Living Without Agency: Deprivation of Everyday Life in Return Centre Avnstrup
Author
Lubnicki, Valeria Alejandra
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2026
Abstract
This thesis investigates how residents of Return Centre Avnstrup are deprived of agency through the Danish state’s governance of everyday life. Using a qualitative case study based on secondary sources, it combines Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach (What’s the Problem Represented to Be?) with Braun and Clarke’s Thematic Analysis to show that migration governance operates not only through legal frameworks but through the regulation of bodies, movement, time, and daily routines. Drawing on Foucault, the analysis demonstrates that while Avnstrup shares features with Goffman’s total institutions, it cannot be fully understood as a classical total institution, nor can residents’ experiences be reduced to civil death alone. The findings indicate a systematic erosion of agency across four interconnected domains: movement, futurity, material conditions, and access to healthcare. Building on this, the thesis introduces the concept of agency death to describe a condition in which people remain biologically alive while progressively losing the practical capacity to act meaningfully in everyday life. It argues that deportation governance shifts from direct expulsion toward indirect coercion that makes life increasingly unlivable to compel “departure,” thereby contributing to critical debates on deportation, confinement, and migration governance by demonstrating how the erosion of agency functions as a central mode of governance in Avnstrup.
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan beboere i Return Centre Avnstrup mister handleevne gennem den danske stats styring af hverdagslivet. Med et kvalitativt casestudie baseret på sekundære kilder kombinerer studiet Carol Bacchis WPR-tilgang (What’s the Problem Represented to Be?) med Braun og Clarkes tematiske analyse for at belyse, hvordan migrationsstyring ikke kun virker gennem lovgivning, men via regulering af kroppe, bevægelse, tid og daglige rutiner. Med udgangspunkt i Foucault viser analysen, at Avnstrup deler træk med Goffmans totalinstitutioner, men hverken kan forstås som en klassisk totalinstitution eller reduceres til civil død alene. Fundene peger på en systematisk erosion af handleevne på fire sammenhængende områder: bevægelse, fremtidsperspektiv, materielle vilkår og adgang til sundhed. På den baggrund introduceres begrebet handlingsdød som betegnelse for en tilstand, hvor mennesker forbliver biologisk i live, men gradvist mister den praktiske evne til at handle meningsfuldt i hverdagen. Afhandlingen argumenterer for, at udsendelsesstyring bevæger sig fra direkte udvisning mod indirekte former for tvang, hvor livet gøres stadig mere uleveligt for at fremtvinge “afrejse”, og bidrager dermed til kritiske debatter om deportation, indespærring og migrationsstyring ved at vise, hvordan erosionen af handleevne fungerer som en central styringsteknik i Avnstrup.
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