Technik als Politik.

Zur Transformation gegenwärtiger Grenzregimes der EU

  • Stefan Kaufmann

Abstract

The article focuses from a micro-political perspective on the fundamental change taking place within contemporary border regimes. It asks for the political dimensions of the technological upgrading of surveillance and control of the border. It will be demonstrated that the modes of producing security are in no way of homogeneous political nature. Firstly, there is a kind of military-style politics of radical exclusion and walling-off at work, which can be observed in the technology and the aligned institutional and tactical aspects of the SIVE-project. Secondly, border protection, e. g., on airports or at the Eurotunnel operates with step-by-step procedures and a machine-like mode of producing suspicion, seeming to produce a high degree of democratic and liberal legitimacy. Thirdly, with the combination of biometric identification and data bank management the mode of producing security tends to result in authoritarian surveillance and control. However, this in no way is the permanent operational mode of surveillance and control, but it is one control-level within a flexible regime, able to turn rapidly from liberal to authoritarian modes of political regulation.

Available Formats

Published

2008

How to Cite

Kaufmann, S. (2008). Technik als Politik.: Zur Transformation gegenwärtiger Grenzregimes der EU. Comparativ, 18(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.26014/j.comp.2008.01.04