Publications by Matthew S. Mahmoudi
Journal of International Political Sociology, 2021
Mass incarceration, police brutality, and border controls are part and parcel of the everyday exp... more Mass incarceration, police brutality, and border controls are part and parcel of the everyday experiences of marginalized and racialized communities across the world. Recent scholarship in international relations, sociology, and geography has examined the prevalence of these coercive practices through the prism of “disciplinary,” “penal,” or “authoritarian” neoliberalism. In this collective discussion, we argue that although this literature has brought to the fore neoliberalism's reliance on state violence, it has yet to interrogate how these carceral measures are linked to previous forms of global racial ordering. To rectify this moment of “colonial unknowing,” the collective discussion draws on decolonial approaches, Indigenous studies, and theories of racial capitalism. It demonstrates that “new” and “neoliberal” forms of domestic control must be situated within the global longue durée of racialized and colonial accumulation by dispossession. By mapping contemporary modes of policing, incarceration, migration control, and surveillance onto earlier forms of racial–colonial subjugation, we argue that countering the violence of neoliberalism requires more than nostalgic appeals for a return to Keynesianism. What is needed is abolition—not just of the carceral archipelago, but of the very system of racial capitalism that produces and depends on these global vectors of organized violence and abandonment.
The Sociological Review, 2019
Racial injustice in the tech industry is often met by demands for greater diversity. While divers... more Racial injustice in the tech industry is often met by demands for greater diversity. While diversity in STEM spaces is certainly an issue, this moment of intense datafication, marked by a number of different names — “surveillance capitalism”, “technological capitalism”, or “information society” (referred to by Fuchs, Buckland and Castells) — begs the question: what does it mean to be represented in the digital age?
Focusing on the refugee justice implications of digital technologies developed for refugees and vulnerable migrant populations, reveals the crucial nature of representation, which is complex and – for the displaced – often requires the ability to navigate visibility and invisibility for survival. This is increasingly difficult with the introduction of the “body-borders” of biometric surveillance systems, and as digitally-generated data on migration and refuge becomes an unescapable reality. In this moment of datafied refuge, we must interrogate refugee technologies to reveal the changing nature of power and how bodies are sorted in the 21st century.
Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation and Accountability, 2020
Human rights fact-finding, like almost all professions that turn on truth-claims, is in the midst... more Human rights fact-finding, like almost all professions that turn on truth-claims, is in the midst of a technology-driven ‘knowledge controversy’ that is at once unsettling and productive. The rise of new technologies in human rights fact-finding has allowed for the participation of new actors in the form of civilian witnesses and analysts and necessitated the participation of others in the form of technologists and machine processes. These new actors bring with them not only new data and new methods, but also new norms about what human rights knowledge should be. The clash of these new elements with established practices produces a knowledge controversy with implications for the power to shape human rights methodology. Methodology rules in and rules out particular types of human rights information with respect to evidence. It thus rules in and rules out particular types of corresponding subjects and witnesses of violations. Ultimately, we are concerned with the impact of these power relations on pluralism, or the variety and volume of voices that can speak and be heard, both in terms of shaping the practices of human rights fact-finding, and in terms of access to human rights mechanisms that help subjects and witnesses speak truth to power.
Queen Mary Journal of Politics & International Relations
Papers by Matthew S. Mahmoudi
Recent developments in Denmark have revived discourse around national sentiment, and paved the wa... more Recent developments in Denmark have revived discourse around national sentiment, and paved the way for renewed tensions between citizens and migrants. In the midst of an environment so prominent for its egalitarianism and generous welfare state (Guibernau 2010: 8), xenophobic responses to migration would appear to indicate disillusion within an otherwise rose-tinted image of the Danish social landscape. This paper aims to answer the research question: does the social decline - as opposed to economic grievance - of specific groups, generate xenophobic sentiment?
Interestingly, areas conventionally noted to harbour particular xenophobic sentiment and unemployment (Moore 2010: 358) (Smelser and Baltes 2001: 16651), have seen relatively greater rates of employment than the capital region (Politikken 2016). Yet, xenophobic sentiment persist. Through en ethnographic study engaging with a sample of participants from rural Denmark, this paper makes a case for xenophobic responses of migration as a function of a two-fold grievance: the social decline of specific groups through the felt experience of dissipating symbols, traditions and values, and; the perceived changes generated by migration-driven cultural diffusion.
As social media transfers the once esoteric task of producing information to victims of human rig... more As social media transfers the once esoteric task of producing information to victims of human rights violations, it is easy to estimate the dawn of a new form of civic participation, promising further democratisation and empowerment (Meier 2011: 1) (Hindman 2009: 7). It would be a mistake, however, not to consider the ongoing fetishisation of " smart " technologies as problematic; often taken at face value and as political ends in and of themselves. One characteristic of this larger problematik is the ramifications of the active manipulation, suppression or disregard of the human element in human rights and humanitarian media (Apthorpe 2016). It is no less true that a dividend of the digital era and social media has been the affordance for civilian-generated social media imagery (footage or photography); nevertheless, the same technologies that grant access to these spaces, also allow parties such as NGOs and celebrities to take ownership of civilian narratives and subject them to the economy of the media, marking a moment which continues the historical iconographication of suffering. What are the caveats of the persistent mediation and translation-or " packaging "-of civilian-produced social media, by NGOs and celebrities? Are contemporary practices culpable for generating a public dissonance of the true human image of suffering and despair? Is human rights social media guilty of constructing a sensationalist gaze? This essay explores social media-or ICT4HR-as not simply a force for mobilising change, but also as a process by which certain power structures are normalised, and narratives are colonised.
