Surveillance Design Communities in Europe: Border Deaths and Eurosur in the Mediterranean

Which European organizations are involved in the research, development, and implementation of border surveillance and control? Using network analysis, this paper uses the concept of ‘surveillance design communities’ to describe and analyze the network of European institutions involved in researching and developing technologies for use in the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR). A small community of large, centrally positioned, private security firms have driven the research and development of EUROSUR alongside a number of smaller and medium-sized firms which have strong influence in the network despite their size. As migrants continue to die in the Mediterranean, the paper concludes by exploring the political consequences of the dominance of large security firms in European policy-making and border surveillance in the Mediterranean.