Clare Birchall
Biographic Data
| ID | 189494 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Clare Birchall |
| GIVEN NAMES | Clare |
| FAMILY NAME | Birchall |
| SIGNATURE | BIRCHALL C |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8211-0470 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 218 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
On Psyop Realism
This article charts the emergence of a “psyop-realist” aesthetic in online culture and art. Embodying the feeling of unreality of the pandemic years, psyop realism speaks to new anxieties of influence brought about by the convergence of military psyops, mis- and disinformation, and behavioral manipulation as a paradigmatic condition of being “terminally online.” The article first turns to Trevor Paglen's recent work on psyops, tracing what he see…
Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19
Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19 provides a wide-ranging analysis of the emergence and development of conspiracy theories during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on the US and the UK. The book combines digital methods analysis of large datasets assembled from social media with politically and culturally contextualised close readings informed by cultural studies. In contrast to other studies which often have an alarmist take on the "…
Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy Theories and the Internet
What difference has the internet made to conspiracy theories? In the wake of recent episodes in the United States—from birtherism to the “big lie,” from QAnon to the COVID-19 “infodemic,” and from the “great replacement” to the “great reset”—the default assumption is that the internet has created an unprecedented spread of conspiracy theories. It seems commonsense that the internet in general, and social media in particular, has increased the vol…
Radical Secrecy: The Ends of Transparency in Datafied America
Interrompre la distriveillance
Les sujets numérisés sont façonnés par ce qu'il faudrait appeler, à la suite de Rancière, le partage numérique du sensible - un arrangement qui détermine ce qui est visible, dicible et connaissable. Or cet arrangement implique des formes de surveillance distribuée, qu'on appellera « distriveillance », caractérisées par un transfert de la surveillance d'État vers les sujets eux-mêmes. Il est urgent d'interrompre ce partage de données automatisé po…
Shareveillance: Subjectivity between open and closed data
This article attempts to question modes of sharing and watching to rethink political subjectivity beyond that which is enabled and enforced by the current data regime. It identifies and examines a 'shareveillant' subjectivity: a form configured by the sharing and watching that subjects have to withstand and enact in the contemporary data assemblage. Looking at government open and closed data as case studies, this article demonstrates how 'shareve…
Data.gov-in-a-box: Delimiting transparency
Given that the Obama administration still relies on many strategies we would think of as sitting on the side of secrecy, it seems that the only lasting transparency legacy of the Obama administration will be data-driven or e-transparency as exemplified by the web interface ' data.gov '. As the data-driven transparency model is exported and assumes an ascendant position around the globe, it is imperative that we ask what kind of publics, subjects,…
Aesthetics of the Secret
In re-igniting a familiar debate about the balance between state security and individual privacy, the revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have have stalled on matters of regulation and reform, which treat secrecy, securitisation and surveillance largely in procedural terms. This article seeks to interrupt the containment strategies of communicative capitalism/democracy evident in these debates by configuring secrets as subject to …
Radical Transparency
This article considers the cultural positioning of transparency as a superior form of disclosure through a comparative analysis with other forms. One, as yet under-examined appeal of transparency lies in its promise to circumvent the need for, and usurp the role of, narrative-interpretive forms of disclosure such as scandal, gossip, and conspiracy theories. This growing preference for transparency as a more enlightening, honorable mode of disclos…
There's Been Too Much Secrecy in This City: The False Choice between Secrecy and Transparency in US Politics
While the choice between secrecy and transparency has political and cultural salience, this paper questions the logic of such an opposition. Through a consideration of the different attitudes towards secrecy embedded in the Bush and Obama administrations, this paper argues that both positions fail to understand their own relation not only to secrecy itself, but also to each other. They are caught, that is, within the same commonsensical idea of t…
Introduction to 'Secrecy and Transparency: The Politics of Opacity and Openness
This article opens a special section on the politics of opacity and openness. The rise of transparency as a political and cultural ideal has left secrecy to accumulate negative connotations. But the moral discourse that condemns secrecy and rewards transparency may cause us to misread the symbiotic relationship between these terms. After providing a historical account of transparency in public and political life, this article therefore makes the …
Transparency, Interrupted: Secrets of the Left
Though far from new, the rhetoric of transparency is on the ascent in public and political life. It is cited as the answer to a vast array of social, political, financial and corporate problems. With the backing of a 'movement', transparency has assumed the position of an unassailable 'good'. This article asks whether the value ascribed to transparency limits political thinking, particularly for the radical and socialist Left. What forms of polit…
Cultural Studies Confidential1
The current climate of secrecy, this essay contends, demands scrutiny. In order to do this, however, I suggest that cultural studies must think through its own secrets. I try to follow through one such secret here: namely the secret of cultural studies’ possible ‘illegitimacy’ as a discipline, a possibility that haunts us at every turn. While this might sound contentious, I argue that the possibility of illegitimacy is the condition of all knowle…
New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory (Some Comments, Clarifications, Explanations, Observations, Recommendations, Remarks, Statements and Suggestions)
1 New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory (Some Comments, Clarifications, Explanations, Observations, Recommendations, Remarks, Statements and Suggestions) was published in New Cultural Studies on page 1.
