(In)visibility Before Privacy

A Theological Ethics of Surveillance as Social Sorting

Bibliographic Data

ID8103572
AuthorsEric Stoddart (0000-0002-1261-6510, University of St Andrews, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume27
Issue1
Pages33-49
Publication date2014-01-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Christian Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0953-9468 • E-ISSN: 1745-5235
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0953946813509335
OpenAlexW2099025396
LanguageEN
Citations received10

This article offers a theological ethics of surveillance in its form as social sorting. The skill of (in)visibility is deployed as an analytical device to critique the saliency of privacy rights-talk, given the focus of surveillance having shifted from a panoptic gaze to actionable intelligence. The claim is made that an ideology of normativity and the political categories of ‘evil’ and ‘risky’ persons can be addressed by the notions of relational knowledge (Muers), the resurrection of the non-person (Swinton) and the power of the future (Moltmann). Three biblical vignettes illustrate (in)visibility and offer imaginative responses

Epistemology · Focus (optics · Gaze · Ideology · Internet privacy · Panopticon · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Visibility · Computer Science · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Psychology · Theology and Philosophy of Evil · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Social Psychology