ALGORITHMIC GOVERNANCE AND CULTURES OF POLICING
Comparative Perspectives from Norway, India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa (AGOPOL)
Project Leader: Christin Thea Wathne
Project Co-Leader: Tereza Østbø Kuldova
Project number: 313626
Financed by: The Research Council of Norway
Project duration: 01.04.2021 – 31.03.2024
Project Owner: Work Research Institute, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Collaborating Partners: Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Universidade Federal Fluminense, University of Bergen, University of Oslo, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mykolas Romeris University, Universität Heidelberg, Universiteit Utrecht, College of International and Public Relations Prague, OsloMet/NOVA
Police departments across the globe are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to support decision-making in preventing crime and disorder. The use of digital technologies and the growing role of private security, tech, and consultancy companies, are reshaping policing and the ways in which we ensure social order and security, enforce law, and prevent and investigate crime. However, this ongoing radical transformation of cultures of policing is little understood. To change that, AGOPOL brings together a team of 15 established scholars and researchers from cultural and area studies, anthropology, criminology, sociology, history, literature, and law. The project is based on qualitative and ethnographic research on policing in Norway, Russia, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Drawing on these cases we will analyze the global cultural transformation of policing as an effect of the intertwined processes of datafication, securitization, and commodification of security. Our analysis will shed light on the diverse consequences of algorithmic governance for society, police forces, and those policed: from the transformation of knowledge cultures and organizations, to algorithmic injustices and their impact on legitimacy and societal trust. We will develop a comparative cross-cultural analysis of policing as a global digitized project. This will produce knowledge on the ways in which advances in artificial intelligence shape policing in different cultural, political, legal and economic contexts.
Research Team
Project Leader and Co-Leader
Christin Thea Wathne, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Tereza Østbø Kuldova, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Core Research Team
Jardar N. Østbø, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Norway
Helene Oppen Ingebrigtsen Gundhus, University of Oslo, Norway
Shivangi Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Aurelija Puraite, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
Tomas Salem, University of Bergen, Norway
Kjetil Klette Bøhler, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Tessa Diphoorn, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands
Ella Paneyakh, College of International and Public Relations Prague, Czech Republic
Paulo Cruz Terra, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
Ashwin Varghese, O. P. Jindal Global University, India
Affiliated Researchers
Pramod Nayar, University of Hyderabad, India
Veronika Nagy, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Mikkel Flyverbom, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Advisory Board
Ursula Rao, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany
Dean Wilson, University of Sussex, UK
Simon Egbert, Bielefeld University, Germany
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