Publications by category
Books
Gill N, Good A (eds)(2018).
Asylum Determination in Europe Ethnographic Perspectives. [Open Access], Palgrave Macmillan.
Abstract:
Asylum Determination in Europe Ethnographic Perspectives
Abstract.
Author URL.
Gill N (2016). Nothing Personal ? Geographies of Governing and activism in the British Asylum System., Wiley-Blackwell.
Moran D, Gill N, Conlon D (2013). Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. Aldershot, Ashgate.
Gill N, Caletrio J, Mason V (2013). Mobilities and Forced Migration. Abingdon, Talyor & Francis.
Journal articles
Gill N, Riding J, Kallio KP, Bagelman J (2022). Geographies of Welcome: Engagements with ‘Ordinary’ Hospitality. Hospitality and Society, 12, 123-143.
Feneberg, Gill N, Hoellerer N, Scheinert L (2022). It’s Not What you Know, it’s How you Use it:. On the Application of Country of Origin Information in Judicial Refugee Status Determination Decisions. International Journal of Refugee Law
Gill N, Hoellerer N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R, Vianelli L, et al (2022). Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal Geographies of Asylum Appeals. Political Geography
Till K, Gill N, Jacobsen M, Darling J, O'Reilly Z (2022). The In-Between Spaces of Asylum and Migration: a Participatory Visual Approach - Review Forum. The American Association of Geographers' Review of Books, 10, 41-50.
Hoellerer N, Gill N (2022). ‘Assembly-Line Baptism’: Judicial discussions of ‘free churches’ in German and Austrian asylum hearings. Journal of Legal Anthropology, 5(2), 1-29.
Gill N, Hynes J (2021). Courtwatching: Visibility, publicness, witnessing, and embodiment in legal activism.
Area,
53(4), 569-576.
Abstract:
Courtwatching: Visibility, publicness, witnessing, and embodiment in legal activism
The paper sets out what courtwatching is and gives some examples from various countries. It argues that a closer engagement with courtwatching in legal geography will yield insights into the issues of visibility, publicness, witnessing, and embodiment that surround court observations.
Abstract.
Schmid-Scott A, Marshall E, Gill N, Bagelman J (2021). Rural Geographies of Refugee Activism: the Expanding Spaces of Sanctuary in the UK. Revue européenne des migrations internationales, 36(2-3), 137-160.
Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R (2021). The Tribunal Atmosphere: on Qualitative Barriers to Access to Justice. Geoforum, 119, 61-61.
Fisher D, Gill N, Paszkiewicz N (2021). To Fail an Asylum Seeker: Time, Space and Legal Events. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Vianelli L, Gill N, Hoellerer N (2021). Waiting as Probation: Selecting Self-disciplining Asylum Seekers. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Hynes J, Gill N, Tomlinson J (2020). In defence of the hearing? Emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access and communication in court hearings.
Geography Compass,
14(9).
Abstract:
In defence of the hearing? Emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access and communication in court hearings
AbstractThe shift towards dispute resolution taking place outside traditional legal arenas is fundamentally changing the relationship between space and law, presenting legal geography with pressing new research opportunities. This paper explores how the emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access to justice and communication shed light on the consequences of alternative and online dispute resolution. Crucially, these consequences raise urgent interdisciplinary questions for geography and law. We set out these questions and suggest that legal geography will be best placed to address them by working through some of the practical, applied ramifications of its concepts and perspectives.
Abstract.
Hambly J, Gill N (2020). Law and Speed: Asylum Claims and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening. Journal of Law and Society, 47(1), 3-28.
Hambly J, Gill N, Vianelli L (2020). Using multi-member panels to tackle RSD complexities. Forced Migration Review
Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Hoellerer N, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R (2020). What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
45(4), 937-951.
Abstract:
What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe
There is an absence of absence in legal geography and materialist studies of the law. Drawing on a multi‐sited ethnography of European asylum appeal hearings, this paper illustrates the importance of absences for a fully‐fledged materiality of legal events. We show how absent materials impact hearings, that non‐attending participants profoundly influence them, and that even when participants are physically present, they are often simultaneously absent in other, psychological registers. In so doing we demonstrate the importance and productivity of thinking not only about law’s omnipresence but also the absences that shape the way law is experienced and practised. We show that attending to the distribution of absence and presence at legal hearings is a way to critically engage with legal performance.
Abstract.
Gill N, Fisher D, Hynes J (2019). 25 years of protest: migration control and the power of local activism. Geography, 104, 134-140.
Fisher DX, Burridge A, Gill N (2019). The Political Mobilities of Reporting: Tethering, slickness and asylum control.
MobilitiesAbstract:
The Political Mobilities of Reporting: Tethering, slickness and asylum control
This paper focuses on the coerced mobilities associated with reporting, meaning the mandatory requirement to regularly check-in with authorities for the purpose of control. Drawing on recent calls for a politics of mobility and advances in carceral geographies, we attend to the forces, movements, speeds and affective materialities of reporting with a focus on deportable migrants and the UK Home Office. In doing so we develop two conceptual lenses through which to further understand the politics of mobility. First, we develop the concept of ‘slickness’ in the context of the process of becoming detained at a reporting event. We understand slickness as a property of bodies and objects that makes them easier to move. Second, we argue that reporting functions to ‘tether’ deportable migrants; thereby not only fixing them in place, but also forcing the expenditure of energy and the experience of punishment. The result is that reporting blurs the distinction between detention and ‘freedom’ by enacting the carceral in everyday spaces.
Abstract.
Gill NM (2019). Unsettling Work. Dialogues in Human Geography, 9(1), 106-109.
Gill N, Conlon D, Moran D, Burridge A (2018). Carceral Circuitry: New Directions in Carceral Geography. Progress in Human Geography, 42, 183-204.
Gill N (2018). The suppression of welcome.
Fennia - International Journal of Geography,
196(1), 88-98.
Abstract:
The suppression of welcome
available here https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/70040
Abstract.
Burridge A, Gill N, Kocher A, Martin L (2017). Introduction: Polymorphic Borders. Territory, Politics, Governance, 5(3), 239-251.
Gill N, Rotter R, Burridge A, Allsopp J (2017). The limits of procedural discretion: Unequal treatment and vulnerability in Britain's asylum appeals. Social and Legal Studies
Burridge A, Gill N (2016). Conveyor‐Belt Justice: Precarity, Access to Justice, and Uneven Geographies of Legal Aid in UK Asylum Appeals.
Antipode,
49, 23-42.
Abstract:
Conveyor‐Belt Justice: Precarity, Access to Justice, and Uneven Geographies of Legal Aid in UK Asylum Appeals
Ongoing government funding cuts to British legal aid have resulted in the
formation of legal deserts and uneven geographies of access to advice and legal representation. Asylum seekers, particularly those subjected to no-choice dispersal throughout the UK for housing, are enduring the impact of these cuts directly. This paper explores the spatial and legal marginalisation of asylum seekers, drawing upon the findings of a
three-year study of the asylum appeals process. Already precarious, we analyse the manifold spatial marginalisation of dispersed asylum seekers from sources of legal advice and representation. We identify the frames of luck, uncertainty and dislocation as ways to further a spatially cognisant understanding of precarity, alongside identifying strategies
employed to counter precarious positionalities.
Abstract.
Gill N, Rotter R, Burridge A, Allsopp J, Griffiths M (2016). The consolations of linguistic incomprehension: Interpretation and communication in British asylum appeal hearings.
Anthropology TodayAbstract:
The consolations of linguistic incomprehension: Interpretation and communication in British asylum appeal hearings
For the thousands of appellants who navigate Britain's asylum appeal courts every year, having their hearing conducted in a language they do not understand, and participating via an interpreter, is usually viewed as a significant disadvantage. The findings of a study that entailed the in-person ethnographic and structured observations of over 390 asylum appeal hearings in England and Wales during 2013 and 2014, however, indicate that the presence of interpreters also often offers important sources of support in adversity. While the natural assumption may be to associate linguistic incomprehension with detriment, it transpires that there are important exceptions to this rule. Given the toughening of UK border controls in recent years, as well as British reluctance to share responsibilities for international refugees such as those fleeing from violence in Syria, these observations offer rare solace in a bleak policy landscape.
Abstract.
Gill N, Conlon D (2015). Editorial: Migration and Activism. Acme: an international e-journal for critical geographies, 14(2), 442-452.
