Starting from the problem of drawing borders and boundaries as constitutive of the international, this talk introduces the concept of algorithmic reason in order to analyze different arts of governing the international: by states and big tech companies. States attempt to render algorithms governable by redrawing sovereign boundaries and creating legal regulations for the content that social media companies have and circulate. In response to this reactivation of sovereign borders, companies have prioritized a different art of governing the international that works through thresholds rather than borders. These arts of governing reproduce categories of (non-)citizens and users, while making work and workers invisible. Yet, workers resist both commercial practices of erasure and state claims of rebordering. In conclusion, Claudia Aradau will discuss how remaking the international in the digital age requires analytical and political attention to scenes of friction, refusal, and resistance.
Speaker
Claudia Aradau is Professor of International Politics in the Department of War Studies at King's College, London and Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant Security Flows – “Enacting border security in the digital age: Political worlds of data forms, flows and frictions.” Her research has explored the implications of security practices globally. As more and more problems and people become constituted as objects and subjects of security, she has inquired into the effects this has for democratic politics and critique. Her current research focuses, more specifically, on how digital technologies reconfigure security and surveillance practices, as well as the relations between security, democracy and critique. Claudia spent a decade as associate editor and editor of Security Dialogue (until 2018). She is a member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy and member of the editorial boards of Security Dialogue and International Political Sociology.
Discussant
Emrys Shoemaker, Research Associate at the Global Governance Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute
Moderator
Annabelle Littoz-Monnet, Professor of International Relations/Political Science and Director of the Global Governance Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute