Geographical perspectives on detention: spatial control and its contestation

This chapter explores research about detention conducted by geographers and other scholars using geographical methods. Geographers conceptualize detention as a form of spatial control, and we suggest that this approach offers tools to scholars and activists aiming to contest detention. The discussion of existing scholarship is organized around three themes: im/mobilities, scaled analyses, and borders/bordering. We offer empirical examples of geographic work on the spatial control of non-citizens, as well as contestation of these mechanisms. We contend that geographic perspectives on detention embody and exemplify a critical orientation with the power to disrupt the spread of detention across and within a widening array of places and social groups.