University of Bologna, Italy.
University of Twente, The Netherlands.
Soc Stud Sci. 2021 Aug;51(4):487-511. doi: 10.1177/0306312720983932. Epub 2021 Jan 4.
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. Data collection was conducted at four identification facilities in the Hellenic Republic. Three sets of implications for the CSS-STS debate on the materiality of securitization are discussed. First, a translational approach can replace a representational understanding of identity with a performative apprehension of identification. Second, adopting a translational approach leads to acknowledge that the identification encounter is mediated by multiple, heterogeneous actors. It thus helps to open technological black boxes and reveal the key role of material qualities, affordances and limitations of artefacts. Third, a translational approach to the securitization of migration can help advance the field of 'alterity processing' by appreciating the de facto re-arrangements of institutional orders elicited by techno-political alignments with global security regimes.
本文采用翻译方法来研究移民的安全化问题。它认为，边境的社会技术识别过程可以被视为将当局未知的个人身份转化为可识别的身份。本文通过回应对安全进行实证探索的呼吁，并通过重新审视早期翻译社会学（即行动者网络理论）解释边境越境者身份识别的潜力，为跨关键安全研究（CSS）和科学技术研究（STS）的安全化物质性辩论做出了贡献。数据收集在希腊共和国的四个识别设施进行。讨论了对 CSS-STS 关于安全化物质性辩论的三个方面的影响。首先，翻译方法可以用身份的表现理解代替身份的代表性理解。其次，采用翻译方法意味着承认识别过程受到多种异质行为者的影响。因此，它有助于打开技术黑盒子，揭示物质质量、物品的可供性和局限性的关键作用。第三，对移民安全化的翻译方法可以帮助推进“他者处理”领域，理解与全球安全制度的技术政治结盟所引起的制度秩序的实际重新安排。
