School of Social and Political Science

Content

All of these talks are hybrid. You can register for the online session at the links below:

Dr Ben Collier (University of Edinburgh, STIS) - 25 January 4-5.30pm / Violet Laidlaw Room

Title: Influence Policing: Mapping the Rise of Strategic Communications and Digital Behaviour Change within UK Law Enforcement and Security Services

Abstract: In this talk, I set out an emerging phenomenon in UK law enforcement - the use of digital ‘nudge’ communications campaigns to achieve strategic policing and security goals. Over the last year, we have studied the use of these campaigns by a single force - Police Scotland - in depth, drawing on empirical research conducted with their dedicated strategic communications team. These campaigns, which involve extremely targeted digital communications designed to directly ‘nudge’ behaviour and shape the culture of particular groups, began in counter-radicalisation as part of the UK’s Prevent programme, but have since moved into a range of other policing areas, from hate crime and domestic violence to knife crime and cybercrime. I set out the historical context of these campaigns in the UK, from their roots in social marketing, through the various iterations of the Prevent strategy, the rise of algorithmic digital marketing infrastructures and surveillance capitalist platforms, and their subsequent transfer from counter-terror policing to a range of other areas. Our study explores the developing institutional and professional arrangements around these campaigns in Police Scotland through interviews and document-based research, drawing on case studies of campaigns across a range of areas. Taking these together, we theorise the rise of influence policing as an embryonic but rapidly emerging domain of police practice, and discuss the ethical, institutional, and democratic implications for the future of law enforcement in the UK. 

Bio: Ben Collier is Lecturer in Digital Methods at the Institute of Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on digital infrastructure as a site of power and resistance, including mixed-methods studies of cybercrime communities, law enforcement engagements with Internet infrastructure, and an upcoming book with MIT Press which maps a cultural history of the Tor anonymity network. 

Dr Fiona Greenland (University of Virginia) - 8 March 4-5.30pm / Violet Laidlaw Room

Title: Theorizing Artifact Repatriation as Cultural Repair

Abstract: The paper offers a sociological framework for understanding the recent growth of cultural repatriation demands and what this means for the value and meaning of contested objects. Theoretically, I use the cultural sociological framework of trauma and repair to situate looted and returned artifacts in social and emotional relationships between parties. Structurally, I analyze the international legal frameworks that have evolved to process source countries' restitution claims. A key finding is that repair does not end with repatriation, but rather continues through long-term practices of curation and display. Empirically, I will draw on case materials involving Italy's former colonial holdings in Africa, and the United States' repatriation of Native American grave goods. 

Bio: Fiona Rose Greenland, Ph.D., D.Phil., is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. She holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in classical archaeology from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on art restitution, nationalism, and cultural policy, with particular interest in national and international governance frameworks for protecting antiquities from theft and destruction. Her book, Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy (2021, University of Chicago Press) was awarded the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book in Culture from the American Sociological Association's Section on Culture in 2022. She is co-director of the CURIA Lab (Cultural Resilience Informatics and Analysis), whose collaborative projects prioritize mixed-methods analysis of cultural destruction and recovery. Currently she is Principal Investigator on an NSF-supported study of the relationship between civilian deaths and cultural heritage loss during the Syrian war. Greenland's work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council (USA), and the Quantitative Collaborative at the University of Virginia, and her articles have been published in Sociological Science, Sociological Theory, Theory and Society, and the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. She is a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.