Infrastructures manage the circulation of materials, knowledge, data, values, and people; they safeguard security for some and create insecurity for others. But how do visions, narratives and politics of threat reinforce and stabilize infrastructural practices and discourses? The book focuses on three key dimensions of infrastructures of in/security in Europe: techno-politics of in/security, (non)knowledge, and sociotechnical imaginaries. The chapters focus on biosecurity, energy security, border control, global health- and AI governance. Together, they are examples of how European infrastructures of in/security materialize, are contested and (re-)imagined.

Processing Citizenship team members have contributed with two open access chapters:

Klimburg-Witjes, Nina, and Paul Trauttmansdorff. 2023. “Making Europe through Infrastructures of in/Security. An Introduction”

Pelizza, Annalisa. 2023. “Securitizing the infrastructural Europe, infrastructuring a securitized Europe.”

You can find both here.

The post New Publications in “Technopolitics and the Making of Europe” appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

1.
Whispering time’s grasp,
Borders crumble, knowledge blooms,
Fragility’s art.

2.
Fleeting temporal,
Boundaries fade, wisdom roams,
Fragile dance of truth.

3.
Whispers of the clock,
Borders vanish, knowledge soars,
Fragility’s muse.

(Can ChatGPT do good haiku? Well… see for yourself! These are three ChatGPT haiku based on panel descriptions from the conference!)

The Final Conference of the Processing Citizenship project was held on 26th and 27th June 2023 at the “Sala Rossa” of the Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, University of Bologna. This event marked the culmination of over six years of dedicated research and writing, undertaken by a team that has included twelve team members in various capacities and time periods over the years. The central aim of the conference was to provide a platform for sharing ideas, exchanging concepts, generating knowledge, and offering fresh perspectives, while also reuniting friends, partners, and colleagues across diverse fields who have been associated with the Project throughout its duration. We wanted to create an environment for presentations, debate, and dialogue that not only showcased the project’s outcomes but also enabled us to engage with novel insights and perspectives from our colleagues.

Throughout the project’s journey, the complex but omnipresent concept of “crisis” served as an underlying theme. The origins of Processing Citizenship can be traced back to the aftermath of what was termed the “European migration crisis,” a response to the events that unfolded during the summer of migration in 2015. However, the project navigated through multiple crises, including the financial crisis, the upheaval brought on by the global pandemic, war, and geopolitical shifts with far-reaching consequences on continental mobility. Our discussions made it clear to us how crises have shaped and reoriented the research trajectories of the project, its investigation of migration management, digital registration practices, border regimes, and even state-building processes. And, as one of the conference panels suggested, European migration control and border regimes are not only shaped but seem to exist within a perpetual state of crisis.

Crises can, furthermore, propel the adoption of emerging technologies, as exemplified by the rapid proliferation of biometrics in the context of migration and border control in the aftermath of critical incidents. In moments of crisis, authorities may look for innovative technological solutions, and enterprises specializing in migration and border control technologies may find themselves strategically positioned to capitalize on these opportunities. In the aftermath, those transformative shifts may even reverberate across the identity management landscape, spanning transnational, supranational, and commercial spheres. This theme was explored in depth in Panel 2, where participants demonstrated how such shifts ultimately can have long-term effects on states’ identification of people on the move. Through diverse viewpoints, the panel fostered a nuanced comprehension of such evolutionary trajectories of identity software, its historical underpinnings of technologies and that used to train them, the politics surrounding identity data, and the pragmatic realities that states and companies deal with in the use of migration and border control technologies.

