Data as Boundary Objects, Datafication as Boundary Work

Abstract

In this chapter, I argue the twin concepts of the “boundary object” and “boundary work” (Star 2010) enable researchers to tease out how the datafication of governance and bureaucracy results in inclusion and exclusion. The concept of boundary work enables us to ask how, for whom, for what purposes, and in what circumstances data are created, collected, categorized, used, and processed. The concept of the boundary object invites us to scrutinize the tangible records of datafication such as categories, units, numbers, and symbols by asking what forms of inclusion and exclusion they maintain or challenge. In the chapter, I explore the analytic potential of these concepts by comparing historical analogous and contemporary digitized bureaucratic governance of human mobility. The case of historical Surinamese slave registers and the contemporary Dutch passport show the urgency of questioning taken-for-granted intersectional power relations between boundaries and datafication. Future research may explore further how datafication benefits some, hurts others, materializes in particular data objects, and reflects particular situated (historical) contexts.