The emergence of iBorder: bordering bodies, networks, and machines
Holger Pötzsch
This paper scrutinizes the interrelation between technology and processes of
bordering. In particular, it addresses the ways through which biometrics, dataveillance,
predictive analytics, and robotics enlist the human body, networks, and human–machine
assemblages in practices of inclusion and exclusion at the contemporary dislocated and
‘smart’ border. Through a description of the sociotechnical apparatuses underlying
biometric, algorithmic, and automated border work, the paper develops the term iBorder,
and connects its specific affordances to an emergent late-modern regime of security.
With reference to the notion of cultural technique, the paper argues that contemporary
technologically facilitated practices of bordering coconstitute, rather than merely process,
contingent subjectivities and frames for practice.
Keywords: bordering, iBorder, biometrics, dataveillance, predictive analytics, biopolitics,
bodies, patterns of life
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