In order to allow researchers, practitioners and members of non-state organizations to share their insights, PC team divided talks into three panels and a final roundtable, to delve deeper into research outputs and develop further questions. During the first panel, titled “The Production of Crisis and Fragility”, speakers moved from the idea that Border regimes are assemblages of humans and things, policies and institutions subjected to breakdowns, fragility and moments of perceived crisis. Our speakers, involving Bernd Kasparek, Mariia Shaidrova, Rocco Bellanova, Lorenzo Olivieri, and Sally Wyatt as discussant, addressed the issue of fragility by considering it not only as a substantial feature or property of situations but also as a condition emerging from the constantly changing web of relations defining those situations. We then built our discussions around the following questions: when do borders become more fragile? What are the factors and actors that make them fragile? Fragility for whom? To give few examples, how did the pandemic – a situation of global ‘crisis’ – affected people trying to enter Europe? How is the European border regime dealing with the war in Ukraine?

In the second panel, titled “Management of identities in transnational, supranational, and commercial reconfigurations”, we welcomed talks by Matthias Leese, Nina Dewi Toft Djanegara, Roelof Troost and Wouter Van Rossem, and Lucy Suchman and Stefan Kuhlmann as discussants. During the discussion, our speakers focused on how transnational, supranational, and commercial contexts reconfigure knowledge production and the management of identity data of people on the move. The panel adopted an overtly material perspective, and in particular stemmed from the materiality debate in critical security studies, Science and Technology Studies, and beyond, and inquired as to whether or not the practices and infrastructures of identification in international contexts also constitute the meanings of (in)security.

The third panel, titled “Data circulations: Rethinking Sovereignty, Territory, and Citizenship”, opened the discussion starting from one of the main relevant theoretical elaborations from Processing Citizenship research, namely the idea that in order to make individuals legible and process them as “alterity”, data are deeply entangled with the oppressive and violent conditions at borders but also provide the grounds for acts of empowerment and citizenship. The speakers, including Nina Amelung, Huub Dijstelbloem, Silvia Masiero, Chiara Loschi, Annalisa Pelizza, and Paul Trauttmansdorff, whose presentations have been discussed by Aristotle Tympas and Paul N. Edwards, stimulated and contribute to the debate around the idea on how our traditional understanding of sovereignty, territory, or citizenship is transformed and foregrounds the multiple rationales, infrastructures and technologies, values, ideologies, and visions of data production and circulation in border regimes.

One of the core goals of Processing Citizenship has been to unpack the assumption that people on the move and polities are co-constituted. The co-constitution of individuals and polities is revealed clearly in the sociotechnical management of mobile populations. For the final roundtable, the PI selected three types of findings from the whole Project that illustrate as many cases in which the enactment of people on the move through data infrastructures and practices simultaneously revealed some shifts in the European order. She named these cases 1) epistemic priority; 2) competing chains of data and metadata; 3) informational division of labor. The roundtable used this evidence to ask where power asymmetry lies in the co-constitution of individuals and polities. It is undeniable that border relationships – not only between people on the move and authorities but among a wide variety of actors –  are characterized by power asymmetries. And yet it is less clear whether power asymmetries are the transient outcome of situated encounters, or they are stabilized beyond contingency. Drawing on their own research in diverse fields, participants to the roundtable Noortje Marres, Lucy Suchman, Aristotle Tympas, and Sally Wyatt were asked to reflect on whether asymmetries pre-exist the asymmetrical encounter – and therefore how we can value the situated production of power, or whether they are enacted each time anew – and therefore how we can account for the existence of actors who systematically exert power over other actors.

Thanks to all participants for these two days of generous exchange, and thanks to those following the works online. Despite all the above-mentioned crises, over the years the Processing Citizenship Project has gathered a generous and insightful community of colleagues, practitioners, students, people on the move, social workers, lawyers, officers, and developers. Not all of those who supported us over the years could attend the final conference, and it would be impossible to count them all. In particular, thanks to the people who shared their knowledge, expectations, distress and hope with us. We – Annalisa, Chiara, Lorenzo, Paul and Wouter – hope we can honor their living experience with the stories we told and will continue to tell in our writings, and also with the connections we will continue to nurture.

Picture credits © Chiara Dazi www.chiaradazi.com  www.instagram.com/frau_loesung

« ‹ of 2 › »

The post The Processing Citizenship Final Conference: A Report appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

You can read the article here.

The post Press release about Processing Citizenship appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

Started in 2017, the Processing Citizenship project (https://processingcitizenship.eu/) will reach an end in August 2023. Twelve team members have worked on the project over these years and many members of the Advisory Board. A dozen supporters inside and outside academia have provided their invaluable help in networking with gatekeepers, enabling access to research fields, pointing to ongoing developments, reviewing drafts or disseminating results. Around a hundred participants have shared their perspectives in interviews, observations, documents, or informal conversations. More than a thousand readers have honored our published work. This final conference of Processing Citizenship is meant to say thank you to all of them.

During these years, we have shared ideas and built concepts together with scholars from diverse fields such as migration studies, STS, computer sciences, border studies, human geography, critical security studies, philosophy and history of technology, organization studies, semantic web and AI, EU studies, political science, law, and international relations. Each time, it took a moment to come together and create a form of knowledge that worked as a boundary object. Each time, we came to see things in a different light. With our colleagues from these fields, we wish to share the results of our endeavours during two days of presentations, debates, dialogues, roundtables and break-outs. And to listen to their own recent developments.

You can register for online attendance here: https://eventi.unibo.it/processingcitizenship/registration-online-attendance and you will immediately receive the videocall URL.

We look forward to welcoming you!

The post ERC Processing Citizenship final conference, June 26-27 2023, University of Bologna appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

In a new article, titled “Telling ‘more complex stories’ of European integration: how a sociotechnical perspective can help explain administrative continuity in the Common European Asylum System“, Annalisa Pelizza and Chiara Loschi explain an apparent paradox in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS): despite political stalemate over CEAS legislative reform and lack of trust amongst MSs, administrative cooperation shows operational continuity. Drawing on the ‘Infrastructural Europeanism’ approach, we argue that a sociotechnical perspective allows to detect the material means that operationally provide continuity to administrative action, despite policy gaps. It reveals mediating agency exerted by less visible actors who are nevertheless crucial to the integration process. Through a sociotechnical lens, alleged integration failures – like in the post-2015 asylum crisis – can reveal operational cooperation not visible if only legislative outcomes are taken into account. Empirically, the article shows how the International Organization for Migration assumed a role in mediating relocations between MSs, overcoming an implementation gap in health data circulation, thanks to its data infrastructure able to prompt data production, harmonize administrative standardization and build continuity in time.

The article is published Open Access in the journal Journal of European Public Policy.

The post NEW PUBLICATION: Telling ‘more complex stories’ of European integration: how a sociotechnical perspective can help explain administrative continuity in the Common European Asylum System appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

Having launched the call for papers on November 2022, the joint committee STS-MIGTEC and ERC Processing Citizenship team selected papers and organized a total number of six panels. Scholars at different career stages presented their ongoing and published research contributions at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS), critical migration, security, surveillance and border studies.

On the morning of the 22nd, during a roundtable discussion, Annalisa Pelizza, Aristotle Tympas, and Koen Leurs discussed experiences in grant writing, creating scholarly networks and collaboration, and publication strategies for scholars in the fields of STS, critical border and migration studies.

These were the final panels:

• Panel #1: Emerging Models of Digital Identity in Migration Governance, Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance. Convenors: Aaron Martin (Maastricht University & Tilburg University, Netherlands), Margie Cheesman (King’s College London, UK), Emrys Schoemaker (The Graduate Institute Geneva, Switzerland; London School of Economics, UK; Cornell Tech, USA), Keren Weitzberg (Queen Mary University of London, UK)

• Panel #2: Mediatizing claim making, publics, and citizenship. On ambivalent technologies for migrants on the move. Convenors: Silvan Pollozek (European University Viadrina, Germany), Maria Ullrich (University of Bonn, Germany), Olga Usachova (University of Padova, Italy)

• Panel #3: Law, Technology and Border Control. Convenors: Francisco Pereira Coutinho, Emellin de Oliveira (NOVA School of Law, Portugal)

