Production of ‘abstract crisis’ and irregular human mobilities

Abstract

This thesis argues that political representation of space as being consisted of territorially bounded states leads to the impulsion to see an uncontrolled movement as risky, and eventually to call the event as crisis. By way of concentrating on three specific scholarly journals on migration movements, it aims to enlighten the question: who/what turns an event into crisis at global scale, and why? Through focusing on how migration literature explains what constitutes crisis, the thesis investigates how did the transition to calling migration a crisis take place and why. In pursuing the question, the thesis creates a theoretical framework by deconstructing IR space and human mobility with the help of Lefebvre and Cresswell. By asserting its own concept – ‘abstract crisis’, the thesis provides typology and taxonomy of the migration studies categorized under three crisis types.