Cultural Studies and the Secret
Knowledge Goes Pop: From Conspiracy Theory to Gossip
A voice on late night radio tells you that a fast food joint injects its food with drugs that make men impotent. A colleague asks if you think the FBI was in on 9/11. An alien abductee on the Internet claims extra-terrestrials have planted a microchip in her left buttock. 'Julia Roberts in Porn Scandal' shouts the front page of a gossip mag. A spiritual healer claims he can cure chronic fatigue syndrome with the energizing power of crystals . . .…
New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory
What should or could cultural studies look like in the 21st Century? New Cultural Studies is both an introductory reference work and an original study which explores some of the most exciting new directions currently being opened up in cultural studies. A new generation has begun to emerge from the shadow of the Birmingham School: a generation who have turned to theory as a means to think through some of the crucial problems and issues in contemp…
Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation
Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation
(2001). Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation. Continuum: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 67-76
Introduction to 'Secrecy and Transparency: The Politics of Opacity and Openness
This article opens a special section on the politics of opacity and openness. The rise of transparency as a political and cultural ideal has left secrecy to accumulate negative connotations. But the moral discourse that condemns secrecy and rewards transparency may cause us to misread the symbiotic relationship between these terms. After providing a historical account of transparency in public and political life, this article therefore makes the …
Radical Transparency
This article considers the cultural positioning of transparency as a superior form of disclosure through a comparative analysis with other forms. One, as yet under-examined appeal of transparency lies in its promise to circumvent the need for, and usurp the role of, narrative-interpretive forms of disclosure such as scandal, gossip, and conspiracy theories. This growing preference for transparency as a more enlightening, honorable mode of disclos…
Transparency, Interrupted: Secrets of the Left
Though far from new, the rhetoric of transparency is on the ascent in public and political life. It is cited as the answer to a vast array of social, political, financial and corporate problems. With the backing of a 'movement', transparency has assumed the position of an unassailable 'good'. This article asks whether the value ascribed to transparency limits political thinking, particularly for the radical and socialist Left. What forms of polit…
Data.gov-in-a-box: Delimiting transparency
Given that the Obama administration still relies on many strategies we would think of as sitting on the side of secrecy, it seems that the only lasting transparency legacy of the Obama administration will be data-driven or e-transparency as exemplified by the web interface ' data.gov '. As the data-driven transparency model is exported and assumes an ascendant position around the globe, it is imperative that we ask what kind of publics, subjects,…
New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory
What should or could cultural studies look like in the 21st Century? New Cultural Studies is both an introductory reference work and an original study which explores some of the most exciting new directions currently being opened up in cultural studies. A new generation has begun to emerge from the shadow of the Birmingham School: a generation who have turned to theory as a means to think through some of the crucial problems and issues in contemp…
There's Been Too Much Secrecy in This City: The False Choice between Secrecy and Transparency in US Politics
While the choice between secrecy and transparency has political and cultural salience, this paper questions the logic of such an opposition. Through a consideration of the different attitudes towards secrecy embedded in the Bush and Obama administrations, this paper argues that both positions fail to understand their own relation not only to secrecy itself, but also to each other. They are caught, that is, within the same commonsensical idea of t…
Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation
(2001). Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation. Continuum: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 67-76
Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy Theories and the Internet
