On humanitarian refugee biometrics and new forms of intervention
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On humanitarian refugee biometrics and new forms of intervention. / Jacobsen, Katja Lindskov.
In: Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Vol. 11, No. 4, 17.07.2017, p. 529-551.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - On humanitarian refugee biometrics and new forms of intervention
AU - Jacobsen, Katja Lindskov
PY - 2017/7/17
Y1 - 2017/7/17
N2 - This article traces a development from UNHCR's initial use of biometrics in a few pilot projects (early/mid-2000s), to the emergence of a UNHCR policy where biometric registration is considered a "strategic decision". Next it engages key insights from current debates about 'materiality' and agentic capacity in combination with current debates about new forms of intervention. Finally, these insights are combined into a framework through which the last part of the article engages critically with this development of humanitarian refugee biometrics by posing the following question: how does an approach to technology that takes seriously the idea of matter as capable of agentic capacity enhance our appreciation of the ways in which these humanitarian technology may contribute to the emergence of new forms of intervention. Through an analysis of how the emergence of a new type of data, namely digitalised biometric refugee data, has affected the relationship between UNHCR, donor states, host states and refugees, the article shows how UNHCR's trialling of new biometric technologies,combined with actual and potential data-sharing practices, has advanced thetechnology's performance as well as its acceptability, whilst at the same time also rendering new dimensions of refugee life interveneable - not only to humanitarian actors.
AB - This article traces a development from UNHCR's initial use of biometrics in a few pilot projects (early/mid-2000s), to the emergence of a UNHCR policy where biometric registration is considered a "strategic decision". Next it engages key insights from current debates about 'materiality' and agentic capacity in combination with current debates about new forms of intervention. Finally, these insights are combined into a framework through which the last part of the article engages critically with this development of humanitarian refugee biometrics by posing the following question: how does an approach to technology that takes seriously the idea of matter as capable of agentic capacity enhance our appreciation of the ways in which these humanitarian technology may contribute to the emergence of new forms of intervention. Through an analysis of how the emergence of a new type of data, namely digitalised biometric refugee data, has affected the relationship between UNHCR, donor states, host states and refugees, the article shows how UNHCR's trialling of new biometric technologies,combined with actual and potential data-sharing practices, has advanced thetechnology's performance as well as its acceptability, whilst at the same time also rendering new dimensions of refugee life interveneable - not only to humanitarian actors.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - intervention
KW - experimentation
KW - humanitarian biometrics
KW - assemblages of intervention
KW - science and technology studies
KW - critical security studies
U2 - 10.1080/17502977.2017.1347856
DO - 10.1080/17502977.2017.1347856
M3 - Journal article
VL - 11
SP - 529
EP - 551
JO - Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
JF - Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
SN - 1750-2977
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 180504211