Gill N, Rotter R, Burridge A, Griffiths M, Allsopp J (2015). Inconsistency in asylum appeal adjudication.
Forced Migration Review,
50, 52-54.
Abstract:
Inconsistency in asylum appeal adjudication
New research findings indicate that factors such as the gender of the judge and of the appellant, and where the appellant lives, are influencing asylum appeal adjudication.
Abstract.
Coe, N, Dittmer, J. Gill N, Secor A, Staeheli L, Toal G, Jeffrey A (2014). Book Review of the Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia by Alex Jeffrey. Political Geography, 39, 26-35.
Conlon, D. Gill N, Tyler I, Oeppen C (2014). Impact as Odyssey. Acme: an International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 13(1), 33-38.
Tyler I, Gill N, Conlon D, Oeppen C (2014). The Business of Child Detention: Charitable Co-option, Migrant Advocacy and Activist Outrage. Race & Class, July–September(1), 3-21.
Coe NM, Dittmer J, Gill N, Secor A, Staeheli L, Toal (Gearoid O Tuathail) G, Jeffrey A (2014). The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY,
39, 26-35.
Author URL.
Gill N, Conlon D, Tyler I, Oeppen C (2014). The tactics of asylum and irregular migrant support groups: Disrupting bodily, technological, and neoliberal strategies of control.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers,
104(2), 373-381.
Abstract:
The tactics of asylum and irregular migrant support groups: Disrupting bodily, technological, and neoliberal strategies of control
States are exercising an increasing array of spatial strategies of migration control, including in the area of asylum migration. Drawing on interview data with thirty-five British and American irregular migrant and asylum support groups (MASGs), this article explores the spatial “tactics” (De Certeau 1984) employed by MASGs in response to strategies of migration control. We consider their infiltration of highly securitized physical spaces like detention centers and courts. We analyze their appropriation of control technologies and discuss their exploitation of inconsistencies within the neoliberalization of controls. These tactics highlight the importance of resistive actions that are carried out “within enemy territory” (De Certeau 1984, 37). As such, they represent a complementary set of actions to more radical forms of protest and consequently enrich our understanding of the diversity of forms of resistance.
Abstract.
Conlon D, Gill N (2013). Gagging Orders: Asylum Seekers and Paradoxes of Freedom and Protest in Liberal Society. Citizenship Studies, 17(2), 241-259.
Williams A, Jeffrey A, McConnell F, Megoran N, Askins K, Gill N, Nash C, Pande R (2013). Interventions in teaching political geography: Reflections on practice. Political Geography, 34, 24-34.
Gill N, Rodríguez-Pose A (2012). Do Citizens Really Shop between Decentralised Jurisdictions? Tiebout and Internal
Migration Revisited.
Space & Polity,
16(2), 175-195.
Abstract:
Do Citizens Really Shop between Decentralised Jurisdictions? Tiebout and Internal
Migration Revisited
Tiebout predicted that differences in service provision and tax rates
across regions would lead citizens to migrate to their preferred jurisdiction.
This central tenet of the fiscal federalism literature has rarely been explored
outside the North American context. This paper delves into this gap in the literature
by examining the factors that undermine Tiebout’s prediction. It undertakes
an international comparative analysis drawing upon recent innovations
in the measurement of internal migration that facilitate country comparisons.
While some of Tiebout’s ideas find limited support, the overall weight of evidence
suggests a weak link between internal migration and decentralisation
Abstract.
Gill N, Gill M (2012). The limits to libertarian paternalism: two new critiques, and seven best practice imperatives.
Environment and Planning C,
30(5), 924-940.
Abstract:
The limits to libertarian paternalism: two new critiques, and seven best practice imperatives.
Behavioural economists argue that humans are predictably irrational in various ways, as a result of which there appears to be a role for public policy to improve their decision-making. We offer a sympathetic critique of this so-called ‘libertarian paternalist’ approach. As well as reviewing existing critiques, we present two new arguments. First, we question the use of libertarian paternalism in situations where the social good is invoked to justify policies that are not beneficial to the individuals directly affected. Second, we highlight the potentially adverse consequences of poorly targeted libertarian paternalist techniques. The penultimate section then brings together the existing critiques and the new arguments to offer seven best practice imperatives for the reflective application of these powerful, but easily misused, tools of government. We conclude with some brief reflections on what freedom might mean in the context of libertarian paternalist governance.
Abstract.
Gill N, Johnstone P, Williams A (2012). Towards a Geography of Tolerance: Post-Politics and Political Forms of Toleration.
Political Geography,
31(8), 509-518.
Abstract:
Towards a Geography of Tolerance: Post-Politics and Political Forms of Toleration
This paper argues for a closer inspection of how tolerance and politics interact. Within geography and beyond there is rising concern about post political situations, whereby potential disagreements are foreclosed and situated beyond the remit of political debate. This is conceptualised as a process of de-politicisation that operates ‘much more effectively’ than alternative ways in which politics can be and has been disavowed (Žižek, 1999: 198). While Žižek associates liberal tolerance with the post political condition, however, theories of tolerance are at odds over whether it represents an everyday enactment of the political. Although some authors have indeed associated tolerance with a depoliticising tendency (Brown, 2006), others insist that certain types of tolerance are capable of nurturing simultaneous recognition and disagreement, which directly contradicts the conditions of post-politics (Forst, 2003). We therefore ask, contra Žižek, whether certain forms of tolerance can be an antidote to the post-political practice of foreclosing politics, and offer a set of considerations pertinent to the geographical analysis of this issue.
Abstract.
Clark G, Gill N, Walker M, Whittle R (2011). Attendance and Performance: Correlations and Motives in Lecture-Based Modules. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(2), 199-215.
Gill N, Caletrio J, Mason V (2011). Editorial: Mobilities and Forced Migration.
Mobilities,
6(3), 301-316.
Abstract:
Editorial: Mobilities and Forced Migration
Whether precipitated by political or environmental factors, human displacement
can be more fully understood by attending to the ways in which a set of bodily, material,
imagined and virtual mobilities and immobilities interact to produce population movement. 10
Very little work, however, has addressed the fertile middle ground between mobilities and
forced migration. This article introduces the special issue by setting out the ways in which
theories of mobilities can enrich forced migration studies as well as some of the insights into mobilities that forced migration research offers.
Abstract.
Pykett J, Jones R, Whitehead M, Huxley M, Strauss K, Gill N, McGeevor K, Thompson L, Newman J (2011). Interventions in the Political Geography of 'Libertarian Paternalism'. Political Geography
Gill N, Bialski P (2011). New Friends in New Places: Network Formation during the Migration Process Among Poles in the UK.
Geoforum,
42(2), 241-249.
Abstract:
New Friends in New Places: Network Formation during the Migration Process Among Poles in the UK
Socio-economic status impacts upon migrant network formation. Unexpectedly, we find lower socio-economic migrant Poles rely most on weak co-ethnic ties. We also find that weak co-ethnic ties entail a range of social costs. Therefore, higher socio-economic migrants benefit from freedom from these sorts of ties. While lower socio-economic migrants experience them as a burden.
Abstract.
Gill N (2011). Review of "Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border" by Alison Mountz. Journal of Refugee Studies, 24, 419-420.
Gill N (2011). Whose ‘No Borders’? Achieving No Borders for the Right Reasons.
Refuge,
26(2), 107-120.
Abstract:
Whose ‘No Borders’? Achieving No Borders for the Right Reasons
Free population movement promises greater human liberties and improved economic performance. Inevitably, however, there are critics. Most vocally, the conservative Right points towards the erosion of Western welfare systems, the large migratory movements that a No Borders policy may precipitate, and the lowering of living standards in rich countries to approximate those in poor countries. This paper argues that, although the claims of the Right are often exaggerated, these objections have served to paste over important differences between advocates of No Borders, producing some unlikely bed-fellows in opposition to conservative arguments. In particular, an uncomfortable conflation between liberal and Left wing ideology has emerged as a result of the specific discursive strategy of Right wing commentators to obfuscate distinctions between these ideological stances. After outlining the arguments of the Right for context, this paper responds to this conflation by distancing a Left-wing No Borders position from a free-market liberal No Borders position. It does this by using Left-wing arguments to criticize liberal No Borders ideology, and concludes by suggesting some key features of a Left-wing No Borders position.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). "Environmental Refugees" Key Debates and the Contributions of Geographers.
Geography Compass,
7(4), 861-871.
