Chapter 16

Materializing US–Caribbean borders

Airports as technologies of communication, coordination, and control

Mimi Sheller

The convergence of intense human mobilities, financial flows, economic turbulence, and heightened securitization of borders make this a crucial period in which to study the implementation and impact of new mobility regimes and “smart borders.”1 This also requires attention to the effects of shifting discourses, representations, and ideologies of im/mobility and opening/closure of borders. Research on the sociocultural dimensions of air travel and airports has brought new attention to the cultural and informational dimensions of air travel within the field of “aeromobilities” research (Adey 2004a, 2004b, 2009a, 2010; ...

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