The event will be online. Please register by writing to korsbaek@cas.au.dk to get the zoom link. 

Fencing the Feral: Discussing a biosecurity barrier in the Danish-German Borderlands

Abstract:

During the course of 2019 the Danish government saw to the construction of a 70-kilometer long metal fence stretching the entire lenghth of the shared border with Germany. The fence was erected in order to prevent the migration of wild boars, and the spread of the highly contagious viral disease African Swine Fever (ASF), a  disease that could potentially contaminate domestic farmed pigs, and severely effect pork exports.

The construction of the wildlife fence has involved a noticeable interference into the landscape and lives of border communities and wildlife. In this presentation we will introduce our field site in conjunction with our main aim: to investigate how national spaces and borders are co-produced through spatial strategies of fencing, discourses of biosecurity and notions of the invasive other. We will point to how the re-ordering of the area as a ‘biosecurity zone’ has affected a diverse assemblage of actors, and how insights gained from ethnographic fieldwork allows us to explore the intricate links between (bio) security, and wildlife fencing in the area.