What difference has the internet made to conspiracy theories? In the wake of recent episodes in the United States—from birtherism to the “big lie,” from QAnon to the COVID-19 “infodemic,” and from the “great replacement” to the “great reset”—the default assumption is that the internet has created an unprecedented spread of conspiracy theories. It seems commonsense that the internet in general, and social media in particular, has increased the vol…
Shareveillance: Subjectivity between open and closed data
This article attempts to question modes of sharing and watching to rethink political subjectivity beyond that which is enabled and enforced by the current data regime. It identifies and examines a 'shareveillant' subjectivity: a form configured by the sharing and watching that subjects have to withstand and enact in the contemporary data assemblage. Looking at government open and closed data as case studies, this article demonstrates how 'shareve…
Interrompre la distriveillance
Les sujets numérisés sont façonnés par ce qu'il faudrait appeler, à la suite de Rancière, le partage numérique du sensible - un arrangement qui détermine ce qui est visible, dicible et connaissable. Or cet arrangement implique des formes de surveillance distribuée, qu'on appellera « distriveillance », caractérisées par un transfert de la surveillance d'État vers les sujets eux-mêmes. Il est urgent d'interrompre ce partage de données automatisé po…
Cultural Studies Confidential1
The current climate of secrecy, this essay contends, demands scrutiny. In order to do this, however, I suggest that cultural studies must think through its own secrets. I try to follow through one such secret here: namely the secret of cultural studies’ possible ‘illegitimacy’ as a discipline, a possibility that haunts us at every turn. While this might sound contentious, I argue that the possibility of illegitimacy is the condition of all knowle…
Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation
Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation
(2001). Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation. Continuum: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 67-76
New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory (Some Comments, Clarifications, Explanations, Observations, Recommendations, Remarks, Statements and Suggestions)
1 New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory (Some Comments, Clarifications, Explanations, Observations, Recommendations, Remarks, Statements and Suggestions) was published in New Cultural Studies on page 1.
Cultural Studies and the Secret
Knowledge Goes Pop: From Conspiracy Theory to Gossip
A voice on late night radio tells you that a fast food joint injects its food with drugs that make men impotent. A colleague asks if you think the FBI was in on 9/11. An alien abductee on the Internet claims extra-terrestrials have planted a microchip in her left buttock. 'Julia Roberts in Porn Scandal' shouts the front page of a gossip mag. A spiritual healer claims he can cure chronic fatigue syndrome with the energizing power of crystals . . .…
New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory
What should or could cultural studies look like in the 21st Century? New Cultural Studies is both an introductory reference work and an original study which explores some of the most exciting new directions currently being opened up in cultural studies. A new generation has begun to emerge from the shadow of the Birmingham School: a generation who have turned to theory as a means to think through some of the crucial problems and issues in contemp…
Cultural Studies Confidential1
The current climate of secrecy, this essay contends, demands scrutiny. In order to do this, however, I suggest that cultural studies must think through its own secrets. I try to follow through one such secret here: namely the secret of cultural studies’ possible ‘illegitimacy’ as a discipline, a possibility that haunts us at every turn. While this might sound contentious, I argue that the possibility of illegitimacy is the condition of all knowle…
There's Been Too Much Secrecy in This City: The False Choice between Secrecy and Transparency in US Politics
While the choice between secrecy and transparency has political and cultural salience, this paper questions the logic of such an opposition. Through a consideration of the different attitudes towards secrecy embedded in the Bush and Obama administrations, this paper argues that both positions fail to understand their own relation not only to secrecy itself, but also to each other. They are caught, that is, within the same commonsensical idea of t…
Introduction to 'Secrecy and Transparency: The Politics of Opacity and Openness
This article opens a special section on the politics of opacity and openness. The rise of transparency as a political and cultural ideal has left secrecy to accumulate negative connotations. But the moral discourse that condemns secrecy and rewards transparency may cause us to misread the symbiotic relationship between these terms. After providing a historical account of transparency in public and political life, this article therefore makes the …
Transparency, Interrupted: Secrets of the Left
Though far from new, the rhetoric of transparency is on the ascent in public and political life. It is cited as the answer to a vast array of social, political, financial and corporate problems. With the backing of a 'movement', transparency has assumed the position of an unassailable 'good'. This article asks whether the value ascribed to transparency limits political thinking, particularly for the radical and socialist Left. What forms of polit…
Aesthetics of the Secret
In re-igniting a familiar debate about the balance between state security and individual privacy, the revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have have stalled on matters of regulation and reform, which treat secrecy, securitisation and surveillance largely in procedural terms. This article seeks to interrupt the containment strategies of communicative capitalism/democracy evident in these debates by configuring secrets as subject to …
Radical Transparency
This article considers the cultural positioning of transparency as a superior form of disclosure through a comparative analysis with other forms. One, as yet under-examined appeal of transparency lies in its promise to circumvent the need for, and usurp the role of, narrative-interpretive forms of disclosure such as scandal, gossip, and conspiracy theories. This growing preference for transparency as a more enlightening, honorable mode of disclos…
Data.gov-in-a-box: Delimiting transparency
Given that the Obama administration still relies on many strategies we would think of as sitting on the side of secrecy, it seems that the only lasting transparency legacy of the Obama administration will be data-driven or e-transparency as exemplified by the web interface ' data.gov '. As the data-driven transparency model is exported and assumes an ascendant position around the globe, it is imperative that we ask what kind of publics, subjects,…
Shareveillance: Subjectivity between open and closed data
This article attempts to question modes of sharing and watching to rethink political subjectivity beyond that which is enabled and enforced by the current data regime. It identifies and examines a 'shareveillant' subjectivity: a form configured by the sharing and watching that subjects have to withstand and enact in the contemporary data assemblage. Looking at government open and closed data as case studies, this article demonstrates how 'shareve…
Interrompre la distriveillance
Les sujets numérisés sont façonnés par ce qu'il faudrait appeler, à la suite de Rancière, le partage numérique du sensible - un arrangement qui détermine ce qui est visible, dicible et connaissable. Or cet arrangement implique des formes de surveillance distribuée, qu'on appellera « distriveillance », caractérisées par un transfert de la surveillance d'État vers les sujets eux-mêmes. Il est urgent d'interrompre ce partage de données automatisé po…
Radical Secrecy: The Ends of Transparency in Datafied America
Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19
Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19 provides a wide-ranging analysis of the emergence and development of conspiracy theories during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on the US and the UK. The book combines digital methods analysis of large datasets assembled from social media with politically and culturally contextualised close readings informed by cultural studies. In contrast to other studies which often have an alarmist take on the "…
Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy Theories and the Internet
What difference has the internet made to conspiracy theories? In the wake of recent episodes in the United States—from birtherism to the “big lie,” from QAnon to the COVID-19 “infodemic,” and from the “great replacement” to the “great reset”—the default assumption is that the internet has created an unprecedented spread of conspiracy theories. It seems commonsense that the internet in general, and social media in particular, has increased the vol…
On Psyop Realism
This article charts the emergence of a “psyop-realist” aesthetic in online culture and art. Embodying the feeling of unreality of the pandemic years, psyop realism speaks to new anxieties of influence brought about by the convergence of military psyops, mis- and disinformation, and behavioral manipulation as a paradigmatic condition of being “terminally online.” The article first turns to Trevor Paglen's recent work on psyops, tracing what he see…
Sociology (13 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Secrecy (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Law and economics (6 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (6 works) · Politics (6 works)