Aquapelagic Necropolitics: Governing migrants through more-than-human technologies on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands

Abstract
This conference seeks to understand the functioning of necropolitics along the Atlantic migration route to the EU via the Canary Islands. It interrogates the power to make-let-die —with impunity— along this maritime corridor. Where is this power located? What constitutes its agency? How does it operate? Rather than adopting the framework of oceanic or liquid necropolitics, which emphasizes water as a medium instrumentalized by EU border regimes, I argue that necropolitics works through the relational convergence of more-than-human forces within a volumetric space (e.g., waves, currents, winds, weather patterns, sea temperature and depth, technologies, laws, policies and discourses). Thus, theoretically, I offer a posthuman reading of necropolitics through the development of the concept of the "aquapelago." Using a specific shipwreck case study, I demonstrate how socio-geo-physical techniques of power underpin the dual mechanism of migration government along the Atlantic route; namely, practices of search (in/visibility) and rescue (or “disappearance”).

Keywords
Migrants, necropolitics, aquapelago, Atlantic Ocean, relationality, volume.

Ángela Iranzo is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). Her research interests are focused on critical International Relation Studies. Particularly, she seeks to understand how space, time and movement have historically worked as technologies of power in international regimens such as security, statehood, migration, human trafficking and peace transition. She was an Assistant Professor of IR and Director of the Centre for International Studies at Los Andes University (Colombia) from 2011-2016. She was a visiting scholar at SOAS-University of London, LSE, and Bogaziçi University (Turkey), and her work has been published by journals such as Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Third World Quarterly, Mobilities, Space and Polity, and Contexto Internacional. Journal of Global Connections. angela.iranzo@uam.es https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1174-1555

Registration required by May 25: https://forms.office.com/e/rmbHRcdNDf?origin=lprLink

Wednesday, May 27th, 2026, from12:00 to 2:00 pm
Université libre de Bruxelles
Institut de Sociologie - Rokkan Room (S.S.12.234)
44 avenue Jeanne
1050 Bruxelles

BIM - REPI - Recherche et Etudes en Politique Internationale

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