Abstract:
"Environmental Refugees" Key Debates and the Contributions of Geographers
This article reviews the key current debates around the concept of environmental refugees, focusing on geography’s actual and potential contributions. First, although the most widely quoted estimate is between 200 and 250 million environmental refugees by 2050 (with some estimates
greatly exceeding this), there is continuing disagreement about the scale of the challenge with numerous authors questioning available evidence. Geographical discussions about the reification of
scale and the increasingly questioned division between nature and society might usefully inform
these debates. Second, although the term ‘environmental refugees’ has achieved widespread usage, the degree to which ‘the environment’ can be singled out as a decisive cause of refugee movement has been questioned. Geographers have also provided some quantitative evidence that casts
the relationship between environmental processes and refugees into doubt. Third, an important
debate is taking place regarding the suitability of existing political refugee law for extension into the environmental domain. Many social scientists have expressed concern about the feasibility and
desirability of extending the remit of existing international refugee protection. The article concludes by offering a series of future research directions that will allow geographers to continue to engage innovatively with this field.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). New state-theoretic approaches to asylum and refugee geographies.
Progress in Human Geography,
34(5), 626-645.
Abstract:
New state-theoretic approaches to asylum and refugee geographies
This paper examines recent innovations in the way the concept of the state is employed by geographers researching forced migrants’ and refugees’ experiences. A still-dominant body of thought tends to essentialize the state and foreground both its institutional forms and coercive powers by asking questions that take the primacy of these attributes for granted. In response, poststructuralist geographers and sociologists have begun to forge alternative views of states, drawing upon a useful cynicism over the coherence of the state, as well as an engagement with Foucauldian notions of governmentality. The paper examines these alternative approaches in order to distil the haracteristics of an emerging critical asylum geography.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). Pathologies of Migrant Place-Making: Polish Migration to the UK.
Environment and Planning A,
42(5), 1157-1173.
Abstract:
Pathologies of Migrant Place-Making: Polish Migration to the UK
The author argues that migrant place-making can become counterproductive for migrant communities for a variety of reasons. Existing place-making literature is often optimistic about the ability of places to offer migrants common identities and means of mobilising collectively. The author constructs a four-stage general model of migrant place-making to examine the potential pathologies of migrant organisational strategies at each of these four stages. In order to demonstrate the use of this model, an analysis of post-2004 Polish migration to the UK, drawing upon forty-two semistructured interviews with Polish migrants and domestic service providers, is presented. Although earlier migration displayed a number of the ideal characteristics of positive place-making described in the ideal four-stage model, centring around the Polish Catholic churches of England and Wales, post-2004 migration has introduced a series of problems that illustrate the various pathologies that can occur. The author concludes by calling for (i) a greater appreciation of the role of host organisations in the production of successful and unsuccessful place-making, and (ii) a recognition that place-making as a migrant settlement strategy is deeply fallible at various stages of its development.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). Tracing Imaginations of the State: the Spatial Consequences of Different State Concepts among Asylum Activist Organisations.
Antipode,
42(5), 1048-1070.
Abstract:
Tracing Imaginations of the State: the Spatial Consequences of Different State Concepts among Asylum Activist Organisations.
This paper examines the spatial consequences for activism of viewing the state through either a statist or post-structural lens. It is argued that understanding the state in different ways produces very different spatial strategies among activists. Drawing upon detailed
case studies of two asylum-seeking activist organisations in the UK, the connections between
imaginations of the state, spatial strategies towards institutionalised authority, and the pros
and cons of these strategies for activism itself are examined. Through these cases, the paper
emphasises the importance of everyday theories about the state not only for understanding what
the state is, but also for understanding how relationships with the state are formed and points towards the constructive power of imaginations of the state in their own right.
Abstract.
Gill N (2009). Governmental Mobility: the Power Effects of the Movement of Detained Asylum Seekers around Britain's Detention Estate.
Political Geography,
28, 186-196.
Abstract:
Governmental Mobility: the Power Effects of the Movement of Detained Asylum Seekers around Britain's Detention Estate
This paper explores the ways in which mobility can have governmental effects in the context of the management of asylum seekers awaiting deportation from the UK. Drawing upon the case of Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre, a facility for the incarceration of immigration deportees near Oxford, the paper makes the case that the way asylum seekers are moved between detention centres within the UK has implications for the way they are represented to both asylum activists and asylum sector employees, causing them to choose to use their influence differently by with-holding the support that they might otherwise provide. The constant moving and repositioning of asylum seekers means that they are depicted as transitory, fleeting and depersonalised to those actors with the greatest degree of influence over them. The subjection not only of asylum seekers through forceful, blunt forms of power, but also of more powerful asylum sector actors through subtler, governmental techniques, has significant material implications for the incarcerated asylum seeking community that populates Britain's detention estate.
Abstract.
Gill N (2009). Presentational State Power: Temporal and Spatial Influences over Asylum Sector Decision Makers.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
34(2), 215-233.
Abstract:
Presentational State Power: Temporal and Spatial Influences over Asylum Sector Decision Makers
Previous analyses of forced migration have drawn attention to the increasing discretion held by asylum sector decisionmakers. According to these accounts, as the state reacts to the political risks associated with asylum migration control, responsibility for forced migration management is increasingly transferred onto a range of intermediate actors, between state and society, including local government employees, asylum interviewers, immigration judges and security staff. Yet little research has directly addressed these intermediaries' collective experiences and the influences to which they are subject. The article therefore focuses attention explicitly upon the nominal conduct of this increasingly authorised, discretionary and highly heterogeneous population. Drawing upon 37 interviews across four sites at which asylum sector intermediaries have significant and increasing discretion over asylum seekers' experiences, the findings demonstrate the importance of institutionalised timing and spacing for the determination of their volitional conduct. The timing and spacing of government institutions are important, not only through their influence over asylum seekers directly, but also because they present asylum seekers to those with discretionary authority in ways that are conducive to exclusionary uses of this authority.
Abstract.
Gill N (2009). ‘Longing for Stillness: the Forced Movement of Asylum Seekers’. M/C Journal: a Journal of Media and Culture, 12(1).
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2006). How Does Trade Affect Regional Disparities?.
World Development,
34(7), 1201-1222.
Abstract:
How Does Trade Affect Regional Disparities?
Although the relationships between rising trade, economic growth, and international disparities have been well studied, those between trade and intranational disparities remain under-explored. In this paper, we present a theoretical formulation and empirical evaluation based on eight major world economies, finding that the link between trade and regional disparities is evidenced most strongly when sectoral shifts in trade composition are considered. As primary sector goods trade loses importance in the composition of total trade, regional disparities are likely to increase. This effect may have a greater negative impact on developing countries because the initial magnitude of intranational disparities tends to be greater in the developing world and its share of agricultural trade has historically been higher.
Abstract.
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2005). On the ‘Economic Dividend’ of Devolution.
Regional Studies,
39(4), 405-420.
Abstract:
On the ‘Economic Dividend’ of Devolution.
Recent political and academic discourse about devolution has tended to stress the economic advantages of the transfer of power from national to subnational stitutions. This ‘economic dividend’ arises through devolved administrations’ ability to tailor policies to local needs, generate innovation in service provision through inter-territorial competition, and stimulate participation and accountability by reducing the distance between those in power and their electorates. This paper, however, outlines two related caveats. Firstly, there are many forces that accompany devolution and work in an opposite direction. Devolved governmental systems may carry negative implications in terms of national economic efficiency and equity as well as through the imposition of significant institutional burdens. Secondly, the economic gains, as well as the downsides, that devolution may engender are contingent, to some extent, upon which governmental tier is dominating, organizing, propagating, and driving the devolutionary effort.
Abstract.
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2004). Is There a Global Link Between Regional Disparities and Devolution?.
Environment and Planning A: Environment and Planning,
36(12), 2097-2117.
Abstract:
Is There a Global Link Between Regional Disparities and Devolution?
In this paper we present an examination of the possible correlation between rising income
inequalities at the regional level and widespread devolutionary initiatives worldwide. When the responsibility and resource-based facets of decentralisation are taken together a marked congruency is evident between the two trends. Various spatial economic forces promote the emergence of core and peripheral regions, and devolution, by establishing the autonomy of these regions, allows these forces a greater impact. We argue that this is because centralisation initiatives carry with them implicit fiscal, political, and administrative costs, which fall more heavily upon those regions with limited adjustment capacities, resulting in differential rates at which regions can capitalise upon the opportunities offered by devolution. The global tendency towards evolution therefore reflects a subtle, but profound, renunciation of the traditional equalisation role of national government in favour of conditions fostering economic and public competition and leading to greater development of initially rich and powerful regions to the detriment of poorer areas.
