The nomos of mobile commons: towards a nomadic constitution of Europe

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I present the mobile commons and migrant commoning as the constituent power of a Europe-to-come. The theoretical basis for the proposed conceptualization comes through a well-known dispute around the concept of the ‘nomos’ that involves Carl Schmitt, on the one hand, and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, on the other. I revisit this argument, and suggest that it expresses a difference between two ways of constituting Europe. The Schmittean line is organized around current policies of enclosures of borders of EUrope. The nomadic line today takes shape in a migrant (auto)nomos that resists enclosures, institutes mobile commons and possibly transgresses the concept of citizenship to the institution of commonship. I draw on contemporary theories of the commons and commoning to develop arguments for a nomadic approach to European belonging. Besides contributing to the debate on mobile commons, the article intervenes in the discussion on the future constitution of Europe in the context of migration.

KEYWORDS:

• mobile commons
• nomos
• autonomy of migration
• constituent power
• European constitution
• European citizenship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Critical theorists of migration and borders have found much inspiration in Schmitt’s analysis of the breakdown of nomos. The German theorist warned that this eventuality would lead to a global regime of policing against rogues and outcasts in which the state itself would use rogue and criminal methods (Dean 2006, 17; Debrix 2011, 221–225). Giorgio Agamben (2008) builds on this famous thesis, arguing that we live in a generalized state of exception that has terrible consequences for migrants because they are permanently located in a ‘zone of indistinction’ between nomos and anomos, inclusion and exclusion, suffering the loss of the right to have rights (Vaughan-Williams 2009, 96–129). Agamben’s pessimistic diagnosis notwithstanding, I am rather inspired by AoM’s interpretation, which shows how migrants might appropriate the condition of anomie in an autonomous fashion and take on a constituent dimension (De Genova 2010, 36–39).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by a grant (2018/29/N/HS1/00853) from Narodowe Centrum Nauki.