The Datafication of Mobility and Migration Management: the Mediating State and its Consequences CHAPTER · JANUARY 2016 (original) (raw)
To be published as: Broeders, D. and H. Dijstelbloem (2016) 'The Datafication of Mobility and Migration Management: the Mediating State and its Consequences', pp. 242-260 in: I. Van der Ploeg and J. Pridmore (eds.) Digitizing Identities: Doing Identity in a Networked World. London: Routledge 12 The datafication of mobility and migration management: the mediating state and its consequences Dennis Broeders and Huub Dijstelbloem MONITORING AND DATAFYING HUMAN MOBILITY Modern technologies have increased the possibilities of governments to gather and process data and this has increased the variety and the depth of governmental observation and monitoring. This variety includes the data from new technologies such as radar, infrared and satellite technology ('the eye in the sky') that allow for different forms of observation and detection, while depth can be added through technologies such as ICT, biometrics, GIS technology and statistical risk calculation. The more recent development of big data analysis is now also finding its way into public policy making. The state's perception of reality thus becomes more technologically and statistically mediated and 'datafied'. Data of various types and sources are processed, combined and connected though networked databases. Even though policymakers often claim that technology merely does the same job faster and better, technology also changes both the substance and the nature of policy. For one thing, it brings new actors to the scene. Baker (2008) described the work of what he calls a new class of 'Numerati' that data mine vast databases for correlations and use these to plan for the future. He primarily emphasized the commercial brand of this class, but there are public counterparts in ever larger numbers in, for example, counterterrorism (Balzacq 2008; Monahan and Palmer 2009) and youth care (Schinkel 2011; Keymolen and Broeders 2013), international development (Taylor 2015; Taylor and Broeders 2015) and crisis management (see Adey in this volume) . For another, the use of ever bigger datasets necessitates policy thinking in terms of risks and increasingly favours correlations over causalities (Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier 2013).
Sign up for access to the world's latest research.
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.