Abstract.
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2004). Reassessing Relations Between the Centre and the States: the Challenge for the Brazilian Administration.
Regional Studies,
38(7), 833-844.
Abstract:
Reassessing Relations Between the Centre and the States: the Challenge for the Brazilian Administration.
Centre- state relations in Brazil have been difficult and have been at the root of many problems since the passing of the 1988 Constitution, which sanctioned an over- empowerment of the states to the detriment of the federal government. As a consequence, the last decade and a half has featured a continuous power struggle between the centre and the states and successive attempts by the former to consolidate its position. The left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) administration, which was sworn into office in early 2003 commanding huge popularity and with a previous strong record in local government, is again addressing the issue of forcing more responsibility for spending onto the states. While this may entail further devolution, it would bring about an equalization between spending opportunity and responsibility, and help to minimize the agency problems that stem from the centre-state power struggle that partially underpinned much of the economic turmoil of the 1990s. This paper, however, contrasts this policy priority with one of the central pillars of the new administration's aspirations: the reduction of poverty and inequalities. While greater fiscal responsibility at the state level may well lead to greater macroeconomic stability, it could also set in motion a series of mechanisms likely to engender greater regional disparities, which have been relatively stable in Brazil over the last two decades. The discord between the priority of state debt reduction and that of inequality reduction is therefore likely to emerge as a central policy challenge for the new administration.
Abstract.
Rodriguez-Pose A, Gill N (2003). The Global Trend Towards Devolution and its Implications.
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy,
21(3), 333-351.
Abstract:
The Global Trend Towards Devolution and its Implications
Globalisation has been accompanied by an equally global tendency towards
devolution of authority and resources from nation-states to regions and localities that
takes on various forms, depending upon which actors are driving decentralisation
efforts. The existence of a general trend towards devolution also has significant
implications for efficiency, equity, and administration. This paper outlines first the
general drive towards devolution and proceeds to examine which countries are
experiencing which forms of decentralisation. A theoretical argument emphasising the
role of governmental legitimacy across various tiers of government is used to explain
the diversity of devolution initiatives, drawing on examples, which include Brazil and
Mexico, India and China, America and some European countries. Having supported
our model of decentralisation, the paper then examines the implications of the
widespread downward transfer of powers towards regions. Some of the less widely
discussed pitfalls of decentralisation are presented and caution in promoting
devolutionary efforts is the prescription of this paper.
Abstract.
Chapters
Gill N (2021). Remote Justice and Vulnerable Litigants: the Case of Asylum. In Cowan D, Mumford A (Eds.) Pandemic Legalities: Legal Responses to COVID-19 - Justice and Social Responsibility, Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Gill N, Simon O (2020). Carceral Journeys. In Adey P, Bowstead J, Brickell K, Desai V, Dolton M, Pinkerton A, Siddiqi A (Eds.) The Handbook of Displacement, 329-343.
Gill N (2019). Border abolition and how to achieve it. In Cooper D, Dhawan N, Newman J (Eds.) Re-imagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities, Routledge, 231-250.
Gill NM, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Griffiths M, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R (2019). Law, Presence and Refugee Claim Determination. In Mitchell K, Jones R, Fluri J (Eds.) Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration, Edward Elgar.
Giannopoulou C, Gill N (2018). Asylum Procedures in Greece: the Case of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors. In Gill N, Good A (Eds.)
Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, 109-130.
Abstract:
Asylum Procedures in Greece: the Case of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors
Abstract.
Author URL.
Gill N (2018). Conclusion. In Gill N, Good A (Eds.) Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan.
Gill N, Good A (2018). Introduction. In Gill N, Good A (Eds.)
Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan.
Author URL.
Gill N (2016). Health and Intimacies in Immigration Detention. In Conlon D, Heimstra N (Eds.) Intimate Economies of Immigration Detention: Critical Perspectives, London: Routledge.
Marshall E, Pinkowska P, Gill NM (2016). Virtual presence as a challenge to immobility: Examining the potential of an online anti-detention campaign. In Turner J, Peters K (Eds.)
Carceral Mobilities: Interrogating Movement in Incarceration, Abingdon: Routledge.
Abstract:
Virtual presence as a challenge to immobility: Examining the potential of an online anti-detention campaign
Abstract.
Gill N (2014). Forms that Form. In Thrift N, Tickell A, Woolgar S (Eds.) Globalization in Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Conlon D, Gill N, Tyler I, Oeppen C (2014). Going public: Reflections on predicaments and possibilities in public research and scholarship. In (Ed) The Entrepreneurial University: Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts, Palgrave.
Moran D, Conlon D, Gill N (2013). Carceral Spaces: Linking Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. In Moran D, Gill N, Conlon D (Eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention, Ashgate, Farnham.
Gill N, Conlon D, Moran D (2013). Dialogues across Carceral Space: Migration, Mobility, Space and Agency. In Moran, D. Gill N, Conlon D (Eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention, Ashgate, Farnham.
Gill N (2013). Mobility versus Liberty? the Punitive Uses of Movement Within and Outside Carceral Environments. In Moran D, Gill N, Conlon D (Eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention, Ashgate, Farnham.
Gill N (2011). Migration. In Krossa S (Ed) Europe in a Global Context, Palgrave MacMillan.
Gill N (2009). Asylum, Immigration and the Circulation of Unease at Lunar House. In Ingram A, Dodds K (Eds.) Spaces of Security and Insecurity: Geographies of the War on Terror, London: Ashgate.
Reports
Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Hynes J, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R, Schmid-Scott A, et al (2020).
Experiencing Asylum Appeals 34 Ways to Improve Access to Justice at the First-tier Tribunal. Author URL.
Cranston R (2018).
Immigration and Asylum Appeals - a Fresh Look. JUSTICE, London.
Author URL.
Gill N, Fisher D, Jennifer S, Burridge A (2018).
Submission to Home Office Immigration Detention Consultation 2018.Abstract:
Submission to Home Office Immigration Detention Consultation 2018
Abstract.
Beduschi AC, Gill N, Patsianta K (2016). Situation of children that migrate unaccompanied or separated from their parents: legal framework and evidence from practice in Greece., United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers.
Gill N, Burridge A (2016). Submission to Ministry of Justice Consultation on Proposals to Amend Immigration and Asylum Chamber Fees. University of Exeter.
Finlinson E, Grace A, Gill N (2016).
Universities of Sanctuary Resource Pack., City of Sanctuary and Minuteman Press.
Author URL.
Gill N, Rotter R (2015). Written Evidence Submission to the Review into the Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons Conducted by Stephen Shaw at the Request of the Home Office. University of Exeter.
Gill N, Conlon D, Hall A, Tyler I (2014). Written submission of evidence to 2014 Parliamentary Inquiry into Immigration Detention, hosted by the APPG on Refugees and the APPG on Migration. University of Exeter.
Gill N, Conlon D, Oeppen C, Tyler I (2012).
Networks of Asylum Support in the UK and USA: a Handbook of Ideas, Strategies and Best Practice for Asylum Support Groups in a Challenging Social and Economic Climate.Abstract:
Networks of Asylum Support in the UK and USA: a Handbook of Ideas, Strategies and Best Practice for Asylum Support Groups in a Challenging Social and Economic Climate
Abstract.
Author URL.
Publications by year
2022
Gill N, Riding J, Kallio KP, Bagelman J (2022). Geographies of Welcome: Engagements with ‘Ordinary’ Hospitality. Hospitality and Society, 12, 123-143.
Feneberg, Gill N, Hoellerer N, Scheinert L (2022). It’s Not What you Know, it’s How you Use it:. On the Application of Country of Origin Information in Judicial Refugee Status Determination Decisions. International Journal of Refugee Law
Gill N, Hoellerer N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R, Vianelli L, et al (2022). Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal Geographies of Asylum Appeals. Political Geography
Till K, Gill N, Jacobsen M, Darling J, O'Reilly Z (2022). The In-Between Spaces of Asylum and Migration: a Participatory Visual Approach - Review Forum. The American Association of Geographers' Review of Books, 10, 41-50.
Gill N (2022). The Legal Aid Market
Challenges for Publicly Funded Immigration and Asylum Legal Representation by Jo Wilding (Review).
