(Un)Making mess at Europe's data borders: Order, control, critique

Abstract

Critical border and migration studies have shown that border practices are often messy, ambiguous, improvised and uncertain, while datafication has amplified messiness and its effects on migrants. Describing ‘mess’ at borders has been a critical intervention against the myth of order, homogeneity, predictability, clarity or efficiency. Yet, ‘mess’ can also open spaces for agency and resisting data borders. What do these ambiguities mean for the critical potential of diagnosing mess? Drawing on research we have conducted in border zones in France, Italy, Germany and Spain, we show that the critical potential of mess cannot be gauged through the binary of mess/order. We argue that we need to introduce a third term – control – to understand the critical potential of mess. To do so, we first unpack three dimensions of ‘mess’ – spatial, temporal and material – to situate it in relation to diagnoses of failure, friction, improvisation and non-knowledge in bordering practices. Second, we raise questions about the limits that the co-constitution of mess/order entails for critical research on data borders. Third, we show how control transforms the binary of mess/order into a question about ‘kinds of mess’.