Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege
This paper reflects on the continued potency of veillance theories to traverse beyond the taxonomies of surveillance inside liberal democracies. It provides a commentary on the ability of sousveillance to destabilise and disrupt suer/violence by shifting its focus from the centre to the periphery, w...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2016-11-01
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| Series: | Big Data & Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679676 |
| _version_ | 1811223523708895232 |
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| author | Piro Rexhepi |
| author_facet | Piro Rexhepi |
| author_sort | Piro Rexhepi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper reflects on the continued potency of veillance theories to traverse beyond the taxonomies of surveillance inside liberal democracies. It provides a commentary on the ability of sousveillance to destabilise and disrupt suer/violence by shifting its focus from the centre to the periphery, where Big Data surveillance is tantamount to sur/violence. In these peripheral political spaces, surveillance is not framed by concerns over privacy, democracy and civil society; rather, it is a matter of life and death, a technique of both biopolitical and thanatopolitical power. I argue that the universalist, and universalizing, debates over surveillance cannot be mapped through the anxieties of privileged middle classes as they would neither transcend nor make possible alternative ways of tackling the intersection of surveillance and violence so long as they are couched in the liberal concerns for democracy. I call this phenomenon “liberal luxury,” whereby debates over surveillance have over-emphasised liberal proclivities at the expense of disengaging those peripheral populations most severely affected by sur/violence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:34:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8283336d81ad4118b3b4dcda468436b1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-9517 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:34:07Z |
| publishDate | 2016-11-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Big Data & Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-8283336d81ad4118b3b4dcda468436b12022-12-22T03:40:04ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172016-11-01310.1177/205395171667967610.1177_2053951716679676Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilegePiro RexhepiThis paper reflects on the continued potency of veillance theories to traverse beyond the taxonomies of surveillance inside liberal democracies. It provides a commentary on the ability of sousveillance to destabilise and disrupt suer/violence by shifting its focus from the centre to the periphery, where Big Data surveillance is tantamount to sur/violence. In these peripheral political spaces, surveillance is not framed by concerns over privacy, democracy and civil society; rather, it is a matter of life and death, a technique of both biopolitical and thanatopolitical power. I argue that the universalist, and universalizing, debates over surveillance cannot be mapped through the anxieties of privileged middle classes as they would neither transcend nor make possible alternative ways of tackling the intersection of surveillance and violence so long as they are couched in the liberal concerns for democracy. I call this phenomenon “liberal luxury,” whereby debates over surveillance have over-emphasised liberal proclivities at the expense of disengaging those peripheral populations most severely affected by sur/violence.https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679676 |
| spellingShingle | Piro Rexhepi Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege Big Data & Society |
| title | Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege |
| title_full | Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege |
| title_fullStr | Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege |
| title_full_unstemmed | Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege |
| title_short | Liberal luxury: Decentering Snowden, surveillance and privilege |
| title_sort | liberal luxury decentering snowden surveillance and privilege |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679676 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pirorexhepi liberalluxurydecenteringsnowdensurveillanceandprivilege |