Dagmar Vorlíček | University of Vienna (original) (raw)
Papers by Dagmar Vorlíček
Routledge eBooks, Jul 12, 2023
European Journal of International Relations
COVID-19 has exposed profound governance challenges that demand more diverse and creative approac... more COVID-19 has exposed profound governance challenges that demand more diverse and creative approaches to global health governance moving forward. This article works towards such a pluralization of the field by foregrounding the vital role played by heterodox actors during the pandemic. Heterodox global health actors are backgrounded actors who improve health in different parts of the world, but who remain politically marginalized – and epistemically invisibilized – because they depart in crucial respects from the liberal orthodoxy pervading the field of global health governance. The article analytically foregrounds those heterodox actors through an architectural inversion – a relational approach to the study of global health governance that builds upon recent methodological insights from postcolonial studies, infrastructure studies, and science and technology studies. The article then harnesses that methodological approach to empirically investigate the COVID-19 activities of three d...
Czech Journal of International Relations
The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of thepandemic and disinformation as a ... more The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of thepandemic and disinformation as a new source of insecurity on a globalscale. How can we make sense – analytically and politically– of this newlypoliticized nexus of public health, information management, and globalsecurity? This article proposes approaching the phenomenon of theinfodemic as an intersecting securitization of information disorder andhealth governance. Specifically, it argues that there are two distinct framesof security mobilized in the context of infodemic governance: informationas a disease and information as a weapon. Drawing on literatures on globalhealth and the emerging research on disinformation, the paper situates thetwo framings of the infodemic in broader discourses on the medicalizationof security, and securitization of information disorder, respectively. Thearticle critically reflects on each framing and offers some preliminarythoughts on how to approach the entanglements of health, security, a...
Science and Engineering Ethics, 2021
Although big-data research has met with multiple controversies in diverse fields, political and s... more Although big-data research has met with multiple controversies in diverse fields, political and security implications of big data in life sciences have received less attention. This paper explores how threats and risks are anticipated and acted on in biobanking, which builds research repositories for biomedical samples and data. Focusing on the biggest harmonisation cluster of biomedical research in Europe, BBMRI-ERIC, the paper analyses different logics of risk in the anticipatory discourse on biobanking. Based on document analysis, interviews with ELSI experts, and field research, three types of framing of risk are reconstructed: data security, privacy, and data misuse. The paper finds that these logics downplay the broader social and political context and reflects on the limits of the practices of anticipatory governance in biobanking. It argues that this regime of governance can make it difficult for biobanks to address possible future challenges, such as access to biomedical da...
Social Studies of Science, 2020
Science and technology play a central role in the contemporary governance of security, both as to... more Science and technology play a central role in the contemporary governance of security, both as tools for the production of security and as objects of security concern. Scholars are increasingly seeking to not only critically reflect on the interplays between science, technology and security, but also engage with the practices of security communities that shape and are shaped by science and technology. To further help this growth of interest in security topics within science and technology studies (STS), we explore possible modes of socio-technical collaboration with security communities of practice. Bringing together literatures from STS and critical security studies, we identify several key challenges to critical social engagement of STS scholars in security-related issues. We then demonstrate how these challenges played out over the course of three case studies from our own experience in engaging security communities of practice. We use these vignettes to show that there is a rich...
New Perspectives, 2018
The rise of ‘information disorder’ that undermines Western political principles has become one of... more The rise of ‘information disorder’ that undermines Western political principles has become one of the key political concerns in today's Europe and United States and led to searching for new solutions to the problem of how to fight the spread of mis- and dis-information. The challenges of information disorder, however, are increasingly perceived as a part of the information war – which involves the intentional Russian propaganda using new media. Yet who gets to help our societies build resilience against the information war? This research looks at how this novel problematization of security affects the politics of security expertise. Or, who gains power in this ‘battle for truth'? Building on sociological approaches in security studies, this paper focuses on the Czech Republic as a country that has become very active in the fight against disinformation and analyses the network of actors recognized as providing security expertise on information warfare. Based on social network...
