Making Digital Surveillance Unacceptable? Security, Democracy, and the Political Sociology of Disputes

Bibliographic Data

ID2236618
AuthorsClaudia Aradau (0000-0003-2010-9006, King's College London, corresponding author), Emma Mc Cluskey (0000-0001-7625-9287, King's College London)
Year2022
Volume16
Issue1
Publication date2022-04-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ips/olab024
OpenAlexW4318901887
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited36

Despite extensive criticisms of mass surveillance and mobilization by civil liberties and digital rights activists, surveillance has paradoxically been extended and legalized in the name of security. How do some democratic claims against surveillance appear to be normal and common-sense, whereas others are deemed unacceptable, even outlandish? Instead of starting from particular 'logics' of either security or democracy, this paper proposes to develop a political sociology of disputes to trace how the relation between security and democracy is shaped by critique in practice. Disputes entail critique and demands for justification. They allow us to account for the constraints which govern whether an argument is deemed acceptable or improper; common-sensical or peculiar. We mobilize disputes in conjunction with Arjun Appadurai's reflections on 'small numbers' in democracies in order to understand how justifications of surveillance for security enact a 'rise in generality,' whereas critiques of digital surveillance that mobilize democratic claims enact a 'descent into singularity.' To this purpose, we analyze public mobilizations against mass surveillance and challenges brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). We draw on interviews with a range of actors involved in the disputes, the parties' submissions, oral hearings, judgments, and public reports

Argument (complex analysis) · Civil liberties · Democracy · Economics · Human rights · Law and economics · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Political Theology and Sovereignty

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