The aestheticisation of surveillance
Visibility, affect, and the moral economy of digital capitalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8132008 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gil Baptista Ferreira (0000-0002-5917-1248, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/08969205251414994 |
| OpenAlex | W7128298064 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
This article explores the aesthetic and affective normalisation of surveillance in contemporary digital capitalism. It shows how everyday practices of digital self-presentation such as posting, sharing, and taking selfies shape visibility as a moral and economic value. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s notion of aura, Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquidity, and Byung-Chul Han’s reflections on transparency, the analysis examines how ideals of productivity, openness, and self-optimisation are translated into visual and emotional norms. The article conceptualises this dynamic as an aestheticisation of everyday surveillance, understood as a participatory regime in which users actively sustain forms of visibility through gestures of care, pleasure, and exposure. Bringing together theoretical perspectives and empirical studies on youth self-presentation, it highlights surveillance as a relational aesthetic practice embedded in platform environments. The article contributes to critical social theory by linking aesthetic experience, affect, and visibility within contemporary capitalism
Capitalism · Citizen journalism · Everyday life · Gesture · Moral economy · Precarity · Social practice · Visibility · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Digital Media and Philosophy · Gender, Feminism, and Media
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Privacy’s Blueprint
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The Moral Economy of High-Tech Modernism
Poetics of relation
The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century
Adolescents' Norms of Self-Presentation on Snapchat
Posting Back
Neoliberalism in Action
Moral Views of Market Society
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |