Scientific article "Frontex and the University: Positivist Dissonance and the Institutionalisation of Border Violence through Research" (Cristina Del Biaggio)

miladyrenoirmiladyrenoir
2025-11-10 14:26

“The paper examines the existing relationships between universities and

Frontex, investigating and problematising the intersection between the

higher education sector and the violence of the European border regime. We

introduce the concept of positivist dissonance to conceptualise these

relationships within the wider ?industrial-military-academic complex?.

Several cases are examined, ranging from the Horizon projects involving

both universities and Frontex to the research grants offered by the

agency and its teaching programmes. We also discuss the case of our

department at the Polytechnic of Turin, which has provided cartographic

services to Frontex. The paper offers a twofold contribution. First,

expanding on available scholarship, it shows how universities function as

key actors in the enforcement of regimes of border control. Second, it

provides conceptual and empirical insights to centre academia as a prime

ground not only of critical thinking but also of direct struggle

against the violence of the EU border regime.”

Available online:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/anti.70090

Cristina

Cristina Del Biaggio