Paper short abstract:

Robots are increasingly integrated in infrastructures at EU external borders. I aim to investigate (a) the involved humans and technologies and (b) how they intra-act with each other, in order to (c) understand the process and systematics about it and (d) identify consequences and intervenability.

Paper long abstract:

States and conglomerates of states such as the European Union expedite the technologization and automatization of border infrastructures aiming to achieve a selective permeability for the border management among global lines of power. Especially the external borders of the European Union are an area where the interconnectedness of new technologies and the polycrisis of our times becomes highly visible. Different actors collide in these far-flung borderscapes and even new technological entities, such as robots, are introduced into the field. This process of integrating robots, like drones or so called unmanned vehicles, into border regimes at EU external borders demands for in-depth analysis but remains quite unresearched until now. At this juncture, the specific, future configurations of the robotization of borders still depends on the intra-actions of the involved actors and raises questions such as: Who will develop the robots? Who will make use of it against whom? Will there be queerings by activists, hackers or artists? How will people on the move deal with them? And what do the robots themselves bring to the table? Located in the field of (Queer-)Feminist Science and Technology Studies, I aim to investigate these questions following a four-step research design figuring out (a) who the involved human actors and robotic entities are and (b) how they intra-act with each other, in order to (c) understand the process and the systematics about it and (d) identify consequences and intervenability.