LADDERS, KETCHUP, AND MAYONNAISE: THE MATERIALITY OF IRREGULARIZED MOVEMENTS ALONG THE BALKAN ROUTE.

This article explores how ordinary objects -- such as ladders, ketchup, and mayonnaise -- become charged with political significance in the context of irregularized migration along the Balkan route. In two ethnographic case studies conducted at the EU's southeastern borderlands, we examine how these...

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Publicado en:Croatian Journal of Ethnology & Folklore Research / Narodna Umjetnost Vol. 62; no. 2; pp. 119 - 139
Autores principales: JOVANOVIĆ, TEODORA, MUCKO, BOJAN
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Institute of Ethnology & Folklore Research 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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          JOVANOVIĆ, TEODORA
          MUCKO, BOJAN
        affil:
          Institute of Ethnography SASA, Belgrade
          Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb
      su:
        Materialism
        Humanitarianism
        Mass migrations
        Ethnology research
        Political violence
        Hungary
        Serbia
      sug:
        subj:
          Hungary
          Serbia
          Materialism
          Humanitarianism
          Mass migrations
          Ethnology research
          Political violence
      keyword:
        Balkan route
        borders
        EU migration regime
        irregularized migration
        materiality
        balkanska ruta
        granice
        iregularizirane migracije
        materijalnost
        migracijski režim EU
      ab:
        This article explores how ordinary objects -- such as ladders, ketchup, and mayonnaise -- become charged with political significance in the context of irregularized migration along the Balkan route. In two ethnographic case studies conducted at the EU's southeastern borderlands, we examine how these mundane items acquire new functions and meanings in connection with border violence. Ladders, used by migrants to scale fences at the Serbia--Hungary border, circulate through informal networks and become both tools of mobility and mediators of physical harm to border crossers. Ketchup and mayonnaise, distributed as part of survival kits by solidarity networks, reappear grotesquely in instances of sadistic violence during Croatian police pushbacks. Migrants' creative and tactical use of everyday, makeshift objects reflects the codes of structural violence, as these items become embedded in complex regimes of control and resistance. This dual appropriation -- from below and from above -- highlights material entanglements of humanitarianism, repression, and embodied agency. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of materiality, migration regime, and critical border studies, and by tracing their circulations and transformations, we uncover how borders are negotiated not only through policy or protest, but through the everyday use and redefinition of things.
        U ovom se članku istražuje kako obični predmeti -- poput ljestava, kečapa i majoneze -- poprimaju političku dimenziju u kontekstu iregulariziranih migracija duž balkanske rute. Na temelju dviju etnografskih studija slučaja provedenih na jugoistočnim granicama Europske unije analizira se kako ti svakodnevni predmeti dobivaju nove funkcije i značenja u vezi s graničnim nasiljem. Ljestve, kojima se migranti služe pri prelasku ograde na srpsko-mađarskoj granici, cirkuliraju kroz neformalne mreže te postaju i sredstvo mobilnosti i sredstvo nanošenja tjelesnih ozljeda. Kečap i majoneza, koji se distribuiraju kao dio paketa za preživljavanje u sklopu mreža solidarnosti, izranjaju i u grotesknom kontekstu sadističkog nasilja tijekom pušbekova koje provodi hrvatska policija. Kreativna i taktička upotreba svakodnevnih, improviziranih predmeta od strane migranata odražava kodove strukturnog nasilja, budući da ti predmeti postaju ugrađeni u kompleksne režime kontrole i otpora. Ova dvostruka aproprijacija -- odozdo i odozgo -- ističe materijalne međuodnose humanitarnosti, represije i utjelovljene agensnosti. Oslanjajući se na teorijske okvire materijalnosti, migracijskog režima i kritičkih studija granica, te prateći cirkulaciju i transformaciju tih objekata, pokazuje se kako se granice pregovaraju ne samo kroz politike i proteste već i kroz svakodnevnu uporabu i preoblikovanje predmeta.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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          year: 2025
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