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Publication
Politics of Disappearance: Scanners and (Unobserved) Bodies as Mediators of Security Practices
Journal Contribution - Journal Article
In 2008, debates over the deployment of body scanners in EU airports gave rise to imbroglios of technologies, bodies, law, and policies. Even- tually, these entanglements appeared to be undone and resolved by the concealment of bodies from the screens of the machines--which had, meanwhile, been renamed security scanners. Using the concept of setting, this article describes the processes of disappearance operating among a vivid multiplicity of actants and connections and identifies three main paradoxical features characterizing them. Based on this analysis, the article advances the notion of the politics of disappearance, where hetero- geneous elements--both material and immaterial, visible as well as invisible--actively contribute to the making of a security practice and, potentially, to the opening of political landscapes.
Journal: International Political Sociology
ISSN: 1749-5687
Issue: 7
Pages: 188-209
Publication year:2013
Keywords:privacy, personal data protection