Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DATAUNION (The European Data Union: European Security Integration through Database Interoperability)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2025-03-31
EU policy-makers are constructing a European Data Union. Its ambition is database interoperability with information stored in autonomous databases becoming interconnected and available to authorities across Europe. However, database interoperability is not a mere technical fix, but an inherently political process. In the design of existing and future databases lays the foundations of future European security integration and the redefinition of some of its core dimensions: security practices, institutional governance, and relation to fundamental rights. Despite its political importance, little is known about how database interoperability actually structures and re-arranges modern power relations. The construction of the European Data Union, as one of the largest real-life experiments of database interoperability, represents a fascinating opportunity to unpack this issue. Hence, the DATAUNION project will pursue four objectives: (1) Theorizing the socio-material practices that underpin database interoperability through the innovative notion of security tinkering, defined as the processes through which conflicts and solutions related to database interoperability are addressed, dodged or solved; (2) Developing a ground-breaking multi-modal approach bringing Critical Making Practices to the study of security practices in order to retrace how database interoperability is implemented on the ground; (3) Delivering new empirical knowledge on the processes and challenges of all three main European interoperability initiatives, and how they shape the future of European security integration; and (4) Evaluating the ethico-political implications of the construction of the European Data Union. Overall, the DATAUNION project will transform Critical Security Studies’ conceptual and methodological repertoire and will have a major impact on International Relations’ and EU Studies’ understanding of the role of digital technologies in European security integration.
During the first two years of the project, DATAUNION has carried out several activities in relation to its conceptual, methodological and empirical objectives. Notably, the team has been strengthening its conceptual toolbox, also to ensure that all researchers (despite diverse backgrounds) share a common conceptual vocabulary at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), critical approaches to European security, Media Theory and Law. The DATAUNION PI is currently co-editing a special issue on interoperability in a leading interdisciplinary journal and has co-convened panels in international academic conferences to unravel the potential of concepts at the heart of DATAUNION. In terms of methodology, the team is currently exploring the feasibility and value-added of research practices developed in digital humanities and arts to supplement more established qualitative methods in in social sciences. Finally, the team has started empirical research, notably the collection of documentary sources, and fieldwork preparation. Besides, DATAUNION has been fostering cross-disciplinary scholarly conversations, and engaging with diverse stakeholders and policy-makers. Finally, the above-mentioned activities have already led to the first scientific publications, while others are currently under preparation or finalisation.
At present, the project team is still carrying out empirical research and fine-tuning the multi-modal approach. We therefore expect to obtain the most notable results in the second half of the project. Work in relation to the ethico-political objective is expected to be carried out in the latter phase of the project. However, the work already carried out during the first two years of the project shows promising results. For instance, DATAUNION is participating in steering a cross-disciplinary conversation on database interoperability and its increasing relevance – in political, legal and technical terms – for policies across and beyond Europe. As such, it contributes to forefront how studying the (re)design and implementation of data infrastructures, and their interconnection beyond diverse kinds of boundaries, is as important – for our societies - as the introduction of Artificial Intelligence.