This article seeks to comprehend the concept of “space” and “borders” from several sociological perspectives, taking as an example the social experience of moving bodies in the context of globalization and international migration. Firstly, the different definitions of both concepts for the social sciences are discussed, and especially Georg Simmel’s contribution to the study of social life as a “spatial dimension”. Secondly, it considers the different variants related to the power relation and control of bodies, from a biological menace idea, in different spaces as the basis of social “inclusion” and “exclusion”. Finally, it argues that the nation’s spatial and border dimension is today being challenged primarily because of the migratory flows of different physical and especially virtual mobility forms. Based on these sociological concepts and notions, the article then tries to offer an expanded and complex perspective of “spatiality”, “borders”, and “displacement” in understanding the new political and cultural dimensions of contemporary societies.
In July 2022 the Cluster's department „Internationalisation and Public Engagement“ organised a book reading with renowned author Ananda Devi.
Born in 1957 in Mauritius, Ananda Devi began to be noticed at the age of 15 when she won a prize in an international short-story. She published her first collection of short-stories at the age of 19. Over the next nearly five decades, she has become one of the major literary voices of the Indian Ocean.
Published by the French publishers Gallimard and Grasset, she has won numerous literary prizes. Her writing is characterised by an inner violence and a harsh outlook on modern society, especially with regard to the status of women. Her characters are trapped by the contrary forces of society, religion, human cruelty and the seismic faults of history. Their only recourse, in their solitary quest, is their lucidity and humanity. Despite the harshness of her themes, Ananda Devi brings to her writing a poetry and sensuality that shines a light in the midst of the darkness she explores.
She has been translated in several languages and has received decorations from Mauritius, and also from France, with the title of Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2014 she received a major award from the Académie Française. The University of Silesia, Poland, conferred upon her a Honoris Causa doctorate.
