Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SECURITY FLOWS (Enacting border security in the digital age: political worlds of data forms, flows and frictions.)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-12-01 bis 2025-05-31
Today, we share data about ourselves almost constantly – often without realising it. At borders, data collection has intensified: migrants are identified, asylum applications are processed, and refugee status is granted or refused based on vast amounts of data. More and more actors collect and exchange this data. But what does this increased reliance on data mean for how borders are governed and secured? And what are the consequences for migrants themselves? What do these wide-ranging transformations mean for societies at large? The SECURITY FLOWS project investigates these political and social implications of these transformations. It asks how data affects decision-making, accountability, and access to rights – not just for migrants, but for all of us.
Why is it important for society?
Despite the growing importance of data, we still know too little about how data is collected, how it is used and by whom, and how it moves. While scholars have started to investigate specific institutions and databases, there has been no systematic research following the data to understand how data moves and changes as people move across social and political spaces. We still lack an understanding of the far-reaching consequences that data has for decision-making at borders, democratic accountability, migrants and citizens, and their fundamental rights. Wrong, mistaken or missing data can have serious consequences, especially for vulnerable people who do not have the financial and material resources to rectify mistakes, challenge errors, and enforce data protection and other rights. These are important questions for everyone who is wondering how the data they give – whether they are aware of it or not – can affect their lives, their rights and their participation in society.
What are the overall objectives?
The SECURITY FLOWS project explores how data is reshaping border security and what this means for people on the move, as well as for society more broadly. It is focused on four key objectives:
i) The project aims to rethink relations between data and knowledge in border governance and security. It challenges the idea that data automatically leads to knowledge. Instead, it shows that data can often obscure, obfuscate and disorient. The project analyses how knowing and not knowing are produced and shared among the many actors involved in border governance.
ii) The project proposes to develop an experimental multi-modal methodology of ‘following the data’ to analyse how data flows in practice, which forms of data are more amenable to movement, and which frictions emerge along the way. Using a combination of textual, archival, ethnographic and digital methods, the project traces the complex movements of data along the Eastern, Central and Western Mediterranean routes.
iii) As capacities of data collection, processing and exchange grow, they transform power relations between actors. Some actors become more central to border security, while others are pushed to the margins or even made invisible. The project examines how data changes decision-making and reshapes power relations between different actors, including migrants themselves.
iv)The project explores the ethical consequences of these wide-ranging transformations, especially for data protection and rights. It focuses on three key areas: who is accountable, how rights are upheld and how citizens and non-citizens alike can exercise agency in data-driven societies.
Why is it important for society?
Despite the growing importance of data, we still know too little about how data is collected, how it is used and by whom, and how it moves. While scholars have started to investigate specific institutions and databases, there has been no systematic research following the data to understand how data moves and changes as people move across social and political spaces. We still lack an understanding of the far-reaching consequences that data has for decision-making at borders, democratic accountability, migrants and citizens, and their fundamental rights. Wrong, mistaken or missing data can have serious consequences, especially for vulnerable people who do not have the financial and material resources to rectify mistakes, challenge errors, and enforce data protection and other rights. These are important questions for everyone who is wondering how the data they give – whether they are aware of it or not – can affect their lives, their rights and their participation in society.
What are the overall objectives?
The SECURITY FLOWS project explores how data is reshaping border security and what this means for people on the move, as well as for society more broadly. It is focused on four key objectives:
i) The project aims to rethink relations between data and knowledge in border governance and security. It challenges the idea that data automatically leads to knowledge. Instead, it shows that data can often obscure, obfuscate and disorient. The project analyses how knowing and not knowing are produced and shared among the many actors involved in border governance.
ii) The project proposes to develop an experimental multi-modal methodology of ‘following the data’ to analyse how data flows in practice, which forms of data are more amenable to movement, and which frictions emerge along the way. Using a combination of textual, archival, ethnographic and digital methods, the project traces the complex movements of data along the Eastern, Central and Western Mediterranean routes.
iii) As capacities of data collection, processing and exchange grow, they transform power relations between actors. Some actors become more central to border security, while others are pushed to the margins or even made invisible. The project examines how data changes decision-making and reshapes power relations between different actors, including migrants themselves.
iv)The project explores the ethical consequences of these wide-ranging transformations, especially for data protection and rights. It focuses on three key areas: who is accountable, how rights are upheld and how citizens and non-citizens alike can exercise agency in data-driven societies.
