of bordering Europe (University of California Press 2014), an ethnographic account of Europe’s efforts to halt irregular migration, accompanies border agencies, aid organisations and migrants along the Spanish-African borders.
The book argues that the ‘fight against irregular migration’ has led to more distress and drama at the borders, which in turns has fuelled a self-reinforcing industry of controls.
Ruben's latest monograph is No Go World: How fear is redrawing our maps and infecting our politics (University of California Press 2019). This book builds on Ruben's more recent research, financed by the AXA Research Fund, and looks comparatively at remote-controlled interventions and the selective withdrawal of international actors from global 'crisis zones'. Taking as its starting point the conflict in Mali, West Africa, it explores how the mapping of danger, the perception of risk and the politics of fear have all contributed to framing and fuelling fraught security, aid and border interventions in the Sahel as well as in other settings such as Somalia, Libya and Afghanistan.
Selected publications
2019
- No Go World: How fear is redrawing our maps and infecting our politics, Oakland: University of California Press
- The return of remoteness: Insecurity, isolation and connectivity in the new world disorder. Social Anthropology. Special issue coedited with Martin Saxer.
- The Timbuktu syndrome. Social Anthropology.
- The anthropological borderlands of global migration. In J. MacClancy (ed) Exotic no more: Anthropology on the front lines. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2nded.)
- Institutionalized Intervention: The ‘Bunker Politics’ of International Aid in Afghanistan, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding with Florian Weigand
https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2019.1565814
2018
- Double Games: Sucess, failure and the relocation of risk in fighting terror, drugs and migration, with David Keen, Political Geography, 67: 100-10.
- Hic sunt dracones: Cartografía etnográfica del peligro global. Papeles de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global, 142: 13-28.
- Profits and predation in the bioeconomy of border controls, Public Culture 30 (3) 413-39.
- Europe’s failed “fight” against irregular migration. In M Kaldor, I Rangelov and S Selchow (eds) EU global strategy and human security: Rethinking approaches to conflict, Abingdon: Routledge.
- La lotta all’immigrazione irregolare messa in atto dall’Europa: note etnografiche su un’industria pericolosa. In R Schmitz-Esser (ed) Venezia nel contesto globale, Venice: Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani.
- Migration. In T Allen, A Macdonald and H Radice (eds) Humanitarianism: A dictionary of concepts, Abingdon: Routledge.
- Back to the soil. Comment on S. Moland, Sedentary optics: Static anti-trafficking and mobile victims, Current Anthropology, 59 (2) 115-37.
2017
- The price of impact: Reflections on academic outreach amid the ‘refugee crisis’. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12478.
- In conversation with Sindre Bangstad about migrants, illegality and the bordering of Europe, with Sindre Bangstad. In S. Bangstad (ed) Anthropology of our times: An edited anthology in public anthropology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Rescued and caught: The humanitarian-security nexus at Europe’s frontiers. In N. De Genova (ed) The borders of ‘Europe’:Autonomy of migration, tactics of bordering. Durham: Duke University Press.
- From radar systems to rickety boats: Borderline ethnography in Europe’s ‘illegality industry’. In A. Elliot et al (eds) Methodologies of Mobility: Ethnography and Experiment. New York: Berghahn books.
2016
- Irreguljär migration och Europas gränskontroller: en etnografisk analys, Report for Delmi, Sweden’s Migration Studies Delegation.
- Brexit referendum: First reactions from anthropology. Contribution to joint special section, Social Anthropology, 24 (4) 478-502.
- Warum Europas Konzept der Grenzsicherung gescheitert ist', Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
- Why Europe’s border security approach has failed – and how to change it, Policy paper for the LSE/Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Berlin report on human security.
- Here be dragons: mapping an ethnography of global danger, Current Anthroplogy.
- Europe’s failed 'fight' against irregular migration: ethnographic notes on a counterproductive industry, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
- Hardwiring the frontier? The politics of security technology in Europe’s ‘fight against illegal migration’. Security Dialogue, 47 (1): 22-39, DOI 10.1177/0967010615606044.
- The global front against migration, Anthropology of This Century (15).
2015
- La olla a presión: cómo la seguridad fronteriza sigue aumentando el caos. Revista de Dialectología y Tradiciones Populares, vol. LXX, n.o 2, pp. 299-306, julio-diciembre 2015.
- Intervention at risk: The vicious cycle of distance and danger in Mali and Afghanistan (2015), with F. Weigand. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 9 (4): 519-541, DOI 10.1080/17502977.2015.1054655.
2014
- Illegality, Inc. Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe. California Series in Public Anthropology. University of California Press, Oakland, USA.
- Hunter and prey: patrolling clandestine migration in the Euro-African borderlands. Anthropological Quarterly 87 (1):118-149.
- Time and the migrant other: European border controls and the temporal economics of illegality. American Anthropologist, 116 (4). 795-809.
- A global front: thoughts on enforcement at the rich world’s borders. In: Andersson, Ruben, (ed.) Illegality, Inc: Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe. California Series in Public Anthropology. University of California Press, Oakland, CA, USA, (online appendix).
2012
- A game of risk: boat migration and the business of bordering Europe. Anthropology Today 28(6):7-11.
- Frontex y la creación de la frontera euroafricana: golpeando la valla ilusoria. Revista de Derecho Migratorio y Extranjería 28:177-192.
2010
- Wild man at Europe’s gates: the crafting of clandestines in Spain’s cayuco crisis. Etnofoor 22(2):31-49.
2005
- The new frontiers of America. Race and Class 46(3):28-38.
Media
2016
- Vi och Dom: Var går gränsen?, Sveriges Radio, Vetenskapsradion P1, 2016-02-03
- Who is cashing in on keeping migrants out?, New Internationalist, January.
2015
- ”Stängsel stoppar inte flyktingarna”, DN, 2015-08-27
- Trump's new idea? Walls have lined national borders for thousands of years, CNN online, 2015-08-27
- ”Stängsel leder till fler tragedier och mer polisbrutalitet”, SVT, 2015-08-25.
- The European Union’s migrant ’emergency’ is entirely of its own making. The Observer/Guardian, 2015-08-23.
- Why borders controls are now a global game. IRIN, 2015-06-17.
- Destroy the smuggling market, not the boats. IRIN, 2015-04-24.
- Europe must stop exporting its migration fears. IRIN, 2015-04-13.
- Europa och gränsindustrin, Sveriges Radio P1 Konflikt, 2015-02-28.
- Border control is out of control, Discover Society, 2015-02-01.
2014
- Mare Nostrum and migrant deaths: the humanitarian paradox at Europe’s frontiers, openDemocracy, 2014-10-30.
- La doble política de fronteras, El País, 2014-10-22 (in Spanish).
- It is time to unfence our view of migration, LSE Politics and Policy, 2014-09-29.
- Abolish the ‘illegality industry’ at Europe’s borders, The Financial Times, 2014-08-26.
- La lucha contra la inmigración irregular, El País, 2014-08-20 (in Spanish).
- Växande gränsindustri förstärker flyktingkrisen, DN Debatt, 2014-08-05 (in Swedish).
Research funding
AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2014-2016, for research project on risk in international interventions, hosted at LSE.
