Fabian Hofmann
Fabian Hofmann
Lecturer
Additional information
Research area
Fabian Hofmann is a PhD researcher for Technology and Governance (TaG) at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH Zürich. He is also the principal investigator of the four-year interdisciplinary research project "Securing Urban Peace," funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Fabian’s main research interests centre on (1) the socio-material practices driving the digital upgrading of cities’ security and surveillance infrastructures in the quest for urban peace and safety, (2) the governance of risks in increasingly digitised international relations through ethical frameworks and guidelines on the responsible use of digital technologies, and (3) the repertoires of resistance that ordinary city dwellers’ adopt in response to the adverse effects produced by the smartification of urban infrastructures and ever-tightening security and surveillance.
Curriculum vitae
Fabian's SNSF-funded dissertation project, titled “Securing Urban Peace,” explores how smart city initiatives aimed at securing urban spaces in post-conflict contexts impact conflict transformation and peacebuilding dynamics. To do so, it compares the design, implementation, and use of smart city infrastructures in three post-conflict contexts: Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. Through a multi-sited ethnography, combining discourse analytical, visual, and participatory methods, the project traces how these infrastructures are shaped by struggles over the “naming” of conflict causes and technological options for their resolution – with significant consequences for urban peace and safety. The doctoral research is supervised by Prof. Matthias Leese at ETH Zurich, and Prof. Anna Leander from the Geneva Graduate Institute acts as the dissertation co-supervisor.
Fabian holds a master's degree in International Relations and Political Science from the Geneva Graduate Institute. His dissertation, titled “Sousveilling the Smart City,” was funded by the Geneva Asia Society and was awarded the Arditi Prize 2024 for the best master's thesis in International Relations. Before joining the TaG group at ETH, Fabian worked as a Junior Researcher at the SNSF Ambizione project "An apomediated peace?" with the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP). Previously, he was also a Civilian Servant for the Swiss Peace Foundation swisspeace and a Research Associate at the Harvard-incubated Edgelands Institute, where he participated in a qualitative exploration of Geneva's digital security and surveillance architecture.
CV PDFMembership
| Since | Membership |
|---|---|
| 2024 | European International Studies Association (EISA) |
Honours
| Year | Distinction |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Arditi Prize 2024 in International Relations |
| 2023 | The IHEID International Relations/Political Science Department Special Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | Competitive Fieldwork Scholarship by the Geneva Asia Society |
Additional information
Publications:
Hirblinger AT, Hofmann F and Lidén K (2024) Socio-technical Orderings of the International: PeaceTech, Ethics, and the Cascading of Moral Agency. In: Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Convention, San Francisco, 3-6 April 2024. International Studies Association.
Hofmann F (2024) Sousveilling the Smart City: Surveillance and Everyday Queer Resistance in Singapore. In: Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Convention, San Francisco, 3-6 April 2024. International Studies Association.
Hofmann F, Srivastava V and Maillart T (2023) Digital Sovereignty: A Comprehensive Report from the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security Conference and the first Digital Sovereignty Hackathon. November. Geneva: University of Geneva.
Hofmann F (2023) Sousveilling the Smart City: Everyday Queer Resistance to Urban Surveillance in Singapore. Master Dissertation. Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
Garcia L, Bogdani K, Deshusses P, et al. (2022) Geneva: A City of Paradoxes and Dualities. Diagnostic Report on Security, Surveillance, and Digital Technologies. Diagnostic Report. Geneva: Edgelands Institute. (Link).
Hofmann F (2022a) Switzerland Quo Vadis? The Quest for Sovereignty in the Digital Age. In: Edgelands Institute Blog. (Link).
Hofmann F (2022b) Bots and Pizzas: Global Trends and Local Responses to the Algorithmic Management of App-Based Delivery Workers. In: Edgelands Institute Blog. (Link).
Dietsche E and Hofmann F (2021) Implications of the Energy Transformation for Fragile States. Policy Brief 03. Basel: swisspeace. (Link).
Hofmann F, Jobarteh S and Vogelbacher M (2021) Innovation in the digital sphere: Annual Report 2020. Basel: swisspeace. (Link).