Contribution short abstract:

This paper presents ethnographic fieldwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the author worked as an activist with People on the Move (PoM) in squats. It examines how in the betwixtness of illegalized border crossing resistive knowledge commons arise and create solidary relationships.

Contribution long abstract:

My paper presents findings of my ethnografic field work in the border town of Velika Kladuša, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), while working as an activist with People on the Move (PoM). Here, I only went into squats, not official camps. My aim was to find everyday life-making practices in liminality through participant observation, interviews and digital data collection. The concept of liminality is reproducing, reaffirming and at the same time challenging borders and categories. In this betwixtness new knowledge orders are formed: The official ‚helpers‘ like Red Cross, IOM, Danish Refugee Council become dangerous for PoM and grassroots activists by collaborating with state authorities and police. So, not only warning texts on the Facebook Messenger like „no come today, police is here“ by PoM are usual, but also „hide, red cross coming“ or distracting these NGOs, so the activists, who are illegalised as well in BiH, can sneak away. This act of care and trust towards certain people and organisations are signs of resistance, they form and strengthen solidary relationships between PoM and regular EU citizens, groups pitted against each other in the hegemonic discourse. I want to discuss to what extend these practices of commoning knowledge (what is to be said to whom and how) can be un/commoning at the same time – since the practiced divide between nationality, ethnicity, and sometimes native town, even in the very same squat, is excluding by nature – and how concepts of liminality, resistance and commoning can be utilised productively together.