The SECURITY FLOWS project proposed conceptual and methodological advances to investigate how data shapes border security and governance. Theoretically, the project advanced a critical understanding of what data is, what can be known from data, and how data is processed and exchanged. Methodologically, the project combined methods of textual analysis, archival methods, and digital methods with ethnographic research and interviews. Politically, the research explored how data reconfigures power relations and decision-making. Ethically, it asked questions about what data means for accountability, access to rights, and agency.
The project has demonstrated that what counts as data varies significantly across actors. In some cases, actors even avoid the terminology of data and use alternatives such as ‘evidence’ or ‘information’. While data is often associated with efficiency, speed, and precision, SECURITY FLOWS has shown that data frequently contains errors, is opaque, and is produced in formats that are difficult for non-experts to understand. The research analysed how data and digital technologies at borders can, paradoxically, hinder rather than facilitate access to rights and information. Furthermore, the project explained how data collection and processing are not only done by governmental and non-governmental actors; migrants themselves are compelled to do ‘invisible data work’. This includes gathering, managing and presenting data – frequently with the necessary tools, resources, or institutional support.
The SECURITY FLOWS team have actively disseminated the research through participation in over 50 conferences, workshops, seminars and public events. They have collaborated with civil society organisations to communicate and share research findings. The project has produced a substantial body of work, with over 20 journal articles and book chapters, as well as the monograph Algorithmic Reason: The New Government of Self and Other. To promote interdisciplinary conversations, the research curated two special issues that brought together scholars from diverse fields, with a third issue currently in preparation. These efforts have significantly contributed to shaping a programme of research on data, borders, and security.
The project has demonstrated that what counts as data varies significantly across actors. In some cases, actors even avoid the terminology of data and use alternatives such as ‘evidence’ or ‘information’. While data is often associated with efficiency, speed, and precision, SECURITY FLOWS has shown that data frequently contains errors, is opaque, and is produced in formats that are difficult for non-experts to understand. The research analysed how data and digital technologies at borders can, paradoxically, hinder rather than facilitate access to rights and information. Furthermore, the project explained how data collection and processing are not only done by governmental and non-governmental actors; migrants themselves are compelled to do ‘invisible data work’. This includes gathering, managing and presenting data – frequently with the necessary tools, resources, or institutional support.
The SECURITY FLOWS team have actively disseminated the research through participation in over 50 conferences, workshops, seminars and public events. They have collaborated with civil society organisations to communicate and share research findings. The project has produced a substantial body of work, with over 20 journal articles and book chapters, as well as the monograph Algorithmic Reason: The New Government of Self and Other. To promote interdisciplinary conversations, the research curated two special issues that brought together scholars from diverse fields, with a third issue currently in preparation. These efforts have significantly contributed to shaping a programme of research on data, borders, and security.
SECURITY FLOWS was the first research project to systematically explore how data shapes border practices in Europe, focusing on interdisciplinary research and a methodology of ‘following the data’.
A major achievement of SECURITY FLOWS was the creation of an interdisciplinary framework that brings together insights from critical border and security studies, critical data studies, and science and technology studies. This framework has opened up new areas of inquiry, including the study of non-knowledge and border agnotologies agnotologies, digital methods, and the frictions and controversies surrounding data practices. The project’s conceptual contributions are captured in the book Algorithmic Reason: The New Government of Self and Other, which rethinks the implications of data and algorithms for the concepts used in social and political research. The project also introduced the analytical lens of ‘invisible data work’ to analyse how data-extractive technologies depend on unpaid and uncounted work, which migrants often have to undertake without the necessary tools and resources.
Methodologically, SECURITY FLOWS broke new ground by introducing digital methods into critical border and security studies, challenging traditional divides between qualitative and quantitative research. Another important methodological innovation was the use of legal and patent web archives.
A major achievement of SECURITY FLOWS was the creation of an interdisciplinary framework that brings together insights from critical border and security studies, critical data studies, and science and technology studies. This framework has opened up new areas of inquiry, including the study of non-knowledge and border agnotologies agnotologies, digital methods, and the frictions and controversies surrounding data practices. The project’s conceptual contributions are captured in the book Algorithmic Reason: The New Government of Self and Other, which rethinks the implications of data and algorithms for the concepts used in social and political research. The project also introduced the analytical lens of ‘invisible data work’ to analyse how data-extractive technologies depend on unpaid and uncounted work, which migrants often have to undertake without the necessary tools and resources.
Methodologically, SECURITY FLOWS broke new ground by introducing digital methods into critical border and security studies, challenging traditional divides between qualitative and quantitative research. Another important methodological innovation was the use of legal and patent web archives.