The creation of a technological detection device for policing borders: the risk of chemical, radiological, biological and nuclear explosive weapons.

• In Event: Issues Regarding Privacy, Technology, Torture, and Terrorism

Abstract

This paper draws on an ethnographic study on the production of a handhold device for the detection of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear explosive (CBRNE) sponsored by an European Project involving 5 countries. It looks at how risk, uncertainty and security are imagined by the different actors involved, including policy documents, engineers, scientists, biologists and border guards while the device is configured and constructed. It aims to understand how different concepts and images of risk and uncertainty play out in the creation a handhold technological device for border control and in the production of security.

Author

• Teresa Degenhardt, Queen's University Belfast