Socially Responsible Innovation in Security, 2018
Security Dialogue, 2016
Fears of malicious non-state actors and potentially dangerous research have given rise to new eff... more Fears of malicious non-state actors and potentially dangerous research have given rise to new efforts to secure science against misuse. With the rapid advancements of science, what receives attention in security politics is how to oversee not only material and technology but also knowledge. This article explores the emerging security governance of knowledgeable practices in life sciences and critically reflects on its possible implications. The article first contextualizes the current understanding of the dual-use dilemma in life sciences in prior discourse on science–security relations and argues that security concerns have converged with ethical dilemmas related to the governing of science. Drawing on critical theory, security studies and science studies, it then conceptualizes dual use as a problem of organizing circulations and suggests that policing scientific knowledge through the establishment of a ‘culture of responsibility’ can be understood as a part of broader shifts towa...
Czech Journal of International Relations, 2020
Thinking on war, violence and security has always been associated with concepts of femininity and... more Thinking on war, violence and security has always been associated with concepts of femininity and masculinity. Similarly, wars and political transformations also change the notions of the roles of women and men in society. This article shows how the links between gender identities and threat construction, understanding of aggression, or social sensitivity to different types of victims of violence can be studied academically. It introduces feminist security studies, embeds it in the research of international relations and security, and encourages its development in the Czech academic environment. The article introduces key concepts and methods of studying gender in (international) security, identifies key themes in feminist security research, and explains various approaches and types of questions that can be investigated in this area.
Critical security scholars and securitization scholars in particular increasingly argue for a mor... more Critical security scholars and securitization scholars in particular increasingly argue for a more context-sensitive approach to studying how security is constructed and performed in different social spheres. This article looks at the practice of threat construction in narrow and discursively-oriented environments, such as the United Nations Security Council, and discusses the prospects of conceptualizing and analysing this process empirically. Arguing that securitization in such a specific setting can be understood as a highly context-dependent practice of negotiating the meaning of threats, the paper develops a new approach to studying this kind of securitization. It builds on the advancements of securitization theory and deploys certain tools from framing theory to develop a new framework for a situated discourse analysis of securitization. This framework is then applied in an analysis of how terrorism was securitized in the Security Council after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Sociologicky Casopis-czech Sociological Review, 2019
Spory o definice a vymezování jejich hranic jsou oblíbenou akademickou kratochvílí, která připadá... more Spory o definice a vymezování jejich hranic jsou oblíbenou akademickou kratochvílí, která připadá vnějšímu světu stejně nepochopitelná (a zábavná) jako pravidla kriketu autorům tohoto textu. To však neznamená, že by podobné debaty skutečně potenciálně neměly přesah do akademické praxe. Pokud bychom chtěli naši odpověď na kritiku Jakuba Eberleho (2015) udržet v neakademicky střídmém duchu, nejspíše by stačilo napsat, že děkujeme za podnětnou kritiku našeho představení výzkumného programu mezinárodní politické sociologie (MPS) bezpečnosti (Daniel – Rychnovská 2015), nemyslíme si, že by feministické a poststrukturalistické přístupy nepatřily mezi významné současné přístupy k výzkumu bezpečnosti, a plně souhlasíme s poslední kapitolou Eberleho textu. Také bychom si přáli postdisciplinární výzkum (nejen) bezpečnosti, který přistupuje ke všem teoretickým přístupům, jimi využívaným konceptům a obecně různým typům poznání s plnou otevřeností a hodnotí je na základě jejich přínosu pro objasn...
