The passport as actor in the enactment of the Russian-Norwegian border

Abstract

The point of departure for this chapter is that the passport can only be understood with regard to the conduct and practical experience of those using it, and that the passport is embedded in ‘heterogeneous networks’ of people, practices and things (Timmermans and Berg 2003). The passport is nothing in and by itself but becomes of significance the moment a closed border is to be passed. The point is, therefore, not to study the passport in isolation but to follow its use in practice. The performance of identities, being it individual or that of a nation state, takes place in practice, and can only be observed in everyday practice. Empirically the chapter is based on a study of Russian immigration to Northern Norway in the 2000’s, in which individual and group interviews, participant observation and document analysis were used as methods. The analysis of the enactment of the Russian-Norwegian border draws on ActorNetwork-Theory (Callon 2001).