Book launch for States of Ignorance: Governing Irregular Migrants in Western Europe

Monday 29 January 2024, 17:00-19:00
Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, William Robertson Wing 

Co-authors: Emile Chabal (Edinburgh), Christina Boswell (Edinburgh), Mike Slaven (Lincoln)
Discussants: Abdellali Hajjat (Université libre de Bruxelles), Cetta Mainwaring (Edinburgh), Enda Delaney (Edinburgh)

States of Ignorance explores an aspect of contemporary society that most states choose to keep obscure: the presence and governance of irregular migrants. Tracing the evolution of state monitoring and control of irregular migrants from the 1960s to the present day across France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the authors develop a theory of ‘state ignorance’, setting out three complementary ways of understanding such oversights: ignorance as omission, ignorance as strategy, and ignorance as ascription. The findings upend dominant approaches, which tend to assume that states are preoccupied with producing knowledge about their populations, and argues that states have actually been keen to sustain ignorance about their unauthorised populations.

Drawing on rich archival work, a wide range of interviews, and an interdisciplinary theoretical toolkit, this innovative and collaborative book offers fascinating new insights into the way states navigate controversial social problems.

A short presentation of the book will be followed by responses from three discussants, drawn from different fields. For further details of the book, visit the Cambridge University Press website. The text of the book is available to institutional subscribers via Cambridge Core.

This event is hosted by the Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History, and co-sponsored by the Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy at Edinburgh (SKAPE). It may be possible to livestream all or part of the event; please contact Emile Chabal (emile.chabal@ed.ac.uk) to register interest.