Kriticka bezpecnostni studia se těsi rostouci oblibě mezi ceskými výzkumniky, nicmeně větsina sou... more Kriticka bezpecnostni studia se těsi rostouci oblibě mezi ceskými výzkumniky, nicmeně větsina soucasneho výzkumu je založena na teorii sekuritizace a dalsich diskurzivnich přistupech k analýze bezpecnosti. Tento clanek usiluje o rozsiřeni teoretických přistupů v bezpecnostnich studiich a představuje mezinarodni politickou sociologii jakožto nadějný proud výzkumu. Mezinarodni politicka sociologie je založena na studiu bezpecnosti jako praxe a nabizi tak komplexnějsi pochopeni konstrukce bezpecnosti. Clanek se zabýva teoretickými kořeny tohoto typu výzkumu, poskytuje přehled hlavnich větvi soucasneho výzkumu a představuje jeho analyticke nastroje. Clanek take kriticky reflektuje teoreticke, metodologicke a empiricke aspekty mezinarodni politicke sociologie a nastiňuje možne zaměřeni dalsiho výzkumu tohoto typu v ceskem prostředi.
Routledge eBooks, Jul 12, 2023
European Journal of International Relations
COVID-19 has exposed profound governance challenges that demand more diverse and creative approac... more COVID-19 has exposed profound governance challenges that demand more diverse and creative approaches to global health governance moving forward. This article works towards such a pluralization of the field by foregrounding the vital role played by heterodox actors during the pandemic. Heterodox global health actors are backgrounded actors who improve health in different parts of the world, but who remain politically marginalized – and epistemically invisibilized – because they depart in crucial respects from the liberal orthodoxy pervading the field of global health governance. The article analytically foregrounds those heterodox actors through an architectural inversion – a relational approach to the study of global health governance that builds upon recent methodological insights from postcolonial studies, infrastructure studies, and science and technology studies. The article then harnesses that methodological approach to empirically investigate the COVID-19 activities of three d...
Czech Journal of International Relations
The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of thepandemic and disinformation as a ... more The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of thepandemic and disinformation as a new source of insecurity on a globalscale. How can we make sense – analytically and politically– of this newlypoliticized nexus of public health, information management, and globalsecurity? This article proposes approaching the phenomenon of theinfodemic as an intersecting securitization of information disorder andhealth governance. Specifically, it argues that there are two distinct framesof security mobilized in the context of infodemic governance: informationas a disease and information as a weapon. Drawing on literatures on globalhealth and the emerging research on disinformation, the paper situates thetwo framings of the infodemic in broader discourses on the medicalizationof security, and securitization of information disorder, respectively. Thearticle critically reflects on each framing and offers some preliminarythoughts on how to approach the entanglements of health, security, a...
Science and Engineering Ethics, 2021
Although big-data research has met with multiple controversies in diverse fields, political and s... more Although big-data research has met with multiple controversies in diverse fields, political and security implications of big data in life sciences have received less attention. This paper explores how threats and risks are anticipated and acted on in biobanking, which builds research repositories for biomedical samples and data. Focusing on the biggest harmonisation cluster of biomedical research in Europe, BBMRI-ERIC, the paper analyses different logics of risk in the anticipatory discourse on biobanking. Based on document analysis, interviews with ELSI experts, and field research, three types of framing of risk are reconstructed: data security, privacy, and data misuse. The paper finds that these logics downplay the broader social and political context and reflects on the limits of the practices of anticipatory governance in biobanking. It argues that this regime of governance can make it difficult for biobanks to address possible future challenges, such as access to biomedical da...
Social Studies of Science, 2020
Science and technology play a central role in the contemporary governance of security, both as to... more Science and technology play a central role in the contemporary governance of security, both as tools for the production of security and as objects of security concern. Scholars are increasingly seeking to not only critically reflect on the interplays between science, technology and security, but also engage with the practices of security communities that shape and are shaped by science and technology. To further help this growth of interest in security topics within science and technology studies (STS), we explore possible modes of socio-technical collaboration with security communities of practice. Bringing together literatures from STS and critical security studies, we identify several key challenges to critical social engagement of STS scholars in security-related issues. We then demonstrate how these challenges played out over the course of three case studies from our own experience in engaging security communities of practice. We use these vignettes to show that there is a rich...
