Identity, Technology and their Confluence: Governmentality in the Digital Age
Open Access
- 1 July 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Queensland University of Technology in Law, Technology and Humans
- Vol. 2 (2), 81-96
- https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.v2i2.1437
Abstract
The digital age has posed significant challenges for the governance of society. These challenges stem, in part, from the fact that many of the practices of governance arose in the pre-digital world. Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’ is a framework that can take account of the different sets of practices of governance. Comparing current practices with those highlighted by Miller and Rose’s ‘three families’ of governmentality suggests that twenty-first century governance operates as a new, fourth family. This research demonstrates this through an examination of aspects of the law—such as welfare and libel law—that have changed since the nineteenth century, with those changes mapping to the different families. In other words, the manner in which we, as legal subjects, have been constituted has changed, and will continue to change. As such, while specific practices such as fake news are seen to be problematic now, any reactions to them are historically contingent—and so the practices may not be seen to be an issue in a couple of decades time.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- The ‘Reasonable Man’, his Nineteenth-century ‘Siblings’, and their LegacyJournal of Law and Society, 2017
- Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 ElectionJournal of Economic Perspectives, 2017
- The Visiocracy of the Social Security Mobile App in AustraliaInternational Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 2016
- Big other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information CivilizationJournal of Information Technology, 2015
- Extended Self in a Digital World: Table 1.Journal of Consumer Research, 2013
- The practice and study of civil resistanceJournal of Peace Research, 2013
- EU rules beyond EU borders: theorizing external governance in European politicsJournal of European Public Policy, 2009
- Does the Media Matter? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effect of Newspapers on Voting Behavior and Political OpinionsAmerican Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009
- The Birth of BiopoliticsPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2008
- ‘The Privileged Few’ and the Classification ofHenwood v HarrisonGriffith Law Review, 2005