Beyond Big Brother
How to Study Tech-Driven Authoritarianism With Restricted Access to State Institutions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2402804 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rui Hou (0000-0001-5906-8817, Toronto Metropolitan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 394-413 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1466-1381 • E-ISSN: 1741-2714 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14661381221120208 |
| OpenAlex | W4292056914 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 68 |
With the tremendous advancements in Internet, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, the power and potential of digital technologies has a special appeal to political rulers. How can qualitative researchers explore tech-driven authoritarianism when they have limited access to state institutions? This article addresses this question by arguing for a wider and more nuanced understanding of tech-driven authoritarianism as a state-market complex mediating the political application of digital technologies. Based on my own research on China's Internet surveillance, I find that the engagement of the private sector, especially technology companies, in authoritarian control creates new opportunities for qualitative researchers to study state power in non-state fields. By reflecting on my experience of field-site choice, gaining access, and informant recruitment, I discuss how thorough preparation in both theory and fieldwork approaches help qualitative investigators develop creative ways of collecting information on tech-driven authoritarianism
Appeal · Authoritarianism · Big data · Democracy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Sociology · State (computer science · The Internet · World Wide Web · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Computer Science · Law · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies
Contesting Cyberspace in China
Civil Society under Authoritarianism
Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China
Ethnography in/of the World System
Reaching Citizens Online
State in Society
Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies
Doing Ethnographic and Observational Research
Manufacturing Consent in Cyberspace
Methodology Matters in Iran
Field Research on Law in Conflict Zones and Authoritarian States
Neoliberal governance or digitalized autocracy? The rising market for online opinion surveillance in China
Surveillance and Ethnography
Trends in Voter Surveillance in Western Societies
Watching the watchers
How to tackle variations in elite interviews
The commercialisation of Internet-opinion management
Cyber China
Digital media, political authoritarianism, and Internet controls in Southeast Asia
Exploring Sensitive Topics in an Authoritarian Context
Researching Authoritarianism in the Discipline of Democracy
Authoritarianism as a Research Constraint
Eyes Wide Shut
Sociology in the Era of Big Data
Introduction – Field methods in ‘closed contexts’
The allure and privileging of danger over everyday practice in field research
Internet control through ownership
Digital Politics
Liberation Technology
President XI's Surveillance State
Microblogs and the Adaptation of the Chinese Party‐State's Governance Strategy
Conditional Receptivity to Citizen Participation
The Consequences of the Internet for Politics
Asking Tough Questions
We Are the State
Platform labor
Making sense of algorithms
Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data
China's date with big data
Big Data Surveillance
Official microblogging and social management by local governments in China
How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression
The Boundaries of Research in an Authoritarian State
Methodological Challenges Faced in Doing Research With Vulnerable Women
Doing Internet research with hard-to-reach communities
Militant ethnography and autonomous politics in Latin America
Research in challenging environments
The Ethnographic Method in Sociology
The Politics of Gray Data
Critical Qualitative Inquiry
Data Scientists' Identity Work
Political Economy and Surveillance Theory
Surely You're Not in This Just to Be Helpful
Doing (critical) qualitative research in China in a global era
Contingent Symbiosis and Civil Society in an Authoritarian State
Black workers in Silicon Valley
Spatializing States
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |