Biography

Nina's work centres on the complex and dynamic relationships between infrastructures, innovation, and shifting geopolitical landscapes. Her research employs qualitative, empirical methods to develop a grounded understanding of the interplay between global politics and technological transformations. Particularly, her work focuses on outer space governance, exploring topics such as cooperation, militarization, and environmental justice, as well as the nexus between security infrastructures, (digital) technologies and innovation discourses.

In 2022, Nina Klimburg-Witjes was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her project "FUTURESPACE" The project uses the European Ariane 6 rocket as a case study to investigate the complex connections between large-scale infrastructures, European integration practices, and envisioned space futures in the new space race. Methodologically, Nina and her team will conduct an interdisciplinary ethnography, linking social science and aerospace engineering to explore the material, political, and imaginative dimensions of space infrastructures and their politics.

Nina is an active member of the international STS community. She regularly organizes panels at leading STS conferences and participates in various international academic networks and societies. She holds elected positions on the Council of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Austrian Academy of Science (ÖAW) Young Academy, co-founded the international network for the Social Studies of Outer Space (SSOS) and is a member of the International Network on Security and Technology in Outer Space.

Nina Klimburg-Witjes received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from the Technical University of Munich in 2017 (MCTS) and was co-leader of the research group "Science, Technology and Security" of the Engineering Responsibility Lab. She was a visiting researcher at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, a research fellow at the Austrian Research Foundation for International Development (OEFSE) as well as the Austrian Institute for International Policy (OIIP), and a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Albert Ludwig University Freiburg.

Main Research Interests

Imaginaries and Politics Outer Space
Infrastructures of In/Security
Technology, innovation and Securitization
Social studies of outer space and future visions of Earth-Space relations,
Science, technology and international relations
Fieldwork in contexts of secrecy

Current Research Projects

FutureSpace: Making the Ariane Rocket: Negotiating relations between European integration and the future of Europe in space.

Completed Research Projects

Europas Forschungsinfrastrukturen – Akteure der Integration (FWF; 01/2019 – 06/2023)

Recent Publications

Hacking Humans?

Author(s): Nina Klimburg-Witjes, Alexander Wentland
Abstract: Today, social engineering techniques are the most common way of committing cybercrimes through the intrusion and infection of computer systems. Cybersecurity experts use the term "social engineering" to highlight the "human factor" in digitized systems, as social engineering attacks aim at manipulating people to reveal sensitive information. In this paper, we explore how discursive framings of individual versus collective security by cybersecurity experts redefine roles and responsibilities at the digitalized workplace. We will first show how the rhetorical figure of the deficient user is constructed vis-a-vis notions of (in)security in social engineering discourses. Second, we will investigate the normative tensions that these practices create. To do so, we link work in science and technology studies on the politics of deficit construction to recent work in critical security studies on securitization and resilience. Empirically, our analysis builds on a multi-sited conference ethnography during three cybersecurity conferences as well as an extensive document analysis. Our findings suggest a redistribution of institutional responsibility to the individual user through three distinct social engineering story lines-"the oblivious employee," "speaking code and social," and "fixing human flaws." Finally, we propose to open up the discourse on social engineering and its inscribed politics of deficit construction and securitization and advocate for companies and policy makers to establish and foster a culture of collective cyber in/security and corporate responsibility.
Organisation(s): Department of Science and Technology Studies
External organisation(s): Technische Universität München
Journal: Science, Technology & Human Values
Volume: 46
Pages: 1316–1339
No. of pages: 24
ISSN: 0162-2439
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243921992844
Publication date: 2021
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 509017 Social studies of science, 509025 Technology studies, 509024 Security research
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Anthropology, Economics and Econometrics, Philosophy, Human-Computer Interaction, Social Sciences (miscellaneous), Sociology and Political Science
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/4594bede-b56f-4b86-80ef-0d86b787587b