|
Journal Name: Information, Communication & Society,
Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1998
Contents
THE WORLD WIDE WEB OF SURVEILLANCE
The Internet and off-world power-flows
By David Lyon (Queen's University, Canada)
Abstract:
Surveillance, as the automatic electronic gleaning of personal data, has developed rapidly on the Internet, and the process is likely to intensify with the commercialization of such networked, computer-mediated communications. After placing this phenomenon in the context of already existing surveillance systems, some aspects of 'cyberspace surveillance' are examined. These include employment monitoring, policing and security, and marketing, the latter of which is the most generalized and the least perceptible to data subjects. 'Cookies' and 'spiders' are among the newer technical innovations mentioned, in relation to their social purposes. Possible explanatory frameworks are discussed, among which risk management, simulated surveillance, panopticism, and biopower are of particular importance.These may be used to question any mere theoretical preoccupation with discrete individuals, and readily identifiable organizations. It is argued, however, that such theoretical advances may often be complementary with, rather than exclusive of, those explanations that focus on questions of identity and personhood, or of difference and social division. How apparently 'off-world' powerflows in simulated surveillance situations actually reinforce real social inequalities, and the vulnerability of certain social groups to constraint or control, should be the focus of efforts to understand 'cyberspace surveillance'.
Preparing for Information-Age Conflict: Part One: Conceptual and Organizational Dimensions
By John Arqilla (US Naval Postgraduate School, USA) and David Ronfeldt (RAND, USA)
Abstract:
Prevailing hopes for the peace-enhancing tendencies of interconnectivity must be tempered by a realization that the information revolution augurs a new epoch of conflict, in which new modes of armed combat and social upheaval will emerge. We propose a four-part vision to prepare for this new epoch. This article spells out the first two parts - the conceptual and organizational (a second article will convey the doctrinal and strategic parts). In our vision, preparing for information-age conflict involves rethinking the very concept of 'information'. This is achieved by adding to the dominant view, that information is largely about 'information processing', a less-developed view that emphasizes the 'structuring' roles of information. In this latter view, embedded information is what enables a structure to hold its form; and this helps account for the successful functioning of all sorts of actors and systems, in peace as well as in war. The organizational dimension of our analysis holds that the information revolution favors the rise of the network form, in particular the all-channel network in which every node may communicate with every other. Transnational terrorist and criminal organizations in particular are gaining strength by resorting to new network designs. For state actors to cope with them, a key challenge is to develop hybrids of hierarchies and networks.
The Iron Cage of the Information Society
By Frank Webster (Oxford Brooks University, UK) and Kevin Robins (University of Newcastle, UK)
Abstract:
This paper offers an analysis and critique of recent thought about the 'information society'. It identifies two phases of futurism, the first a technological enthusiasm that characterised the early 1980s, the second, in the 1990s, which emphasises the transformative capacity of information itself. The second phase is examined at some length, focussing on the concepts of 'symbolic analysts' and 'informational labour' in the writing especially of Robert Reich and Manuel Castells.In current theory, information has been promoted to centre stage of economic affairs. A new intellectual agenda has been created, centring on features such as globalisation, the spread of networks, flexiblity, and the crucial role of educated labour. Three key aspects are identified: the death of communism and the triumph of capitalism, the re-emergence of meritocratic ideas, and the depiction of new class structures based on information. These are queried by empirical analysis of stratification trends and evidence from social history. Finally, it is argued that informational developments perpetuate processes of rationalisation and control, extending them to them in ways which might be seen as 'New Enclosures'.
Visions of Excess: Cyberspace, Digital Technologies and New Cultural Politics
By Stephen A. Webb (University of North London, UK)
Abstract:
This paper critically situates contemporary concerns with cyberspace and digital media within a cultural dimension. It begins by undertaking ground clearing work about the nature of cyberspace and providing an analytical index of its position in relation to claims that are made about its imaginary or real status. It is argued that cyberspace is destined to attract two contradictory responses, first form being too true to life; and second for not being true enough. This contradiction enables a number of competing characterisations and claims to be made for digital media at the level of culture and cultural politics. The paper then addresses how the cultural significance of spatial metaphors, technological enhancement, digital communities and utopian aethetics are framed. Here the paper specifically examines the new materialism of transhumanist and extroprian perspectives. This frontier discourse which relies on a 'disclosing space' for digital media is criticised from a phenomenological perspective and shown to be a reified space and unreflexive 'mode of becoming'.
Materializing Informatics: from Dataprocessing to Molecular Engineering
By Nigel Clark (University of Aukland, New Zealand)
Abtract:
Nanotechnology or molecular engineering is a hypothetical regime of technics based on the precision manipulation of atoms to form workable devices or useful structures. Its proponents suggest that 'nano' could extend the manipulability of digital information-processing to the material realm, raising the possibility that the 'information revolution' is only part of a far more encompassing set of technocultural transformations. Historical evidence of translation between systems of signification and modes of material transformation suggests that this prospect deserves serious consideration. Although the imperative of nanotech tends to be presented as one of extending control and design, it is argued that the self-replicating and possibly self-directing nature of 'intelligent' nanomachines raises the possibility of runaway dispersals. In this sense, nanotech may turn out to have more in common with autonomous digital entities - such as intelligent software agents, artificial life organisms or computer viruses - than with conventional data processing. It is suggested that the rise of autonomous, self-argumenting or 'autopoietic' machine systems - both digital and materialized - has radical implications for received notions of agency, perception and subjectivity in general. It also raises important questions about the desirability of democratizing access to the forthcoming technologies. The possibility of unregulated 'molecular hacking' has frightening implications, but so too does the prospect of the monpolization of nanotech developments by powerful social forces.
The World Wide Web of Surveillance: the Internet and off-world power-flows
By David Lyon (Queen's University, Canada)
Abstract:
Surveillance, as the automatic electronic gleaning of personal data, has developed rapidly on the Internet, and the process is likely to intensify with the commercialization of such networked, computer-mediated communications. After placing this phenomenon in the context of already existing surveillance systems, some aspects of 'cyberspace surveillance' are examined. These include employment monitoring, policing and security, and marketing, the latter of which is the most generalized and the least perceptible to data subjects. 'Cookies' and 'spiders' are among the newer technical innovations mentioned, in relation to their social purposes. Possible explanatory frameworks are discussed, among which risk management, simulated surveillance, panopticism, and biopower are of particular importance. These may be used to question any mere theoretical preoccupation with discrete individuals, and readily identifiable organizations. It is argued, however, that such theoretical advances may often be complementary with, rather than exclusive of, those explanations that focus on questions of identity and personhood, or of difference and social division. How apparently 'off-world' power-flows in simulated surveillance situations actually reinforce real social inequalities, and the vulnerability of certain social groups to constraint or control, should be the focus of efforts to understand 'cyberspace surveillance'.
(This journal is available online:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/1369118X.html)
Posted with permission from the publisher.
|
