Spatium Mutans: Event‐Level Chronotopic Alignments and Moral Deontic Stance in Mobile Interviews With Border‐Crossing Facilitators

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how two border‐crossing facilitators construct moral legitimacy across four recorded journey segments—two outbound and two return—between Italy and Austria. Mobility provides the organizing condition: journey direction, passenger copresence, and the vehicle setting shape the moral accounts available in talk. The facilitators take up chronotopic figures produced in response to recurring prompts and use them as stance objects. These figures condense recognizable scenes of passage, illegality, outlawry, and rescue. Through stance‐taking, speakers evaluate border regimes, position themselves as necessary or principled actors, and align against institutional authority. Deontic stance turns these evaluations into warrants for action, as claims about risk, unjust law, and necessity become claims about what must or may be done. Outbound segments foreground risk management and the production of migrant “illegality”; return segments foreground retrospective justification and moral elevation. The article contributes an event‐level account of chronotopic alignment in mobile interview settings and shows how moral authority is built through figurative talk under legal ambiguity.