Zirkulation, infrastrukturelle Bahnung, Schaltstellen

This paper draws on media studies to analyze the reporting system of Frontex joint operations at the external borders of the EU. It works out modes of coordination that allow reports to circulate interorganizationally. While practices of templatization, standardization, and replication render reports stabile, mobile, and recombinable, the template in form of a list with item batteries makes datasets adaptable to multiple contexts of usage. As reports also circulate along the boundaries and hierarchies of single authorities, switching points are also required in order to punctually transfer data from one administrative channel to another. In this way, multiple forms of infrastructuring enact a network-space of circulation that encompasses multiple authorities in a form that is both fragmented and organized radically.