Borders are powerful sorting machines, and they continue to decide questions of belonging, mobility and immobility. Principal Investigator Steffen Mau, head of the Research Unit "Borders", investigates in this new book "Sortiermaschinen. Die Grenze im 21. Jahrhundert" (Stiftung Mercator, C.H.Beck Verlag 2021) how border systems classify our world and thereby contradict the globalisation thesis of unlimited mobility. Not only the dissolution of borders, but also the construction of digital smart borders, the expansion of border zones and the construction and militarisation of border fences go hand in hand with globalisation. Borders fulfil their separating function more effectively and more complexly than ever.

Steffen Mau, SCRIPTS Principal Investigator, Professor of Macrosociology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Nora Bossong, writer, awarded with the Thomas Mann Prize 2020 and the Joseph Breitbach Prize 2020
Moderation: Yara Hoffmann, free journalist, Berlin

In cooperation with Verlag C.H.Beck and international literature festival berlin
Language: German