The fifth Working Paper from the CURATE Project, titled "Towards systematic data governance in law enforcement", has now been published. Drawing on survey data and an in-depth case study, the paper traces how persistent data quality problems in law enforcement are rooted in fragmented IT infrastructures, inconsistent data entry practices, insufficient training, and unclear organizational …
SNSF-FWO WEAVE Grant
I am very happy that Rocco Bellanova, Rosamunde Van Brakel (both VU Brussels) and I have been awarded a four-year project grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) under the WEAVE scheme for cross-national collaboration. The joint INFRASEC team based in Zurich and Brussels will investigate how digital …
New position at University of Zurich
With the start of the spring term, I have taken up a new position at University of Zurich's Department of Political Science (IPZ). At the IPZ, I will coordinate the new research area Digital Public Governance where I will, among other things, be involved in setting up a new BA program on Digital Transformation, teach …
New publication
My latest article, co-authored with Vasilis Argyriou, has now been published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. In the paper, titled "‘Migrant data can never be accurate’: Studying migration and borders through the notion of data quality", we argue that contemporary migration and border governance cannot be properly understood without examining how data …
New publication
My latest article, titled "Adding Government to Proof: Police Reports, the Limits of Standardization, and Data Proliferation in Crime Analysis" has now been published in Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. The paper explicates the creative labor required to reconcile incompatible informational logics in contemporary policing. Specifically, I retrace how crime analysts turn narrative, legally oriented …
New publication
My latest article, titled "Benchmarking and provenance: The politics of trust in EU internal security," is now out in International Political Sociology. In the paper, I analyze how the EU tries to make its internal security databases more trustworthy, given that mistakes in the data can lead to serious problems for policing, border control, and …
JIRD Editorial: AI and Academic Publishing
Academic journals increasingly have to grapple with the use of AI tools by both authors and referees. At the Journal of International Relations and Development, a while ago we have implemented a new AI policy that clarifies what is allowed and what is not. In the editorial of the upcoming issue 28(3), Ajda Hedžet and …
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New publication
In my latest paper, Drífa Attladóttir, Neele Roch, Verena Zimmermann, and I compare national quantum technology governance strategies with expert insights. The article, titled "A quantum of responsibility? A comparison of national quantum governance frameworks and expert views" and published in the journal Digital Society, finds that while both emphasize innovation and infrastructure, national frameworks …
New publication
This new chapter, published as part of the De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Criminology, analyzes the concept of the algorithm in policing and criminal justice contexts. In doing so, it pays specific attention to the complexity and opaqueness of algorithmic tools and what this means for accountability and democratic control.
Op-ed for Internet Policy Review
Together with my colleagues Rocco Bellanova, Rosamunde van Brakel, and Vanessa Ugolini from VU Brussels, I have written an Op-ed, entitled "Automating security? The redesign of air passenger data connectivity across Europe" for the Internet Policy Review. In the piece, we analyze the effects of the new EU Advance Passenger Information (API) regulations on information …
Matthias Leese 