Perceiving and Controlling Maritime Flows. Technology, Kinopolitics, and the Governmentalization of Vision

Abstract

This article speaks to debates in international political sociology that critically interrogate the ongoing digitization of border controls through the deployment of surveillance technologies that render mobility intelligible and governable. Our contribution to these debates is both empirical and conceptual. Empirically, we explore not only how surveillance is enacted but also how it is contested and fails to meet its stated objectives. We do so by focusing on two technologies that support the visibilization of maritime borderzones and mobilities: satellites and drones. Conceptually, our contribution revolves around the kinopolitical character of maritime surveillance and the productive power of technologically mediated vision. We synthesize Nail's work on kinopolitics with ideas inspired by Foucauldian studies on governmentality to develop the following argument: satellites and drones are technologies of power embedded within a kinopolitical regime of maritime surveillance, which strategizes vision in attempts to govern subjects and objects on the move—attempts that challenge any clear-cut distinction between security controls and humanitarian interventions in the field of border management.