Identification as Translation: The art of choosing the right spokespersons at the securitized border

Annalisa Pelizza, "Identification as Translation: The art of choosing the right spokespersons at the securitized border", in Social Studies of Science, vol. 1, n°25, 2021.

Presentation

This article pursues a translational approach to the securitization of migration. It argues that sociotechnical processes of identification at the border can be conceived of as translations into legible identities of individuals who are unknown to authorities. The article contributes to the materiality debate on securitization across Critical Security Studies (CSS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) by answering the call to conduct empirical explorations of security, and by revisiting the potential of the early sociology of translation (i.e. actor-network theory) to account for the identification of border crossers.

More information (editor's website)