Transparency, Society and Subjectivity: Critical Perspectives

by Emmanuel Alloa (Editor), Dieter Thomï (Editor)

Overview

This book critically engages with the idea of transparency whose ubiquitous demand stands in stark contrast to its lack of conceptual clarity. The book carefully examines this notion in its own right, traces its emergence in Early Modernity and analyzes its omnipresence in contemporary rhetoric. Today, transparency has become a catchword outplaying other Enlightenment values like empowerment, sincerity and the notion of a public sphere. In a suspicious manner, transparency is entangled in the discourses on power, surveillance, and self-exposure. Bringing together prominent scholars from the emerging field of Critical Transparency Studies, the book offers a map of the various sites at which transparency has become virulent and connects the dots between past and present. By studying its appearances in today’s hyper-mediated economies of information and by linking it back to its historical roots, the book analyzes transparency and its discontents, and scrutinizes the reasons why it has become the imperative of a supposedly post-ideological age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319771601
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/23/2018
Edition description:	1st ed. 2018
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Emmanuel Alloa is Research Leader in Philosophy at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and teaches aesthetics at the University of Paris 8. His work is located at the intersection of continental philosophy, aesthetics and social theory. He is the author of Resistance of the Sensible World. An Introduction to Merleau-Ponty (2017).

Dieter Thomä is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and the author of Troublemakers: A Philosophy of “puer robustus” (2019). He specializes in political philosophy, aesthetics and phenomenology, and has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the Getty Research Institute.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction; Emmanuel Alloa & Dieter Thomä.
Chapter 2. Not so Wicked Leaks; Umberto Eco.
Part I. Transparency In The Making
3. Transparency; Emmanuel Alloa.
4. Seeing It All, Doing It All, Saying It All; Dieter Thomä.
5. The Dream of Transparency; Manfred Schneider.
6. The Unbounded Confession; Noreen Khawaja.
7. Seeing It All; Miran Božovič.
8. ransparency, Humanism, and the Politics of the Future Before and After May ’68; Stefanos Geroulanos.
Part II. Under the Crystal Dome.
9. The Limits of Transparency; Amitai Etzioni.
10. Publicity and Transparency; Sandrine Baume.
11. Regulation and Transparency as Rituals of Distrust; Caspar Hirschi.
12. Not Individuals, Relations; Thomas Berns.
13. Obfuscated Transparency; Dieter Mersch.
14. The Privatization of Human Interests or, How Transparency Breeds Conformity; Thomas Docherty.
Part. III. From the Panopticon to the Selfie and Back.
15. Transparency and Subjectivity; Vincent Kaufmann.
16. Putting Oneself Out There; Jörg Metelmann & Thomas Telios.
17. Interrupting Transparency; Clare Birchall.
18. Virtual Transparency; Bernard E. Harcourt.- Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Incessantly invoked as a necessary condition of all aspects of democratic life, transparency is being hailed as a top priority in public management, corporate business, and international relations. But the more we critically examine what transparency actually means, the more it emerges as an opaque, and perhaps even occluding, concept. By offering a bold and comprehensive picture of the new field of Critical Transparency Studies, this collection of essays is certain to become the standard reference for years to come.” (Giovanna Borradori, Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College, USA)

“This important collection historicizes and criticizes transparency, one of neoliberalism’s most ubiquitous norms. As the contributors draw out the normative presumptions of the concept, they alert us to its regulatory effects, its implications for surveillance and subjectivation. Rather than an ideal of democratic freedom, transparency mobilizes distrust and commands exposure. Crucial reading for anyone interested in critical assessment of our present values. ” (Jodi Dean, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA, and author of Publicity's Secret: How Technoculture Capitalizes on Democracy, 2002)

Editorial Reviews

The book is a very welcome contribution to transparency literature. … I can warmly recommend reading the book to anyone who is interested in our current culture of transparency, its promises, and in particular its perils.” (Ida Koivisto, Res Publica, Vol. 25, 2019)

From the Publisher