IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperResearchpeer-review

Standard

IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border. / Møhl, Perle.

2017. Paper presented at PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperResearchpeer-review

Harvard

Møhl, P 2017, 'IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border', Paper presented at PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 28/08/2017 - 30/08/2017.

APA

Møhl, P. (2017). IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border. Paper presented at PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Vancouver

Møhl P. IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border. 2017. Paper presented at PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Author

Møhl, Perle. / IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border. Paper presented at PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Bibtex

@conference{80c25b19a92c4a0ab252f609b659ca11,
title = "IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border",
abstract = "Based on ethnographic fieldwork among border control agents at a Schengen border point, the paper explores the linkages and dissociations between human and computer intelligence work in the daily operation of border control where voyagers are profiled, their IDs verified and their intentions scrutinized. In accordance with the critique of a trend in research on surveillance systems that sees ”big data”, data base networks and the production and storing of ”data doubles” (Lyon 2007, 2014) as impenetrable ”black boxes” operating in far-away centres of computerized algorithmic intelligence (Andrejevic & Gates 2014; Tsianos & Kuster 2016), my analysis takes an ethnographic approach to the practical work of border control agents. And on the floor where borders are erected and maintained on a daily basis, surveillance, control and data base consulting are indeed very practical and mundane matters, constantly articulated and made apparent to the anthropologist through direct sensory, verbal and affective encounters, negotiations and construction of narratives. The filtering at the border is thus to a large extent produced through direct human interaction, intelligence and profiling, and concerns imagined pasts and projected futures of voyagers, scenarios for which data doubles and “IDentity” constitute only the crude starting points.",
keywords = "Faculty of Social Sciences, border control, data, biometric technologies, intuition, police studies, plausible stories",
author = "Perle M{\o}hl",
year = "2017",
month = aug,
day = "28",
language = "English",
note = "PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology ; Conference date: 28-08-2017 Through 30-08-2017",
url = "https://pacsa-web.eu/pacsa-meeting-2017-amsterdam/",

}

RIS

TY - CONF

T1 - IDentity, crude data and narrative at the border

AU - Møhl, Perle

PY - 2017/8/28

Y1 - 2017/8/28

N2 - Based on ethnographic fieldwork among border control agents at a Schengen border point, the paper explores the linkages and dissociations between human and computer intelligence work in the daily operation of border control where voyagers are profiled, their IDs verified and their intentions scrutinized. In accordance with the critique of a trend in research on surveillance systems that sees ”big data”, data base networks and the production and storing of ”data doubles” (Lyon 2007, 2014) as impenetrable ”black boxes” operating in far-away centres of computerized algorithmic intelligence (Andrejevic & Gates 2014; Tsianos & Kuster 2016), my analysis takes an ethnographic approach to the practical work of border control agents. And on the floor where borders are erected and maintained on a daily basis, surveillance, control and data base consulting are indeed very practical and mundane matters, constantly articulated and made apparent to the anthropologist through direct sensory, verbal and affective encounters, negotiations and construction of narratives. The filtering at the border is thus to a large extent produced through direct human interaction, intelligence and profiling, and concerns imagined pasts and projected futures of voyagers, scenarios for which data doubles and “IDentity” constitute only the crude starting points.

AB - Based on ethnographic fieldwork among border control agents at a Schengen border point, the paper explores the linkages and dissociations between human and computer intelligence work in the daily operation of border control where voyagers are profiled, their IDs verified and their intentions scrutinized. In accordance with the critique of a trend in research on surveillance systems that sees ”big data”, data base networks and the production and storing of ”data doubles” (Lyon 2007, 2014) as impenetrable ”black boxes” operating in far-away centres of computerized algorithmic intelligence (Andrejevic & Gates 2014; Tsianos & Kuster 2016), my analysis takes an ethnographic approach to the practical work of border control agents. And on the floor where borders are erected and maintained on a daily basis, surveillance, control and data base consulting are indeed very practical and mundane matters, constantly articulated and made apparent to the anthropologist through direct sensory, verbal and affective encounters, negotiations and construction of narratives. The filtering at the border is thus to a large extent produced through direct human interaction, intelligence and profiling, and concerns imagined pasts and projected futures of voyagers, scenarios for which data doubles and “IDentity” constitute only the crude starting points.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - border control

KW - data

KW - biometric technologies

KW - intuition

KW - police studies

KW - plausible stories

M3 - Paper

T2 - PACSA - 6th Bi-Annual Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology

Y2 - 28 August 2017 through 30 August 2017

ER -

ID: 186714915