The tensions of the Ceuta and Melilla border fences

This chapter aims to ‘complicate’ the fences and fencing of Ceuta and Melilla. It discusses the emerging theoretical literature concerned with walls and fences in both historical and contemporary settings and examines the fences within their historical and geopolitical context as well as the tensions between security and humanitarianism that have been progressively reflected in their architecture. Furthermore, the chapter examines the fences as productive sites. This is done through a focus on the communities that encounter the fences in their everyday practice and a discussion of how the fences are producers of and sites of resistance. The chapter contributes to recent work on walls and fences that has argued for a more sociological approach to these complex architectures, seeing walls and fences as more than blockaders of movement or defenders of territory.