New ways of reporting violations using mobile applications promises democratisation and empowerme... more New ways of reporting violations using mobile applications promises democratisation and empowerment for ordinary civilians, prompting a critical inquiry into the political implications of these tools on existing modes of governance. Our research answers the question: do experimental, digital technology forms of human rights governance present a more effective mechanism for accountability than inter-governmental organizations?
The first part of our project will demonstrate that the United Nations framework for human rights governance is flawed by design on three accounts: it is unable to bypass the monolith of sovereignty to discipline states; too under-resourced to establish National Human Rights Institutions; naming and shaming is impeded by geopolitical interests of strong states.
The rise of digital media platforms designed for reporting human rights violations has been scrutinised by predominantly sociologists and practitioners, in their potential to generate accountability. The second part of this project collates this research to develop a framework for understanding the stages and mechanisms of this form of “experimental” governance.
Finally, the political implications are examined, using the case studies, CameraV and eyeWitness to Atrocities. By testing these digital initiatives against the shortcomings of IGO-based governance, we can determine whether they transcend or perpetuate conventional problems.
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Publications by Matthew S. Mahmoudi
Focusing on the refugee justice implications of digital technologies developed for refugees and vulnerable migrant populations, reveals the crucial nature of representation, which is complex and – for the displaced – often requires the ability to navigate visibility and invisibility for survival. This is increasingly difficult with the introduction of the “body-borders” of biometric surveillance systems, and as digitally-generated data on migration and refuge becomes an unescapable reality. In this moment of datafied refuge, we must interrogate refugee technologies to reveal the changing nature of power and how bodies are sorted in the 21st century.
Papers by Matthew S. Mahmoudi
Interestingly, areas conventionally noted to harbour particular xenophobic sentiment and unemployment (Moore 2010: 358) (Smelser and Baltes 2001: 16651), have seen relatively greater rates of employment than the capital region (Politikken 2016). Yet, xenophobic sentiment persist. Through en ethnographic study engaging with a sample of participants from rural Denmark, this paper makes a case for xenophobic responses of migration as a function of a two-fold grievance: the social decline of specific groups through the felt experience of dissipating symbols, traditions and values, and; the perceived changes generated by migration-driven cultural diffusion.
The first part of our project will demonstrate that the United Nations framework for human rights governance is flawed by design on three accounts: it is unable to bypass the monolith of sovereignty to discipline states; too under-resourced to establish National Human Rights Institutions; naming and shaming is impeded by geopolitical interests of strong states.
The rise of digital media platforms designed for reporting human rights violations has been scrutinised by predominantly sociologists and practitioners, in their potential to generate accountability. The second part of this project collates this research to develop a framework for understanding the stages and mechanisms of this form of “experimental” governance.
Finally, the political implications are examined, using the case studies, CameraV and eyeWitness to Atrocities. By testing these digital initiatives against the shortcomings of IGO-based governance, we can determine whether they transcend or perpetuate conventional problems.
Focusing on the refugee justice implications of digital technologies developed for refugees and vulnerable migrant populations, reveals the crucial nature of representation, which is complex and – for the displaced – often requires the ability to navigate visibility and invisibility for survival. This is increasingly difficult with the introduction of the “body-borders” of biometric surveillance systems, and as digitally-generated data on migration and refuge becomes an unescapable reality. In this moment of datafied refuge, we must interrogate refugee technologies to reveal the changing nature of power and how bodies are sorted in the 21st century.
Interestingly, areas conventionally noted to harbour particular xenophobic sentiment and unemployment (Moore 2010: 358) (Smelser and Baltes 2001: 16651), have seen relatively greater rates of employment than the capital region (Politikken 2016). Yet, xenophobic sentiment persist. Through en ethnographic study engaging with a sample of participants from rural Denmark, this paper makes a case for xenophobic responses of migration as a function of a two-fold grievance: the social decline of specific groups through the felt experience of dissipating symbols, traditions and values, and; the perceived changes generated by migration-driven cultural diffusion.
The first part of our project will demonstrate that the United Nations framework for human rights governance is flawed by design on three accounts: it is unable to bypass the monolith of sovereignty to discipline states; too under-resourced to establish National Human Rights Institutions; naming and shaming is impeded by geopolitical interests of strong states.
The rise of digital media platforms designed for reporting human rights violations has been scrutinised by predominantly sociologists and practitioners, in their potential to generate accountability. The second part of this project collates this research to develop a framework for understanding the stages and mechanisms of this form of “experimental” governance.
Finally, the political implications are examined, using the case studies, CameraV and eyeWitness to Atrocities. By testing these digital initiatives against the shortcomings of IGO-based governance, we can determine whether they transcend or perpetuate conventional problems.