Vad händer i gränslandet? Människor, föremål och identitet i TV-programmet Gränsbevakarna Australien

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study how the TV program Border Security: Australia’s Front Line (Gränsbevakarna Australien) can be seen to reproduce networks of human and non-human actors. The aim is thus to investigate how boundaries between nations are upheld and how people, as a consequence, are discoursively categorized and what preconditions this create for people’s identity- and meaning-making practices. The theoretical and methodical framework is built upon Bruno Latour’s work on Actor-Network-Theory, and discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault. The empirical material consists of two episodes of the TV program. These are analyzed together with materials in the form of internet articles and relevant previous studies on the subject. From the material networks of human and non-human actors appears, which is shown to have an important role in how the borderland is upheld and reproduced. It also shows how people, in power relations, adopt or become assigned different subject positions, which are linked to how a specific conception of national identity and a nation based worldview are discoursively negotiated, defined and reproduced.