New Perspectives, 2018
The rise of ‘information disorder’ that undermines Western political principles has become one of... more The rise of ‘information disorder’ that undermines Western political principles has become one of the key political concerns in today's Europe and United States and led to searching for new solutions to the problem of how to fight the spread of mis- and dis-information. The challenges of information disorder, however, are increasingly perceived as a part of the information war – which involves the intentional Russian propaganda using new media. Yet who gets to help our societies build resilience against the information war? This research looks at how this novel problematization of security affects the politics of security expertise. Or, who gains power in this ‘battle for truth'? Building on sociological approaches in security studies, this paper focuses on the Czech Republic as a country that has become very active in the fight against disinformation and analyses the network of actors recognized as providing security expertise on information warfare. Based on social network...
Socially Responsible Innovation in Security, 2018
Security Dialogue, 2016
Fears of malicious non-state actors and potentially dangerous research have given rise to new eff... more Fears of malicious non-state actors and potentially dangerous research have given rise to new efforts to secure science against misuse. With the rapid advancements of science, what receives attention in security politics is how to oversee not only material and technology but also knowledge. This article explores the emerging security governance of knowledgeable practices in life sciences and critically reflects on its possible implications. The article first contextualizes the current understanding of the dual-use dilemma in life sciences in prior discourse on science–security relations and argues that security concerns have converged with ethical dilemmas related to the governing of science. Drawing on critical theory, security studies and science studies, it then conceptualizes dual use as a problem of organizing circulations and suggests that policing scientific knowledge through the establishment of a ‘culture of responsibility’ can be understood as a part of broader shifts towa...
Czech Journal of International Relations, 2020
Thinking on war, violence and security has always been associated with concepts of femininity and... more Thinking on war, violence and security has always been associated with concepts of femininity and masculinity. Similarly, wars and political transformations also change the notions of the roles of women and men in society. This article shows how the links between gender identities and threat construction, understanding of aggression, or social sensitivity to different types of victims of violence can be studied academically. It introduces feminist security studies, embeds it in the research of international relations and security, and encourages its development in the Czech academic environment. The article introduces key concepts and methods of studying gender in (international) security, identifies key themes in feminist security research, and explains various approaches and types of questions that can be investigated in this area.
Critical security scholars and securitization scholars in particular increasingly argue for a mor... more Critical security scholars and securitization scholars in particular increasingly argue for a more context-sensitive approach to studying how security is constructed and performed in different social spheres. This article looks at the practice of threat construction in narrow and discursively-oriented environments, such as the United Nations Security Council, and discusses the prospects of conceptualizing and analysing this process empirically. Arguing that securitization in such a specific setting can be understood as a highly context-dependent practice of negotiating the meaning of threats, the paper develops a new approach to studying this kind of securitization. It builds on the advancements of securitization theory and deploys certain tools from framing theory to develop a new framework for a situated discourse analysis of securitization. This framework is then applied in an analysis of how terrorism was securitized in the Security Council after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Sociologicky Casopis-czech Sociological Review, 2019
Spory o definice a vymezování jejich hranic jsou oblíbenou akademickou kratochvílí, která připadá... more Spory o definice a vymezování jejich hranic jsou oblíbenou akademickou kratochvílí, která připadá vnějšímu světu stejně nepochopitelná (a zábavná) jako pravidla kriketu autorům tohoto textu. To však neznamená, že by podobné debaty skutečně potenciálně neměly přesah do akademické praxe. Pokud bychom chtěli naši odpověď na kritiku Jakuba Eberleho (2015) udržet v neakademicky střídmém duchu, nejspíše by stačilo napsat, že děkujeme za podnětnou kritiku našeho představení výzkumného programu mezinárodní politické sociologie (MPS) bezpečnosti (Daniel – Rychnovská 2015), nemyslíme si, že by feministické a poststrukturalistické přístupy nepatřily mezi významné současné přístupy k výzkumu bezpečnosti, a plně souhlasíme s poslední kapitolou Eberleho textu. Také bychom si přáli postdisciplinární výzkum (nejen) bezpečnosti, který přistupuje ke všem teoretickým přístupům, jimi využívaným konceptům a obecně různým typům poznání s plnou otevřeností a hodnotí je na základě jejich přínosu pro objasn...
