This new book chapter, entitled "Security technologies and criticality", engages the ambiguous relations between a critical research attitude and the complex socio-technical formations that we tend to encounter in the field. Through the use of the concept of "critical intimacy", the chapter argues that there is a middle ground between the extreme positions of "proximity" …
New publication
My latest article, entitled "Staying in control: predictive policing, democracy, and digital sovereignty", has now been published as online first version in Democratization. Based on empirical data from research on predictive policing, the paper asks how state actors internally deal with the challenges that digital technologies present for democratic principles. The analysis highlights how, based …
ISA IPS Chair
After having acted as the ISA International Political Sociology (IPS) Section's Program Chair for the 2023 conference in Montréal, per the by-laws of the Section I have now rotated into the role of Section Chair. Nadine Voelkner has been elected as the IPS Program Chair for next year's ISA conference in San Francisco.
New publication
In a new article, entitled "Not so fast! Data temporalities in law enforcement and border control" and published in Big Data & Society, Silvan Pollozek and I empirically investigate the temporal implications of data in law enforcement and border control. Based on the analysis of the Frontex JORA system for information management as well as …
Second CURATE Working Paper available
The second Working Paper from the CURATE Project is now available. The paper introduces and develops the concept of "data curation" as a framework for the study of data quality from a social science perspective. It draws attention to how data quality is predicated on distributed forms of labor among various social actors and technical …
Inaugural Lecture at ETH Zurich
On Wednesday, 8 March 2023, I will be giving my inaugural lecture as professor at ETH Zurich. In my talk, entitled "Data shape the world, but who shapes data: A practice perspective on European security", I will provide some empirical and conceptual insights from research on data practices in counterterrorism and transnational policing. Update (20 …
First CURATE Working Paper available
The first Working Paper from the CURATE Project is now available. It engages data quality as an understudied concept in the social sciences, especially with regard to forms of governance that are predicated on data. The paper addresses current shortcomings by providing a definition of data quality in governance contexts and laying out a research …
New publication
My contribution to the European Law Enforcement Research Bulletin's 2022 special conference edition has now been published. In the article, entitled "Digital Data and Algorithms in Law Enforcement: Some Pointers for Responsible Implementation", I use insights from empirical research on predictive policing to give practical recommendations for the implementation and use of digital tools in …
New publication
In this new article, entitled "Expanding boundaries: Unmaking and remaking secrecy in field research" and published online first in Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS), Nina Klimburg-Witjes, Paul Trauttmansdorff and I empirically explore how secrecy is not a stable category but rather becomes continuously reconfigured through the interactions of researchers and research participants.
New publication
My latest article, together with Georgios Glouftsios, has now been published as early access version in the Review of International Studies. In the paper, entitled "Epistemic fusion: Passenger Information Units and the making of international security", we empirically explore how in the EU, data about air travel are turned into intelligence for the fight against …
Matthias Leese 