Technologies of Division: Everyday Bordering

Abstract

This paper explores how border thinking allows us to situate sociotechnical systems in everyday social processes as designed ‘bordering’ systems, regulating access and exerting control by embodying politics of difference in the context of everyday life for migrants in the United States. Through a discussion of everyday designed artifacts—credit cards and drivers’ licenses—the paper examines the tensions created in a process of acculturation, and calls for designers to attend to the ways in which designed artifacts embody larger political structures, becoming actors in the politics of inclusion/exclusion.