Web link.
Hoellerer N, Gill N (2022). ‘Assembly-Line Baptism’: Judicial discussions of ‘free churches’ in German and Austrian asylum hearings. Journal of Legal Anthropology, 5(2), 1-29.
2021
Hoellerer N, Gill N (2021). ASYFAIR Germany dataset: asylum adjudication in Germany (2018/19).
Author URL.
Gill N, Hynes J (2021). Courtwatching: Visibility, publicness, witnessing, and embodiment in legal activism.
Area,
53(4), 569-576.
Abstract:
Courtwatching: Visibility, publicness, witnessing, and embodiment in legal activism
The paper sets out what courtwatching is and gives some examples from various countries. It argues that a closer engagement with courtwatching in legal geography will yield insights into the issues of visibility, publicness, witnessing, and embodiment that surround court observations.
Abstract.
Gill N (2021). Remote Justice and Vulnerable Litigants: the Case of Asylum. In Cowan D, Mumford A (Eds.) Pandemic Legalities: Legal Responses to COVID-19 - Justice and Social Responsibility, Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Schmid-Scott A, Marshall E, Gill N, Bagelman J (2021). Rural Geographies of Refugee Activism: the Expanding Spaces of Sanctuary in the UK. Revue européenne des migrations internationales, 36(2-3), 137-160.
Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R (2021). The Tribunal Atmosphere: on Qualitative Barriers to Access to Justice. Geoforum, 119, 61-61.
Fisher D, Gill N, Paszkiewicz N (2021). To Fail an Asylum Seeker: Time, Space and Legal Events. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Vianelli L, Gill N, Hoellerer N (2021). Waiting as Probation: Selecting Self-disciplining Asylum Seekers. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
2020
Gill N, Simon O (2020). Carceral Journeys. In Adey P, Bowstead J, Brickell K, Desai V, Dolton M, Pinkerton A, Siddiqi A (Eds.) The Handbook of Displacement, 329-343.
Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Hynes J, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R, Schmid-Scott A, et al (2020).
Experiencing Asylum Appeals 34 Ways to Improve Access to Justice at the First-tier Tribunal. Author URL.
Hynes J, Gill N, Tomlinson J (2020). In defence of the hearing? Emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access and communication in court hearings.
Geography Compass,
14(9).
Abstract:
In defence of the hearing? Emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access and communication in court hearings
AbstractThe shift towards dispute resolution taking place outside traditional legal arenas is fundamentally changing the relationship between space and law, presenting legal geography with pressing new research opportunities. This paper explores how the emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access to justice and communication shed light on the consequences of alternative and online dispute resolution. Crucially, these consequences raise urgent interdisciplinary questions for geography and law. We set out these questions and suggest that legal geography will be best placed to address them by working through some of the practical, applied ramifications of its concepts and perspectives.
Abstract.
Hambly J, Gill N (2020). Law and Speed: Asylum Claims and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening. Journal of Law and Society, 47(1), 3-28.
Hambly J, Gill N, Vianelli L (2020). Using multi-member panels to tackle RSD complexities. Forced Migration Review
Gill N, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Fisher D, Griffiths M, Hambly J, Hoellerer N, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R (2020). What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
45(4), 937-951.
Abstract:
What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe
There is an absence of absence in legal geography and materialist studies of the law. Drawing on a multi‐sited ethnography of European asylum appeal hearings, this paper illustrates the importance of absences for a fully‐fledged materiality of legal events. We show how absent materials impact hearings, that non‐attending participants profoundly influence them, and that even when participants are physically present, they are often simultaneously absent in other, psychological registers. In so doing we demonstrate the importance and productivity of thinking not only about law’s omnipresence but also the absences that shape the way law is experienced and practised. We show that attending to the distribution of absence and presence at legal hearings is a way to critically engage with legal performance.
Abstract.
2019
Gill N, Fisher D, Hynes J (2019). 25 years of protest: migration control and the power of local activism. Geography, 104, 134-140.
Gill NM, Rotter R, Burridge A, Allsopp J (2019). Asylum appeal hearing observations at First-tier Tribunal hearing centres in the UK, 2013-2016 [dataset].
Gill N (2019). Border abolition and how to achieve it. In Cooper D, Dhawan N, Newman J (Eds.) Re-imagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities, Routledge, 231-250.
Gill NM, Allsopp J, Burridge A, Griffiths M, Paszkiewicz N, Rotter R (2019). Law, Presence and Refugee Claim Determination. In Mitchell K, Jones R, Fluri J (Eds.) Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration, Edward Elgar.
Fisher DX, Burridge A, Gill N (2019). The Political Mobilities of Reporting: Tethering, slickness and asylum control.
MobilitiesAbstract:
The Political Mobilities of Reporting: Tethering, slickness and asylum control
This paper focuses on the coerced mobilities associated with reporting, meaning the mandatory requirement to regularly check-in with authorities for the purpose of control. Drawing on recent calls for a politics of mobility and advances in carceral geographies, we attend to the forces, movements, speeds and affective materialities of reporting with a focus on deportable migrants and the UK Home Office. In doing so we develop two conceptual lenses through which to further understand the politics of mobility. First, we develop the concept of ‘slickness’ in the context of the process of becoming detained at a reporting event. We understand slickness as a property of bodies and objects that makes them easier to move. Second, we argue that reporting functions to ‘tether’ deportable migrants; thereby not only fixing them in place, but also forcing the expenditure of energy and the experience of punishment. The result is that reporting blurs the distinction between detention and ‘freedom’ by enacting the carceral in everyday spaces.
Abstract.
Gill NM (2019). Unsettling Work. Dialogues in Human Geography, 9(1), 106-109.
2018
Gill N, Good A (eds)(2018).
Asylum Determination in Europe Ethnographic Perspectives. [Open Access], Palgrave Macmillan.
Abstract:
Asylum Determination in Europe Ethnographic Perspectives
Abstract.
Author URL.
Giannopoulou C, Gill N (2018). Asylum Procedures in Greece: the Case of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors. In Gill N, Good A (Eds.)
Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, 109-130.
Abstract:
Asylum Procedures in Greece: the Case of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors
Abstract.
Author URL.
Gill N, Conlon D, Moran D, Burridge A (2018). Carceral Circuitry: New Directions in Carceral Geography. Progress in Human Geography, 42, 183-204.
Gill N (2018). Conclusion. In Gill N, Good A (Eds.) Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan.
Cranston R (2018).
Immigration and Asylum Appeals - a Fresh Look. JUSTICE, London.
Author URL.
Gill N, Good A (2018). Introduction. In Gill N, Good A (Eds.)
Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan.
Author URL.
Gill N, Fisher D, Jennifer S, Burridge A (2018).
Submission to Home Office Immigration Detention Consultation 2018.Abstract:
Submission to Home Office Immigration Detention Consultation 2018
Abstract.
Gill N (2018). The suppression of welcome.
Fennia - International Journal of Geography,
196(1), 88-98.
Abstract:
The suppression of welcome
available here https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/70040
Abstract.
Gill N, Fisher D, Smith J, Burridge A (2018). Written evidence to the Home Affairs Committee immigration detention inquiry 2018.
Abstract:
Written evidence to the Home Affairs Committee immigration detention inquiry 2018
Written evidence to the Home Affairs Committee immigration detention inquiry 2018 submitted by Professor Nick Gill (University of Exeter), Dr Daniel Fisher (University of Exeter), Dr Jennifer Smith (University of Newcastle) and Dr Andrew Burridge (University of Exeter) (IDD0008)
Abstract.
Singer D, Gill N (2018). Your Asylum Appeal Hearing: Information to Help.
Abstract:
Your Asylum Appeal Hearing: Information to Help
A video to inform asylum appellants about what to expect on the day of their hearings.
Abstract.
Author URL.
2017
Allsopp J, Burridge A, Griffiths M, Gill NM, Rotter R (2017). Inside Britain’s asylum appeal system – what it’s like to challenge the Home Office.
Web link.
Burridge A, Gill N, Kocher A, Martin L (2017). Introduction: Polymorphic Borders. Territory, Politics, Governance, 5(3), 239-251.
Gill N, Rotter R, Burridge A, Allsopp J (2017). The limits of procedural discretion: Unequal treatment and vulnerability in Britain's asylum appeals. Social and Legal Studies
2016
Burridge A, Gill N (2016). Conveyor‐Belt Justice: Precarity, Access to Justice, and Uneven Geographies of Legal Aid in UK Asylum Appeals.
