In search of disappeared persons without apparent cause: technology at the service of an inverted spectropolitics

This article focuses on the forms of search carried out by associations of persons affected by disappearance without apparent cause. Disappearance without apparent cause is a novel and singular case in Spain that differs from other cases of disappearance because of its liberal and democratic context. Starting from theoretical approaches that take spectrality as a metaphor to reflect on vulnerability, the concept of inverted spectropolitics is proposed here to understand these forms of search. Politics nourished by devices to manage the search for dissapeared persons whose aim is to make them appear. Through a qualitative work (interviews and ethnographic work with associations of disappeared persons without apparent cause in Spain, as well as the use of the App "Disappeared"), the article shows how the forms of search developed involve a technological innovation that constitutes an increasingly extensive network of agents acting as searchers.