EASST panel (E01): Publics shaped and enacted by surveillance and border biotechnologies
Dear colleague,
We would like to invite you to submit proposals for papers to our panel at
EASST2018:Meetings - Making Science, Technology and Society together,
25-28th July 2018, Lancaster University, UK, entitled Publics shaped and
enacted by surveillance and border biotechnologies: Encountering "phantom
publics", "non-publics" and "counter publics" described in detail below.
The call for submissions closes February 14 2018.
Best regards,
Nina and Vasilis
(E01) Publics shaped and enacted by surveillance and border
biotechnologies: Encountering "phantom publics", "non-publics" and "counter
publics" Convenors
- Nina Amelung (University of Minho), e-mail: nina.amelung@ics.uminho.pt
- Vasilis Galis (IT University of Copenhagen ), e-mail: vgal@itu.dk
Short abstract
In this panel we ask what publics are shaped and enacted by national and
transnational surveillance and border biotechnologies and how can we study
them by mobilizing the conceptual and methodological repertoire of STS.
Long abstract
In Europe, policy decisions dictated by executive powers after 9/11 have
enabled new national and transnational surveillance and border
biotechnologies to take shape in the name of controlled migration and
preventing crime and terror. What publics are shaped and enacted by these
technologies and how can we study them by mobilizing the conceptual and
methodological repertoire of STS?
The modus operandi of pre-emptive security measures builds on decisions
calling upon what Gunnarsdóttir and Rommetveit termed "phantom publics"
instead of testing such decisions' grounding. If the new 'centers of
calculation' are the biometric data infrastructures of surveillance and
border biotechnologies how can publics hold them accountable?
An alternative take addresses categories deriving from the social sorting
of technologies. Differentiating between trusted and distrusted travelers,
low-risk and high-risk groups, documented and undocumented migrants have
been regarded as dynamic and contested concepts. Dijstelbloem and Broeders
have introduced the notion of "non-publics" to point to heterogeneous
publics with ambiguous access to exercise their rights. How can shifted
attention from pre-given classifications to ontological modifications of
categories provide a perspective on the empowering and disempowering
effects on publics?
A third perspective focusses on "counter publics". Enacting for instance
"subversive mobilities" or "temporary autonomous zones" by destabilizing or
subverting routines and scripts of surveillance and border biotechnologies
allows actors to claim rights and space that have either not yet been
formally granted or cannot be exercised. How can actions with the potential
to circumvent borders and surveillance create invigorated possibilities for
renegotiating their performative power?
https://nomadit.co.uk/easst/easst2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6183)
--
Nina Amelung
Research Fellow
Project EXCHANGE (2015-2020), funded by the European Research Council
(Grant agreement 648608)
exchange.ces.uc.pt
Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) | University of Minho,
Portugal
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