The appraisal machine. Archival frictions in data-driven European security

• In Event: Digital Criminology: Bureaucracy, Algocracy and Democracy

Abstract

This paper investigates archival frictions in the governance of data practices within European security cooperation. Critical approaches in criminology and security studies, especially those intersecting with STS (Pelizza and Aradau 2024), increasingly examine the expansive demands and repercussions of algorithmic systems (i.a. Kaufmann et al. 2018, Amicelle 2022). However, they still pay less attention to the socio-technical, legal, and political implications of other data practices (Bellanova and Glouftsios 2022, Canzutti and Aradau 2024). We risk overlooking how curation or deletion affect European security’s data governance, and how data enter or exit security practices. Drawing on critical archival, information, and data studies (Bonde Thylstrup 2022), we study these practices through appraisal, the process of deciding what data are retained, deleted, or processed (Cook 2011). This approach allows us to focus not only on data or computational frictions (Edwards 2010) but also on archival frictions, helping us understand how these impact European security. Empirically we focus on archival frictions surrounding Europol’s appraisal practices during pre- and post-processing, such as deletion. Since the mid-2010s Europol has received extensive data from authorities. We unpack how Europol is becoming an appraisal machine in its pursuit of becoming “the EU criminal information hub” (Europol 2023: 5). We address an underexplored facet of Europol’s role in shaping European security’s data practices, that is, Europol archival power. By tracing instances of archival friction, we examine the dynamics and power struggles inherent in these processes, illustrating how appraisal challenges and substitutes other data governance mechanisms. Ultimately, we explore the heuristic potential of an archival studies approach for research at the intersection of STS, criminology and critical security studies, offering new viewpoints for analysing the socio-technical entanglements of European security and its data practices.

Authors

• Megan Hadasa Leal Causton, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Rocco Bellanova, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Lucas Melgaço, Associate Professor -VUB