Margie Cheesman
Biographic Data
| ID | 370355 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Margie Cheesman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Margie |
| FAMILY NAME | Cheesman |
| SIGNATURE | CHEESMAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9521-4658 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 5 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 5 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Conjuring a Blockchain Pilot: Ignorance and Innovation in Humanitarian Aid
When aid professionals adopt high tech pilot projects, ignorance, blind faith, misplaced trust, and authentic expertise all come into play. Based on ethnographic research in Jordan, I examine how a refugee aid organisation produces and applies a blockchain pilot. Innovative pilots help international aid organisations attract and maintain their funding sources and reputations. I argue that The Blockchain Pilot is ‘conjured’ as a product to be prom…
Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space: Technologies, Territories and Tensions
Debates are ongoing on the limits of - and possibilities for - sovereignty in the digital era. While most observers spotlight the implications of the Internet, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence/machine learning and advanced data analytics for the sovereignty of nation states, a critical yet under examined question concerns what digital innovations mean for authority, power and control in the humanitarian sphere in which different rules, v…
Self-Sovereignty for Refugees? The Contested Horizons of Digital Identity
This paper critically examines the implications of ‘self-sovereign identity’ (SSI) for border politics and migration management. SSI refers to user-controlled, decentralised forms of digital identification. Closely linked with the distributed ledger technology blockchain, SSI is presented by advocates as a tool to empower marginalised groups, including refugees. Among other benefits, some claim that SSI removes the need for powerful, centralised …
Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid
Identification technologies like biometrics have long been associated with securitisation, coercion and surveillance but have also, in recent years, become constitutive of a politics of empowerment, particularly in contexts of international aid. Aid organisations tend to see digital identification technologies as tools of recognition and inclusion rather than oppressive forms of monitoring, tracking and top-down control. In addition, practices th…
Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances
This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabli…
Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances
This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabli…
Self-Sovereignty for Refugees? The Contested Horizons of Digital Identity
This paper critically examines the implications of ‘self-sovereign identity’ (SSI) for border politics and migration management. SSI refers to user-controlled, decentralised forms of digital identification. Closely linked with the distributed ledger technology blockchain, SSI is presented by advocates as a tool to empower marginalised groups, including refugees. Among other benefits, some claim that SSI removes the need for powerful, centralised …
Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid
Identification technologies like biometrics have long been associated with securitisation, coercion and surveillance but have also, in recent years, become constitutive of a politics of empowerment, particularly in contexts of international aid. Aid organisations tend to see digital identification technologies as tools of recognition and inclusion rather than oppressive forms of monitoring, tracking and top-down control. In addition, practices th…
Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space: Technologies, Territories and Tensions
Debates are ongoing on the limits of - and possibilities for - sovereignty in the digital era. While most observers spotlight the implications of the Internet, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence/machine learning and advanced data analytics for the sovereignty of nation states, a critical yet under examined question concerns what digital innovations mean for authority, power and control in the humanitarian sphere in which different rules, v…
Conjuring a Blockchain Pilot: Ignorance and Innovation in Humanitarian Aid
When aid professionals adopt high tech pilot projects, ignorance, blind faith, misplaced trust, and authentic expertise all come into play. Based on ethnographic research in Jordan, I examine how a refugee aid organisation produces and applies a blockchain pilot. Innovative pilots help international aid organisations attract and maintain their funding sources and reputations. I argue that The Blockchain Pilot is ‘conjured’ as a product to be prom…
Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances
This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabli…
Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid
Identification technologies like biometrics have long been associated with securitisation, coercion and surveillance but have also, in recent years, become constitutive of a politics of empowerment, particularly in contexts of international aid. Aid organisations tend to see digital identification technologies as tools of recognition and inclusion rather than oppressive forms of monitoring, tracking and top-down control. In addition, practices th…
Self-Sovereignty for Refugees? The Contested Horizons of Digital Identity
This paper critically examines the implications of ‘self-sovereign identity’ (SSI) for border politics and migration management. SSI refers to user-controlled, decentralised forms of digital identification. Closely linked with the distributed ledger technology blockchain, SSI is presented by advocates as a tool to empower marginalised groups, including refugees. Among other benefits, some claim that SSI removes the need for powerful, centralised …
Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space: Technologies, Territories and Tensions
Debates are ongoing on the limits of - and possibilities for - sovereignty in the digital era. While most observers spotlight the implications of the Internet, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence/machine learning and advanced data analytics for the sovereignty of nation states, a critical yet under examined question concerns what digital innovations mean for authority, power and control in the humanitarian sphere in which different rules, v…
Conjuring a Blockchain Pilot: Ignorance and Innovation in Humanitarian Aid
When aid professionals adopt high tech pilot projects, ignorance, blind faith, misplaced trust, and authentic expertise all come into play. Based on ethnographic research in Jordan, I examine how a refugee aid organisation produces and applies a blockchain pilot. Innovative pilots help international aid organisations attract and maintain their funding sources and reputations. I argue that The Blockchain Pilot is ‘conjured’ as a product to be prom…
Political science (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Computer security (3 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (3 works) · Empowerment (2 works) · Global Security and Public Health (2 works) · Politics (2 works) · Public relations (2 works)