About the book
Within Frontex sits a division, called Eurosur, which describes itself as an ‘information exchange framework’ and ‘surveillance system’ operating on behalf of the EU. Eurosur and Frontex’s joint operations across the entire European common border and beyond are bolstered by what Frontex touts as ‘the system of systems’. When fully integrated, it is claimed this network of technologies will deliver ‘the frictionless circulation of identity data within a single globalised market of information’. Such ambition has led journalist and historian Frances Stonor Saunders to suggest that through this definition, ‘the whole order of society and its component parts (us) is revealed. And not just as it is today, but as it will be tomorrow, because the key mission of the system of systems is predicting the future’.1 This collection of essays attempts to demonstrate that the process of seeking asylum is indeed a system, but it is not Eurosur’s ideal, frictionless, single system. Rather, it is a system composed of many ‘systems’ which are complex, hierarchical, interlinked, abrasive and messy. Though it is not the key mission of The System of Systems to predict the future, perhaps this book can, in small ways, reveal some component parts of the present.
Self-Published, July 2017 Printed in Athens, Greece 22 x 14 cm, 220 pages, color ill., softcover ISBN 978-1-52720-888-9
Out of print – email us for free PDF at: info@systemofsystems.eu
Read a selection of contributions on the website here.
Edited by: Rebecca Glyn-Blanco, Danae Io and Maria McLintock