Antipode,
49, 23-42.
Abstract:
Conveyor‐Belt Justice: Precarity, Access to Justice, and Uneven Geographies of Legal Aid in UK Asylum Appeals
Ongoing government funding cuts to British legal aid have resulted in the
formation of legal deserts and uneven geographies of access to advice and legal representation. Asylum seekers, particularly those subjected to no-choice dispersal throughout the UK for housing, are enduring the impact of these cuts directly. This paper explores the spatial and legal marginalisation of asylum seekers, drawing upon the findings of a
three-year study of the asylum appeals process. Already precarious, we analyse the manifold spatial marginalisation of dispersed asylum seekers from sources of legal advice and representation. We identify the frames of luck, uncertainty and dislocation as ways to further a spatially cognisant understanding of precarity, alongside identifying strategies
employed to counter precarious positionalities.
Abstract.
Gill N (2016). Health and Intimacies in Immigration Detention. In Conlon D, Heimstra N (Eds.) Intimate Economies of Immigration Detention: Critical Perspectives, London: Routledge.
Gill N (2016). Nothing Personal ? Geographies of Governing and activism in the British Asylum System., Wiley-Blackwell.
Beduschi AC, Gill N, Patsianta K (2016). Situation of children that migrate unaccompanied or separated from their parents: legal framework and evidence from practice in Greece., United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers.
Gill N, Burridge A (2016). Submission to Ministry of Justice Consultation on Proposals to Amend Immigration and Asylum Chamber Fees. University of Exeter.
Gill N, Rotter R, Burridge A, Allsopp J, Griffiths M (2016). The consolations of linguistic incomprehension: Interpretation and communication in British asylum appeal hearings.
Anthropology TodayAbstract:
The consolations of linguistic incomprehension: Interpretation and communication in British asylum appeal hearings
For the thousands of appellants who navigate Britain's asylum appeal courts every year, having their hearing conducted in a language they do not understand, and participating via an interpreter, is usually viewed as a significant disadvantage. The findings of a study that entailed the in-person ethnographic and structured observations of over 390 asylum appeal hearings in England and Wales during 2013 and 2014, however, indicate that the presence of interpreters also often offers important sources of support in adversity. While the natural assumption may be to associate linguistic incomprehension with detriment, it transpires that there are important exceptions to this rule. Given the toughening of UK border controls in recent years, as well as British reluctance to share responsibilities for international refugees such as those fleeing from violence in Syria, these observations offer rare solace in a bleak policy landscape.
Abstract.
Finlinson E, Grace A, Gill N (2016).
Universities of Sanctuary Resource Pack., City of Sanctuary and Minuteman Press.
Author URL.
Marshall E, Pinkowska P, Gill NM (2016). Virtual presence as a challenge to immobility: Examining the potential of an online anti-detention campaign. In Turner J, Peters K (Eds.)
Carceral Mobilities: Interrogating Movement in Incarceration, Abingdon: Routledge.
Abstract:
Virtual presence as a challenge to immobility: Examining the potential of an online anti-detention campaign
Abstract.
2015
Gill N, Conlon D (2015). Editorial: Migration and Activism. Acme: an international e-journal for critical geographies, 14(2), 442-452.
Gill N, Rotter R, Burridge A, Griffiths M, Allsopp J (2015). Inconsistency in asylum appeal adjudication.
Forced Migration Review,
50, 52-54.
Abstract:
Inconsistency in asylum appeal adjudication
New research findings indicate that factors such as the gender of the judge and of the appellant, and where the appellant lives, are influencing asylum appeal adjudication.
Abstract.
Gill N, Rotter R (2015). Written Evidence Submission to the Review into the Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons Conducted by Stephen Shaw at the Request of the Home Office. University of Exeter.
2014
Coe, N, Dittmer, J. Gill N, Secor A, Staeheli L, Toal G, Jeffrey A (2014). Book Review of the Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia by Alex Jeffrey. Political Geography, 39, 26-35.
Gill N (2014). Forms that Form. In Thrift N, Tickell A, Woolgar S (Eds.) Globalization in Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Conlon D, Gill N, Tyler I, Oeppen C (2014). Going public: Reflections on predicaments and possibilities in public research and scholarship. In (Ed) The Entrepreneurial University: Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts, Palgrave.
Conlon, D. Gill N, Tyler I, Oeppen C (2014). Impact as Odyssey. Acme: an International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 13(1), 33-38.
Tyler I, Gill N, Conlon D, Oeppen C (2014). The Business of Child Detention: Charitable Co-option, Migrant Advocacy and Activist Outrage. Race & Class, July–September(1), 3-21.
Coe NM, Dittmer J, Gill N, Secor A, Staeheli L, Toal (Gearoid O Tuathail) G, Jeffrey A (2014). The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY,
39, 26-35.
Author URL.
Gill N, Conlon D, Tyler I, Oeppen C (2014). The tactics of asylum and irregular migrant support groups: Disrupting bodily, technological, and neoliberal strategies of control.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers,
104(2), 373-381.
Abstract:
The tactics of asylum and irregular migrant support groups: Disrupting bodily, technological, and neoliberal strategies of control
States are exercising an increasing array of spatial strategies of migration control, including in the area of asylum migration. Drawing on interview data with thirty-five British and American irregular migrant and asylum support groups (MASGs), this article explores the spatial “tactics” (De Certeau 1984) employed by MASGs in response to strategies of migration control. We consider their infiltration of highly securitized physical spaces like detention centers and courts. We analyze their appropriation of control technologies and discuss their exploitation of inconsistencies within the neoliberalization of controls. These tactics highlight the importance of resistive actions that are carried out “within enemy territory” (De Certeau 1984, 37). As such, they represent a complementary set of actions to more radical forms of protest and consequently enrich our understanding of the diversity of forms of resistance.
Abstract.
Gill N, Conlon D, Hall A, Tyler I (2014). Written submission of evidence to 2014 Parliamentary Inquiry into Immigration Detention, hosted by the APPG on Refugees and the APPG on Migration. University of Exeter.
2013
Moran D, Conlon D, Gill N (2013). Carceral Spaces: Linking Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. In Moran D, Gill N, Conlon D (Eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention, Ashgate, Farnham.
Moran D, Gill N, Conlon D (2013). Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. Aldershot, Ashgate.
Gill N, Conlon D, Moran D (2013). Dialogues across Carceral Space: Migration, Mobility, Space and Agency. In Moran, D. Gill N, Conlon D (Eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention, Ashgate, Farnham.
Conlon D, Gill N (2013). Gagging Orders: Asylum Seekers and Paradoxes of Freedom and Protest in Liberal Society. Citizenship Studies, 17(2), 241-259.
Williams A, Jeffrey A, McConnell F, Megoran N, Askins K, Gill N, Nash C, Pande R (2013). Interventions in teaching political geography: Reflections on practice. Political Geography, 34, 24-34.
Gill N, Caletrio J, Mason V (2013). Mobilities and Forced Migration. Abingdon, Talyor & Francis.
Gill N (2013). Mobility versus Liberty? the Punitive Uses of Movement Within and Outside Carceral Environments. In Moran D, Gill N, Conlon D (Eds.) Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention, Ashgate, Farnham.
2012
Gill N, Rodríguez-Pose A (2012). Do Citizens Really Shop between Decentralised Jurisdictions? Tiebout and Internal
Migration Revisited.
Space & Polity,
16(2), 175-195.
Abstract:
Do Citizens Really Shop between Decentralised Jurisdictions? Tiebout and Internal
Migration Revisited
Tiebout predicted that differences in service provision and tax rates
across regions would lead citizens to migrate to their preferred jurisdiction.
This central tenet of the fiscal federalism literature has rarely been explored
outside the North American context. This paper delves into this gap in the literature
by examining the factors that undermine Tiebout’s prediction. It undertakes
an international comparative analysis drawing upon recent innovations
in the measurement of internal migration that facilitate country comparisons.
While some of Tiebout’s ideas find limited support, the overall weight of evidence
suggests a weak link between internal migration and decentralisation
Abstract.
Gill N, Conlon D, Oeppen C, Tyler I (2012).
