Francisca Grommé

I am a post-doctoral researcher on the ERC funded research project "Peopling Europe: How data make a people (ARITHMUS)". This project is concerned with changing practices in the production of official statistics by national statistical institutes, mainly the census. It deals with changes such as the development and adoption of Big Data techniques.

In my research I am interested in the interactions between science, technology and society. I hold a particular interest in the introduction of technologies for collecting data about citizens and consumers in a variety of governmental practices. Relevant themes in my work are identity, experiment, classification, expertise, knowledge, materiality and practice. My previous research has been mainly ethnographic and has included studies of the police, private security, public transport and local administration. I work from a background in Science and Technology Studies, Political Science and Anthropology.

Before coming to Goldsmiths, I completed my PhD at the University of Amsterdam, Departments of Anthropology and Political Science. I did research on the introduction of surveillance technologies in Dutch crime control, with a particular interest in the role of experimental projects. My concern was with how these projects crossed boundaries to introduce new crime control practices, for instance, a police focus on aggression. The case studies included sound detection, data mining and traceable liquids. Previously, I studied the introduction of facial recognition in local crime control strategies.