Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Conditions of Control and Agency

Technical, Collective, Individual

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Wilful Blindness

  • 137 Accesses

Abstract

Another precondition in order to analyse how the self is constructed within the current conditions in relation to the collection of personal data looks at the distribution of power that unfolds within the conditions previously described in the fifth chapter. The focus is again placed on how the subjects of the research understand their own sense of agency and where they feel they lack control. It is shown that the individual is inextricably located in a triad between herself, others and (technical) things. Within this triad, whose sides are not clearly separated but interdependent and correlated, complex conditions of power and agency exist. Digital media thus mark a relevant aspect of the culture of everyday life that both impact as well as are impacted upon in complex structures of power.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In the current version of WhatsApp users can decide on whether or not they wish to share this information. They can only access this data on others as long as they are also willing to share their own. This change in the design of the app also brings along a change of agency in relation to the users.

References

  • Bauman, Z. (2012). Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (2011). No one is in control. That is the major source of contemporary fear. In The Guardian. Video retrieved May 25, 2018, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Nmv-4jvSc

  • Bauman, Z. (2006) Liquid Fear. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (1999). Culture as Praxis. London: Sage Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z.; Bigo, D.; Esteves, P.; Guild, E.; Jabri, V.; Lyon, D. & Walker, R.B.J. (2014). After Snowden: Rethinking the Impact of Surveillance. International Political Sociology 8(2) (pp. 121–144).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. & Lyon, D. (2013). Liquid Surveillance. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corgan, P. (2013). Experience of the Temporal Industrial Object. In C. Howells &G. Moore (Eds.) Stiegler and Technics (pp. 102–118). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damberger, T. & Iske, S. (2017). Quantified Self aus bildungstheoretischer Perspektive. In R. Biermann & D. Verständig (Eds.) Das unkämpfte Netz (pp. 17–36). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the Societies of Control. October 59 (pp. 3–7). Retrieved March 3, 2017, from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778828

  • Esser, F.; Baader, M.; Betz, T. & Hungerland, B. (2016) Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood: New Perspectives in Childhood Studies. London: Routledge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York, NY: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1992). The Question of Cultural Identity. In S. Hall; D. Held & T. McGrew (Eds.) Modernity and its Futures (pp. 273–326). Cambridge: Polity Press and The Open University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1990). Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.) Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (pp. 222–237). London: Lawrence and Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (1990) A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (pp. 149–181). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, T. (1988). Adaptation and Stability. In M. Sahlins & E. Service (Eds.) Evolution and Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayles, N. (2007). Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes. Profession (pp. 187–199). Retrieved April 27, 2018, from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25595866

  • Humboldt, W. von (1997). Bildung und Sprache - 5th Edition. Paderborn: Schöningh Paderborn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keupp, H. (1997). Diskursarena Identität: Lernprozesse in der Identitätsforschung. In H. Keupp & R. Höfer (Eds.) Identitätsarbeit heute. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemmens, P. (2015). Social Autonomy and Heteronomy in the Age of ICT: The Digital Pharmakon and the (Dis)Empowerment of the General Intellect. In Found Sci. Retrieved February 13, 2017, from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-015-9468-1

  • Lyon, D. (2010). Liquid Surveillance: The Contribution of Zymunt Bauman to Surveillance Studies. In International Political Sociology 4 (pp. 325–328). Retrieved April 27, 2018, from: doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-5687.2010.00109.x

  • Mead, G.H. (1934). Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rappaport, R. (1971). Ritual, Sancity and Cybernetics. American Anthropologist 73. Retrieved May 19, 2018, from: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1971.73.1.02a00050

  • Selke, S. (2015). Rationale Diskriminierung. Zeitschrift Luxemburg Futuring 23 (2015). Retrieved March 22, 2018, from: https://www.zeitschrift-luxemburg.de/rationale-diskriminierung/

  • Stiegler, B. & Tisseron, S. (2009). Faut-il interdire les écrans aux enfants? Beziers: Editions Mordicus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiegler, B. (2009). Technics and Time 2: Disorientation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiegler, B. (n.d.). Within the limits of capitalism, economizing means taking care. In Ars Industrialis. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from: http://arsindustrialis.org/node/2922

  • Turow, J. (2011). The Daily You. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuboff, S. (2015). Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of Information Technology (30), pp. 75–89. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frankfurt, Germany

    Estella Ferraro

Authors
  1. Estella Ferraro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Estella Ferraro .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ferraro, E. (2021). Conditions of Control and Agency. In: Wilful Blindness. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32654-8_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32654-8_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-32653-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-658-32654-8

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation