From Disruption to Transformation: Politicisation at a Distance from the State

Abstract

In this afterword to the symposium on processes of politicisation of activist struggles of undocumented migrants and their allies, I first briefly outline a number of key commonalities that run through the symposium. I subsequently explore some of the wider theoretical and practical lessons to be drawn from the arguments advanced in its papers, and suggest a number of key themes and concerns to be explored further. In particular, this afterword suggests some possible avenues to both think through the limits of and tensions within forms of undocumented migrant activism, and chart theoretical and practical trajectories to move from the limitations of “the political event” to the possibilities of “a political sequence” that may actually change the instituted order.