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Collective Discussion: Toward Critical Approaches to Intelligence as a Social Phenomenon

Ben Jaffel, Hager; Hoffmann, Alvina; Kearns, Oliver; Larsson, Sebastian

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Authors

Hager Ben Jaffel

Oliver Kearns

Sebastian Larsson



Abstract

This collective discussion proposes a novel understanding of intelligence as a social phenomenon, taking place in a social space that increasingly involves actors and professional fields not immediately seen as part of intelligence. This discussion is a response to the inherent functionalism in Intelligence Studies (IS) that conceives of intelligence as a cycle serving policymakers. Instead, our interventions seek to problematize and break with this notion of the cycle and show what an alternative study of intelligence would look like. In the first part of the discussion, we situate our intervention in the broader fields of IS and International Political Sociology. Espousing a transdisciplinary approach, we build our four interventions as transversal lines cutting through a social space in which agents with differing stakes participate and reframe the meaning and practice of intelligence. Intelligence professionals not only have to reckon with policymakers, but also increasingly with law enforcement agents, representatives from the science and technology sector, judges, lawyers, activists, and Internet users themselves. Each move takes a step further away from the intelligence cycle by introducing new empirical sites, actors, and stakes.

Citation

Ben Jaffel, H., Hoffmann, A., Kearns, O., & Larsson, S. (2020). Collective Discussion: Toward Critical Approaches to Intelligence as a Social Phenomenon. International Political Sociology, 14(3), 323-344. https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaa015

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 8, 2020
Publication Date Sep 1, 2020
Deposit Date Sep 27, 2024
Publicly Available Date Sep 27, 2024
Journal International Political Sociology
Print ISSN 1749-5679
Electronic ISSN 1749-5687
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Issue 3
Pages 323-344
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaa015
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaa015

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Copyright Statement
This is the version of the article accepted for publication in International Political Sociology, 14 (3). pp. 323-344 (2020) published by Oxford University Press. Re-use is subject to the publisher’s terms and conditions.






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