Tag: surveillance capitalism

  • Deflating the concept of ‘surveillance capitalism’

    I thought this was an interesting critique by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow in their Chokepoint Capitalism, arguing that the concept of ‘surveillance capitalism’ suggests a break with (past) capitalism whereas we are instead seeing a familiar modus operandi undertaken by new commercial actors: This is the true heart of “surveillance capitalism”—not the idea that […]

  • How bad will things get? The role of social theory when civilisation is collapsing

    How bad will things get? The role of social theory when civilisation is collapsing

    In the early pages of Surveillance Capitalism there is an evocative description of personal loss. Shoshana Zuboff recounts the experience of watching her house burn down, struggling to recognise the reality of what she was saying. The point she is making is that the unprecedented character of this event left her unable to fully comprehend what was taking place.

  • Imagining a decentralised social media

    Imagining a decentralised social media

    If I understand correctly Twitter’s Project Bluesky investigates the possibility of building a decentralised social media in which protocols (rules facilitating communication) and access (the process of communicating) are separated in order to open up social platforms in a radical way

  • The institutionalisation of behavioural surplus: a quick recap on The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

    The institutionalisation of behavioural surplus: a quick recap on The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

    I’m slowly making my way through Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and I thought I’d benefit from a quick recap of where I’d got to so far. In essence the first part of the book is an account of behavioural surplus: data about user behaviour  left over after narrowly technical requirements that can be […]

  • Educational technology in an age of Trump: a risk to students?

    I find this suggestion by Audrey Watters extremely plausible. Full interview here. I think that education data should be a top priority under the new Trump regime. Schools are wildly obsessed with collecting data. They have been for a very long time, but new digital technologies have compelled them to collect even more, all with […]