• Panel #4: Situating long-term implications of registering and identifying practices. Convenors: Chiara Loschi, Annalisa Pelizza, Paul Trauttmansdorff (University of Bologna, Italy)

• Open panel #1: Viapolitics, knowledge production, and migratory appropriations. Moderators: Nina Amelung (University of Lisbon, Portugal), Silvan Pollozek (European University Viadrina, Germany)

• Open panel #2: Data assemblages, algorithmic governance, and migrant re-presentations. Moderators: Ivan Josipovic (University of Vienna, Austria), Paul Trauttmansdorff (University of Bologna, Italy)

The organizers of the workshop together with the panel conveners decided to reschedule Panel #1, on 30 march 2023, due to the situation of strike action taking place at UK universities throughout the workshop days of March 21-22. The solution should express solidarity with the struggle against precarious working conditions at universities and in academia, in the UK and beyond.

We wish to share with you some pictures taken during these intense and thought-provoking days!

The post STS-Migtec & Processing Citizenship joint workshop has materialized! appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

The scenario is published Open Access under the following link: http://www.tecnoscienza.net/index.php/tsj/article/view/531

Keywords: border studies; migration studies; security studies; border multiple; data infrastructures

The post New Publication: “Borders, Migration, and Technology in the Age of Security: Intervening with STS” appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

If you would like to attend the event (in Bologna or online), please register your interest by emailing to migtec.website@gmail.com by March 17 with the subject: Workshop.

The workshop will host six panels and one round-table session. Click here to check the full program.

Open Panel1. Viapolitics, knowledge production, and migratory appropriations

Open Panel2. Data assemblages, algorithmic governance, and migrant re-presentations

Panel #1. Emerging Models of Digital Identity in Migration Governance, Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance

Panel #2. Mediatizing claim making, publics, and citizenship. On ambivalent technologies for migrants on the move

Panel #3. Law, Technology and Border Control

Panel #4. Situating long-term implications of registering and identifying practices

Roundtable session: “Establishing an academic career: grant applications, international networks, publication strategies”

The post Program STSMigTec/Processing Citizenship Workshop 2023 appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

The members of Processing Citizenship are pleased to invite abstract submission to two panels.

Panel 42: Revisiting identification and registration of humans and more-than-humans: long-term perspectives and implications, organized by Chiara Loschi; Annalisa Pelizza; Paul Trauttmansdorff

Panel 10: Games, experiments and redesign – Testing STS multimodal approaches, organized by Lorenzo Olivieri; Annalisa Pelizza; Claudio Coletta

Deadline for abstract submission: January 15, 2023.
Abstract should be sent through the conference platform.
Notification of abstract acceptance/rejection: February 20, 2023.

The post STS Italia Conference 2023 – Bologna 28-30 June appeared first on Processing Citizenship.

You can submit your papers either to specific thematic panels (please find details here) or to open panels:
Panel #1. Emerging Models of Digital Identity in Migration Governance, Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance
Panel #2. Mediatizing claim making, publics, and citizenship. On ambivalent technologies for migrants on the move
Panel #3. Law, Technology and Border Control
Panel #4. Situating long-term implications of registering and identifying practices
Open Panels. Assemble papers addressing the themes above

Schedule
– 15 December 2022 – Deadline to submit paper abstracts
– 10 January 2023 – Notification about acceptance of papers
– 06 March 2023 – Deadline to submit short papers (of approximately 4000 words)
– 21–22 March 2023 – Workshop (hybrid)

Fees & travel grants
There is no workshop fee. Lunch, coffee breaks and dinner need to be paid individually.
A total of 10 travel/accommodation grants of max. 500 Euros each will be offered by the ERC research group Processing Citizenship to scholars who seek financial support to attend the event. If you wish to apply for a grant, please indicate your interest with your submission. The grants aim to support researchers who lack funding otherwise.

The post Joint STS-MIGTEC and Processing Citizenship Workshop 2023 appeared first on Processing Citizenship.