Welcome Cultures and the Chronopolitics of B/Ordering

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we explore how borders and associated processes – spatial othering and ordering – are reproduced, resisted and undermined temporally. To do so, we investigate ethnographically how ‘welcomers’ from volunteer pro‐refugee initiatives in Paris become involved in the chronopolitics of b/ordering. Our empirical analysis builds on the practice turn in border studies and on Sharma's chronography of power, which focuses on the relational dimension of temporal politics. We detail three temporal practices of Parisian welcome cultures: temporal translation, temporal creation and the elaboration of sub‐architectures of temporal maintenance. In detailing these practices ethnographically, we highlight the ambiguity of welcomers' role in the chronopolitics of b/ordering: aligning with and recalibrating refugees' bodies to the rhythmic and temporal logics of b/ordering as well as undermining the violence, binarity and rigidified identities underpinning b/ordering timelines.