Governmentalities of an Airport: Heterotopia and Confession

Abstract

Airports are barometers of the balance between mobility and security sought by governments, industry, and the traveling public. This article examines this dynamic at a Canadian international airport, evaluating the legal and practical elements of the policing of movement with this crucial site of politics. Using two under-studied concepts from Foucault, the heterotopia and the confessionary complex, it is illustrated how contemporary aviation security arrangements are dependent on both the exceptional nature of the airport and the predisposition of citizens to confess in the face of agents of the state.