Networks of Asylum Support in the UK and USA: a Handbook of Ideas, Strategies and Best Practice for Asylum Support Groups in a Challenging Social and Economic Climate.Abstract:
Networks of Asylum Support in the UK and USA: a Handbook of Ideas, Strategies and Best Practice for Asylum Support Groups in a Challenging Social and Economic Climate
Abstract.
Author URL.
Gill N, Gill M (2012). The limits to libertarian paternalism: two new critiques, and seven best practice imperatives.
Environment and Planning C,
30(5), 924-940.
Abstract:
The limits to libertarian paternalism: two new critiques, and seven best practice imperatives.
Behavioural economists argue that humans are predictably irrational in various ways, as a result of which there appears to be a role for public policy to improve their decision-making. We offer a sympathetic critique of this so-called ‘libertarian paternalist’ approach. As well as reviewing existing critiques, we present two new arguments. First, we question the use of libertarian paternalism in situations where the social good is invoked to justify policies that are not beneficial to the individuals directly affected. Second, we highlight the potentially adverse consequences of poorly targeted libertarian paternalist techniques. The penultimate section then brings together the existing critiques and the new arguments to offer seven best practice imperatives for the reflective application of these powerful, but easily misused, tools of government. We conclude with some brief reflections on what freedom might mean in the context of libertarian paternalist governance.
Abstract.
Gill N, Johnstone P, Williams A (2012). Towards a Geography of Tolerance: Post-Politics and Political Forms of Toleration.
Political Geography,
31(8), 509-518.
Abstract:
Towards a Geography of Tolerance: Post-Politics and Political Forms of Toleration
This paper argues for a closer inspection of how tolerance and politics interact. Within geography and beyond there is rising concern about post political situations, whereby potential disagreements are foreclosed and situated beyond the remit of political debate. This is conceptualised as a process of de-politicisation that operates ‘much more effectively’ than alternative ways in which politics can be and has been disavowed (Žižek, 1999: 198). While Žižek associates liberal tolerance with the post political condition, however, theories of tolerance are at odds over whether it represents an everyday enactment of the political. Although some authors have indeed associated tolerance with a depoliticising tendency (Brown, 2006), others insist that certain types of tolerance are capable of nurturing simultaneous recognition and disagreement, which directly contradicts the conditions of post-politics (Forst, 2003). We therefore ask, contra Žižek, whether certain forms of tolerance can be an antidote to the post-political practice of foreclosing politics, and offer a set of considerations pertinent to the geographical analysis of this issue.
Abstract.
2011
Clark G, Gill N, Walker M, Whittle R (2011). Attendance and Performance: Correlations and Motives in Lecture-Based Modules. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(2), 199-215.
Gill N, Caletrio J, Mason V (2011). Editorial: Mobilities and Forced Migration.
Mobilities,
6(3), 301-316.
Abstract:
Editorial: Mobilities and Forced Migration
Whether precipitated by political or environmental factors, human displacement
can be more fully understood by attending to the ways in which a set of bodily, material,
imagined and virtual mobilities and immobilities interact to produce population movement. 10
Very little work, however, has addressed the fertile middle ground between mobilities and
forced migration. This article introduces the special issue by setting out the ways in which
theories of mobilities can enrich forced migration studies as well as some of the insights into mobilities that forced migration research offers.
Abstract.
Pykett J, Jones R, Whitehead M, Huxley M, Strauss K, Gill N, McGeevor K, Thompson L, Newman J (2011). Interventions in the Political Geography of 'Libertarian Paternalism'. Political Geography
Gill N (2011). Migration. In Krossa S (Ed) Europe in a Global Context, Palgrave MacMillan.
Gill N, Bialski P (2011). New Friends in New Places: Network Formation during the Migration Process Among Poles in the UK.
Geoforum,
42(2), 241-249.
Abstract:
New Friends in New Places: Network Formation during the Migration Process Among Poles in the UK
Socio-economic status impacts upon migrant network formation. Unexpectedly, we find lower socio-economic migrant Poles rely most on weak co-ethnic ties. We also find that weak co-ethnic ties entail a range of social costs. Therefore, higher socio-economic migrants benefit from freedom from these sorts of ties. While lower socio-economic migrants experience them as a burden.
Abstract.
Gill N (2011). Review of "Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border" by Alison Mountz. Journal of Refugee Studies, 24, 419-420.
Gill N (2011). Whose ‘No Borders’? Achieving No Borders for the Right Reasons.
Refuge,
26(2), 107-120.
Abstract:
Whose ‘No Borders’? Achieving No Borders for the Right Reasons
Free population movement promises greater human liberties and improved economic performance. Inevitably, however, there are critics. Most vocally, the conservative Right points towards the erosion of Western welfare systems, the large migratory movements that a No Borders policy may precipitate, and the lowering of living standards in rich countries to approximate those in poor countries. This paper argues that, although the claims of the Right are often exaggerated, these objections have served to paste over important differences between advocates of No Borders, producing some unlikely bed-fellows in opposition to conservative arguments. In particular, an uncomfortable conflation between liberal and Left wing ideology has emerged as a result of the specific discursive strategy of Right wing commentators to obfuscate distinctions between these ideological stances. After outlining the arguments of the Right for context, this paper responds to this conflation by distancing a Left-wing No Borders position from a free-market liberal No Borders position. It does this by using Left-wing arguments to criticize liberal No Borders ideology, and concludes by suggesting some key features of a Left-wing No Borders position.
Abstract.
2010
Gill N (2010). "Environmental Refugees" Key Debates and the Contributions of Geographers.
Geography Compass,
7(4), 861-871.
Abstract:
"Environmental Refugees" Key Debates and the Contributions of Geographers
This article reviews the key current debates around the concept of environmental refugees, focusing on geography’s actual and potential contributions. First, although the most widely quoted estimate is between 200 and 250 million environmental refugees by 2050 (with some estimates
greatly exceeding this), there is continuing disagreement about the scale of the challenge with numerous authors questioning available evidence. Geographical discussions about the reification of
scale and the increasingly questioned division between nature and society might usefully inform
these debates. Second, although the term ‘environmental refugees’ has achieved widespread usage, the degree to which ‘the environment’ can be singled out as a decisive cause of refugee movement has been questioned. Geographers have also provided some quantitative evidence that casts
the relationship between environmental processes and refugees into doubt. Third, an important
debate is taking place regarding the suitability of existing political refugee law for extension into the environmental domain. Many social scientists have expressed concern about the feasibility and
desirability of extending the remit of existing international refugee protection. The article concludes by offering a series of future research directions that will allow geographers to continue to engage innovatively with this field.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). New state-theoretic approaches to asylum and refugee geographies.
Progress in Human Geography,
34(5), 626-645.
Abstract:
New state-theoretic approaches to asylum and refugee geographies
This paper examines recent innovations in the way the concept of the state is employed by geographers researching forced migrants’ and refugees’ experiences. A still-dominant body of thought tends to essentialize the state and foreground both its institutional forms and coercive powers by asking questions that take the primacy of these attributes for granted. In response, poststructuralist geographers and sociologists have begun to forge alternative views of states, drawing upon a useful cynicism over the coherence of the state, as well as an engagement with Foucauldian notions of governmentality. The paper examines these alternative approaches in order to distil the haracteristics of an emerging critical asylum geography.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). Pathologies of Migrant Place-Making: Polish Migration to the UK.
Environment and Planning A,
42(5), 1157-1173.
Abstract:
Pathologies of Migrant Place-Making: Polish Migration to the UK
The author argues that migrant place-making can become counterproductive for migrant communities for a variety of reasons. Existing place-making literature is often optimistic about the ability of places to offer migrants common identities and means of mobilising collectively. The author constructs a four-stage general model of migrant place-making to examine the potential pathologies of migrant organisational strategies at each of these four stages. In order to demonstrate the use of this model, an analysis of post-2004 Polish migration to the UK, drawing upon forty-two semistructured interviews with Polish migrants and domestic service providers, is presented. Although earlier migration displayed a number of the ideal characteristics of positive place-making described in the ideal four-stage model, centring around the Polish Catholic churches of England and Wales, post-2004 migration has introduced a series of problems that illustrate the various pathologies that can occur. The author concludes by calling for (i) a greater appreciation of the role of host organisations in the production of successful and unsuccessful place-making, and (ii) a recognition that place-making as a migrant settlement strategy is deeply fallible at various stages of its development.
Abstract.
Gill N (2010). Tracing Imaginations of the State: the Spatial Consequences of Different State Concepts among Asylum Activist Organisations.
