Research Projects

What Counts? The Production of Statistical Knowledge on Migration in West Africa

Dr. Inken Bartels 

  • How do figures and facts about migration in West Africa actually come into being?
  • What realities are created by different data practices, such as defining, categorising or counting mobile people?
  • What are the political consequences of such data practices in a region with institutionalised freedom of movement?

Since the so-called migration crisis of 2015, various actors from politics, media and science have called for an increased and improved production of scientific knowledge on global migration. The growing demand for "scientific data" and "facts" indicates a need for comprehensive statistics, measurable indicators and precise predictions of global migration movements. This demand is based on the widespread assumption that on this basis migration could not only be predicted more precisely, but also managed more farsightedly and efficiently in the future. In this context, migration on the African continent is increasingly moving in the center of international attention. The research project investigates the production of the required "facts and figures" on migration movements in and from West Africa. It focuses on two related research questions: Which practices produce statistical knowledge about migration? And how do the data produced become "scientific facts" through the social interaction of different actors and thus effective in other areas of society? In a double sense, the underlying question of the project is therefore: what counts? Theoretically, I examine these questions from praxeological, transnational and postcolonial perspectives. Methodologically, I conduct a qualitative case study on the production and circulation of quantitative knowledge in and from West Africa. In the sense of an "ethnography of statistics", I therefore reconstruct, compare and trace the history and practice of statistical knowledge production in Senegal and Gambia.

Policing Knowledge. The Contested Production and Circulation of Police Knowledge on Migration

Dr. Philipp Schäfer

  • How and with whom do police forces in Germany conduct research on migration-related phenomena?
  • What does the analysis of police research practices tell us about powerful ideas of spatial mobility, security and social order?
  • How are these ideas handed down in the police organisation and how can they be challenged?

Whether at the border, across borders or within nation states - polices are central actors in the production and circulation of knowledge about migration and migrants. The fact that this knowledge production and circulation are contested and controversial has been demonstrated, among other things, by the turbulent dynamics of the so-called long summer of migration, when the cross-border practices of migrants challenged and changed police institutions, actors and processes almost daily. The project asks how police forces get an idea of the diversified and ever-changing societal conditions. With which actors do they enter more or less conflict-laden constellations, which forms of knowledge are relevant for them, and what significance does scientific expertise have in this context? And vice versa: How do scientific studies integrate and translate police knowledge about migration and which shifts in meaning can we observe and in how far are these conflictual? The research project traces the contested production and circulation of knowledge about migration in a European migration society.  

Big Data, Migration Governance and the Production of Knowledge

Dr. Laura Stielike 

  • How does the use of big data (e.g. social media, search engine and mobile phone data) to analyse and govern migration change the production of knowledge on migration?

  • How does the digital co-production of knowledge on migration at the interface of research, migration policy and tech companies work?

  • How do categories, assumptions and values from computer science, communication technology and the digital economy shape knowledge on migration and how is this knowledge used in migration policy?

The project explores the recent trend to use big data for the analysis and governance of international migration. Focusing on the emerging transnational network of international organisations‘ data hubs and university based data researchers, it examines how the use of big data transforms the production of knowledge about migration. Through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork the project analyses how assumptions, categories and values from the big data related technological and business sector are carried into knowledge about migration and translated into migration policy. Thus, the project sheds light on the production and circulation of knowledge about migration at the interface between academia, politics and society and builds on and contributes to migration research, science and technology studies and research on knowledge and public policy.