Mobile Commons, Migrant Digitalities and the Right to the City

This book examines the relationship between urban migrant movements, struggles and digitality which transforms public space and generates mobile commons. Empirically conducted during the time of crisis-and-austerity, the research draws on struggles in Athens, Nicosia and Istanbul, but also extends to the eastern Mediterranean borders. The authors explore heterogeneous digital forms in the context of migration, border-crossing and transnational activism, displaying commonality patterns and inter-dependence. The interaction between actors generates powerful transformation effects at different levels: struggles for daily survival and more visible or subtle struggles for recognition, representation and/or settlement. Albeit legally inchoate, such vibrant struggles contribute to the establishment of informal socially embedded 'rights' and new 'acts of citizenship'. Mobile commons are socially practiced rights to be mobile which subvert technological and sovereign control to allow for the subject's invisibility, multiplicity and freedom from surveillance.

Nicos Trimikliniotis, is Ass?ciate Professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and Senior Expert heading the Cyprus team on fundamental rights for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRANET). He is a practising Barrister and has conducted research on ethnic conflict and reconciliation, public law and state theory, class, integration, citizenship, migration, racism, free movement of workers, discrimination, EU and labour law.

Dimitrios Parsanoglou is Research Fellow at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece. His research interests include the history and sociology of immigration to Greece, particularly on employment and urban space. He has worked with several institutions in European and NGOs on national projects about migration, gender and employment issues.

Vassilis Tsianos is Research Fellow at the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he teaches theoretical sociology and migration studies. His work examines social theory, citizenship racism, migration, borders, urban space, commons and precarity.

Prolegomena: In A World Turned Upside Down
Introduction: Mobile Commons, Migrant Digitalities And The Right To The City
Producing Migrant Digitalities And Mobile Commons
Austerity-And-Crisis Times, Migrants And The New Social Question
Migrant Integration Within Austerity Citizenship
1. Theorizing Migration, Praxis And The Crisis Of Migration Crisis
Migration Within The Crisis Of Migration Crisis: From Differential Inclusion And Integration To Transcending Citizenship
From Autonomy Of Migration To The Politics Of Mobile Commons
Digital Networks And Migration: Towards A Net(H)Nography Of Border Regimes
2. The South-Eastern Triangle: The Spatio-Historical Context
Introducing The Spatio-Historical Context
Mobile Commons In The Arrival City
Rethinking Movements: Istanbul, Athens And Nicosia
3. Migrant Subjectivities, Struggles And Turbulence In Three Arrival Cities
The Migrant, The Struggle And The Subject In The Arrival City
Of Athens, Nicosia And Istanbul
Snapshot 1: Performativity Of Control Or Space As A Theatrical Stage
Snapshot 2: Producing Public Space Or Sundays At Municipal Parks
Snapshot 3: Organizing Ephemerality Or Being A Minor Transit Migrant In Istanbul
4.The Right To The City Revisited: Charting And Envisioning Future Struggles And Politics
The Right To The (Rebel) City
The Fall Of The Urban Frontier
Rebel Cities Or The City As An Oeuvre
Conclusions. The Future Lasts Forever And It's Happening Now