Antipode,
42(5), 1048-1070.
Abstract:
Tracing Imaginations of the State: the Spatial Consequences of Different State Concepts among Asylum Activist Organisations.
This paper examines the spatial consequences for activism of viewing the state through either a statist or post-structural lens. It is argued that understanding the state in different ways produces very different spatial strategies among activists. Drawing upon detailed
case studies of two asylum-seeking activist organisations in the UK, the connections between
imaginations of the state, spatial strategies towards institutionalised authority, and the pros
and cons of these strategies for activism itself are examined. Through these cases, the paper
emphasises the importance of everyday theories about the state not only for understanding what
the state is, but also for understanding how relationships with the state are formed and points towards the constructive power of imaginations of the state in their own right.
Abstract.
2009
Gill N (2009). Asylum, Immigration and the Circulation of Unease at Lunar House. In Ingram A, Dodds K (Eds.) Spaces of Security and Insecurity: Geographies of the War on Terror, London: Ashgate.
Gill N (2009). Governmental Mobility: the Power Effects of the Movement of Detained Asylum Seekers around Britain's Detention Estate.
Political Geography,
28, 186-196.
Abstract:
Governmental Mobility: the Power Effects of the Movement of Detained Asylum Seekers around Britain's Detention Estate
This paper explores the ways in which mobility can have governmental effects in the context of the management of asylum seekers awaiting deportation from the UK. Drawing upon the case of Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre, a facility for the incarceration of immigration deportees near Oxford, the paper makes the case that the way asylum seekers are moved between detention centres within the UK has implications for the way they are represented to both asylum activists and asylum sector employees, causing them to choose to use their influence differently by with-holding the support that they might otherwise provide. The constant moving and repositioning of asylum seekers means that they are depicted as transitory, fleeting and depersonalised to those actors with the greatest degree of influence over them. The subjection not only of asylum seekers through forceful, blunt forms of power, but also of more powerful asylum sector actors through subtler, governmental techniques, has significant material implications for the incarcerated asylum seeking community that populates Britain's detention estate.
Abstract.
Gill N (2009). Presentational State Power: Temporal and Spatial Influences over Asylum Sector Decision Makers.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
34(2), 215-233.
Abstract:
Presentational State Power: Temporal and Spatial Influences over Asylum Sector Decision Makers
Previous analyses of forced migration have drawn attention to the increasing discretion held by asylum sector decisionmakers. According to these accounts, as the state reacts to the political risks associated with asylum migration control, responsibility for forced migration management is increasingly transferred onto a range of intermediate actors, between state and society, including local government employees, asylum interviewers, immigration judges and security staff. Yet little research has directly addressed these intermediaries' collective experiences and the influences to which they are subject. The article therefore focuses attention explicitly upon the nominal conduct of this increasingly authorised, discretionary and highly heterogeneous population. Drawing upon 37 interviews across four sites at which asylum sector intermediaries have significant and increasing discretion over asylum seekers' experiences, the findings demonstrate the importance of institutionalised timing and spacing for the determination of their volitional conduct. The timing and spacing of government institutions are important, not only through their influence over asylum seekers directly, but also because they present asylum seekers to those with discretionary authority in ways that are conducive to exclusionary uses of this authority.
Abstract.
Gill N (2009). ‘Longing for Stillness: the Forced Movement of Asylum Seekers’. M/C Journal: a Journal of Media and Culture, 12(1).
2006
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2006). How Does Trade Affect Regional Disparities?.
World Development,
34(7), 1201-1222.
Abstract:
How Does Trade Affect Regional Disparities?
Although the relationships between rising trade, economic growth, and international disparities have been well studied, those between trade and intranational disparities remain under-explored. In this paper, we present a theoretical formulation and empirical evaluation based on eight major world economies, finding that the link between trade and regional disparities is evidenced most strongly when sectoral shifts in trade composition are considered. As primary sector goods trade loses importance in the composition of total trade, regional disparities are likely to increase. This effect may have a greater negative impact on developing countries because the initial magnitude of intranational disparities tends to be greater in the developing world and its share of agricultural trade has historically been higher.
Abstract.
2005
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2005). On the ‘Economic Dividend’ of Devolution.
Regional Studies,
39(4), 405-420.
Abstract:
On the ‘Economic Dividend’ of Devolution.
Recent political and academic discourse about devolution has tended to stress the economic advantages of the transfer of power from national to subnational stitutions. This ‘economic dividend’ arises through devolved administrations’ ability to tailor policies to local needs, generate innovation in service provision through inter-territorial competition, and stimulate participation and accountability by reducing the distance between those in power and their electorates. This paper, however, outlines two related caveats. Firstly, there are many forces that accompany devolution and work in an opposite direction. Devolved governmental systems may carry negative implications in terms of national economic efficiency and equity as well as through the imposition of significant institutional burdens. Secondly, the economic gains, as well as the downsides, that devolution may engender are contingent, to some extent, upon which governmental tier is dominating, organizing, propagating, and driving the devolutionary effort.
Abstract.
2004
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2004). Is There a Global Link Between Regional Disparities and Devolution?.
Environment and Planning A: Environment and Planning,
36(12), 2097-2117.
Abstract:
Is There a Global Link Between Regional Disparities and Devolution?
In this paper we present an examination of the possible correlation between rising income
inequalities at the regional level and widespread devolutionary initiatives worldwide. When the responsibility and resource-based facets of decentralisation are taken together a marked congruency is evident between the two trends. Various spatial economic forces promote the emergence of core and peripheral regions, and devolution, by establishing the autonomy of these regions, allows these forces a greater impact. We argue that this is because centralisation initiatives carry with them implicit fiscal, political, and administrative costs, which fall more heavily upon those regions with limited adjustment capacities, resulting in differential rates at which regions can capitalise upon the opportunities offered by devolution. The global tendency towards evolution therefore reflects a subtle, but profound, renunciation of the traditional equalisation role of national government in favour of conditions fostering economic and public competition and leading to greater development of initially rich and powerful regions to the detriment of poorer areas.
Abstract.
Rodríguez-Pose A, Gill N (2004). Reassessing Relations Between the Centre and the States: the Challenge for the Brazilian Administration.
Regional Studies,
38(7), 833-844.
Abstract:
Reassessing Relations Between the Centre and the States: the Challenge for the Brazilian Administration.
Centre- state relations in Brazil have been difficult and have been at the root of many problems since the passing of the 1988 Constitution, which sanctioned an over- empowerment of the states to the detriment of the federal government. As a consequence, the last decade and a half has featured a continuous power struggle between the centre and the states and successive attempts by the former to consolidate its position. The left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) administration, which was sworn into office in early 2003 commanding huge popularity and with a previous strong record in local government, is again addressing the issue of forcing more responsibility for spending onto the states. While this may entail further devolution, it would bring about an equalization between spending opportunity and responsibility, and help to minimize the agency problems that stem from the centre-state power struggle that partially underpinned much of the economic turmoil of the 1990s. This paper, however, contrasts this policy priority with one of the central pillars of the new administration's aspirations: the reduction of poverty and inequalities. While greater fiscal responsibility at the state level may well lead to greater macroeconomic stability, it could also set in motion a series of mechanisms likely to engender greater regional disparities, which have been relatively stable in Brazil over the last two decades. The discord between the priority of state debt reduction and that of inequality reduction is therefore likely to emerge as a central policy challenge for the new administration.
Abstract.
2003
Rodriguez-Pose A, Gill N (2003). The Global Trend Towards Devolution and its Implications.
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy,
21(3), 333-351.
Abstract:
The Global Trend Towards Devolution and its Implications
Globalisation has been accompanied by an equally global tendency towards
devolution of authority and resources from nation-states to regions and localities that
takes on various forms, depending upon which actors are driving decentralisation
efforts. The existence of a general trend towards devolution also has significant
implications for efficiency, equity, and administration. This paper outlines first the
general drive towards devolution and proceeds to examine which countries are
experiencing which forms of decentralisation. A theoretical argument emphasising the
role of governmental legitimacy across various tiers of government is used to explain
the diversity of devolution initiatives, drawing on examples, which include Brazil and
Mexico, India and China, America and some European countries. Having supported
our model of decentralisation, the paper then examines the implications of the
widespread downward transfer of powers towards regions. Some of the less widely
discussed pitfalls of decentralisation are presented and caution in promoting
devolutionary efforts is the prescription of this paper.
Abstract.
