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Surveillance Project >

The New Transparency makes visible the identities of individuals, workings of institutions and flows of information in ways never before seen. Surveillance, the social process underlying the New Transparency, is rapidly becoming the dominant organizing practice of our late modern world. Given growing computer-dependence and reliance on personal data collection and processing by a variety of institutions, and heightened public concern about security, surveillance is now experienced as an everyday reality. The history, key characteristics and consequences of the New Transparency will be examined by asking three vitally important questions:

• What factors contribute to the general expansion of surveillance as a technology of governance in late modern societies?
• What are the underlying principles, technological infrastructures and institutional frameworks that support surveillance practice?
• What are the social consequences of such surveillance both for institutions and for ordinary people?

Project web site: http://www.surveillanceproject.org/projects/the-new-transparency

An MCRI project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.