#12147. Governing border security infrastructures: Maintaining large-scale information systems

July 2026publication date
Proposal available till 23-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Political Science and International Relations;
Sociology and Political Science;
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Abstract:
This article explores the maintenance of large-scale information systems used for border security in the European Union. Information systems do not always operate according to their design scripts. They materialize as unruly and unstable infrastructures governed through maintenance to correct any identified functional anomalies and address potential failures by adapting them to emerging technologies and the service needs of end-users (e.g. border guards, police). To conceptualize the maintenance labour through which information systems are governed, I synthesize ideas developed in Michel Foucault’s work on biopolitics and governmentality with contributions that explore the agentic forces and proclivities of technoscientific matter. By unearthing the very mechanics of maintenance processes, I demonstrate that attending to maintenance permits a more complete understanding of the agency of information systems. I broaden the research agenda that explores border security as practice by directing attention towards the often invisible, but politically significant, labour of maintainers who, by rendering information systems functional, sustain the power to govern international mobility by digital means.
Keywords:
Border security; information systems; maintenance; Michel Foucault; New Materialisms

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