Kriticka bezpecnostni studia se těsi rostouci oblibě mezi ceskými výzkumniky, nicmeně větsina sou... more Kriticka bezpecnostni studia se těsi rostouci oblibě mezi ceskými výzkumniky, nicmeně větsina soucasneho výzkumu je založena na teorii sekuritizace a dalsich diskurzivnich přistupech k analýze bezpecnosti. Tento clanek usiluje o rozsiřeni teoretických přistupů v bezpecnostnich studiich a představuje mezinarodni politickou sociologii jakožto nadějný proud výzkumu. Mezinarodni politicka sociologie je založena na studiu bezpecnosti jako praxe a nabizi tak komplexnějsi pochopeni konstrukce bezpecnosti. Clanek se zabýva teoretickými kořeny tohoto typu výzkumu, poskytuje přehled hlavnich větvi soucasneho výzkumu a představuje jeho analyticke nastroje. Clanek take kriticky reflektuje teoreticke, metodologicke a empiricke aspekty mezinarodni politicke sociologie a nastiňuje možne zaměřeni dalsiho výzkumu tohoto typu v ceskem prostředi.
Strach z neznámých útočníků, kteří mohou narušit zaběhnuté pořádky západního stylu života, se sta... more Strach z neznámých útočníků, kteří mohou narušit zaběhnuté pořádky západního stylu života, se stal jedním z charakteristických znaků současné společnosti. V rámci boje proti terorismu, který po útocích 11. září 2001 vyhlásila americká vláda, došlo proto k přijetí celé řady do té doby zcela nemyslitelných bezpečnostních regulací, které se týkají mnoha oblastí společnosti, včetně vědy. http://www.iir.cz/article/garazova-veda-v-ere-boje-proti-terorismu
The UN has recently celebrated its seventieth anniversary. Next year will mark six decades of it... more The UN has recently celebrated its seventieth anniversary. Next year will mark six decades of its engagement in international peacekeeping operations the future of which was debated by leaders of more than fifty states in New York this September. In the Square's new brief, Dagmar Rychnovska with Jan Daniel argue that UN peacekeeping operations do have a role in helping to mitigate and stabilize armed conflicts but should not be seen as a universal solution to political and military crises. To be effective, partnerships with regional organizations must be further developed together with the engagement of local communities on the principles of equality and transparency. The peacekeepers, they conclude, must also be ready to familiarize themselves with the established and functioning practices of the local communities.
The paper takes a look at how the debate on novel biotechnologies enters the realm of disarmament... more The paper takes a look at how the debate on novel biotechnologies enters the realm of disarmament politics. It focuses on the current development related to the Biological Weapons Convention and points out the problems of linking biological disarmament to a broader scope of societal risks posed by modern life sciences. The brief concludes by arguing for more inclusive and balanced debate on governing biotechnologies that would not be restricted by the language of security and institutions of disarmament and that would allow more complex understanding of the problem and its potential solutions.
Ahmet Üzümcü has been a Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weap... more Ahmet Üzümcü has been a Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) since December 2009. He received a Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the OPCW in December 2013. During his previous appointments he has represented Turkey at the NATO Council, the Conference on Disarmament, the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva. He has also served as an Ambassador of Turkey to Israel, and as a Consul in Aleppo, Syria.
http://www.iir.cz/article/ahmet-z-mc-opcw-to-remain-a-security-organization