Studying-up: field research with security actors

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

In the framework of the Swiss Chair activities, this initiative features a workshop by Matthias Leese (ETH Zurich).

This workshop will introduce strategies involved in interviewing powerful actors, such as government officials and policymakers, particularly within the field of security. It will address access strategies, power imbalances, questions of consent, and how to address critical issues during interviews and meetings.

Matthias Leese is Assistant Professor for Technology and Governance at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH Zurich. His research is interested in the effects of digital technologies on social order. It pays specific attention to security organizations and their rationales and practices that are co-constituted between the technological and the social. He has published widely in leading journals in the fields of International Relations, Science and Technology Studies, and Criminology. Together with Simon Egbert, he is co-author of 'Criminal Futures: Predictive Policing and Everyday Police Work'. In 2021, he has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the study of data quality in European law enforcement and border control cooperation (CURATE). His current book project investigates questions of complexity and care practices in the Schengen Information System.