transparency
Getting ‘sucked into parliament’: Tracing the process of professional political socialization
Introduction
People change when they become professional politicians; if we follow public opinion, they often change for the worse. Long before the current surge in populist resentment against ‘the elite’ all over the Western world, the opaque proceedings of politics were seen as having a corrupting effect, transforming idealistic newcomers into professional politicians with questionable morals and eventually alienating the public. It is a widely accepted view that people turn into the worst versions of themselves once they take up politics.
Against transparency: Surveillant assemblages, partition and the limits of digital democracy
In this short book, just 64 pages, Clare Birchall addresses the shifting relationships between data and citizens to unpack what big data, transparency and openness, mean for democracy and the government of subjects. It stands as an interesting read alongside Zuboff’s (2019) voluminous The age of surveillance capitalism, not only for the contrast in page count, but also for the distinct theoretical take and the greater focus on the role of the State.
The social productivity of anonymity
In a process that started decades ago, a multiplicity of forces is creating a slow, but steadily rising storm against anonymity. Discourses of transparency and accountability often describe anonymity as a threat. Technologies such as the IP-address-based Internet, sensory devices, and machine learning techniques further undermine anonymous encounters. In an age of near ubiquitous surveillance, anonymity is under attack. But what is at stake in such discourses and developments?
A vanishing act: The magical technologies of invisibility in care work
Introduction
In J.K. Rowling’s epic fantasy novels about Harry Potter, the reader meets Hermione Jean Granger, a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the best friend of the protagonist, Harry Potter, and another central character, Ron Weasley. Hermione is referred to as the little know-it-all because of her encyclopaedic knowledge, which at times has the effect of making her ignorant of her surroundings. Hermione’s snootiness, however, hides her insecurity and fear of failure.
Open secrets
The theme of ‘open secrets’ offers a pathway through the ten diverse contributions to this open issue, tracing the interplay of openness and closure, visibility and invisibility, transparency and secrecy, the superficial and the profound in contemporary organizational life. The issue includes contributions on technologies of invisibility in Danish care work; struggles for professional accreditation in Italian consultancy; the political and ‘sub-political’ in the Pirate Party movement; Swedish trades unions and workplace subjectivity; and the play of fashion and distinction in management sch
Fighting corruption with transparent organizations: Anti-corruption and functional deviance in organizational behavior
Thus every Part was full of Vice,
Yet the whole Mass a Paradice.
Bernard Mandeville, The fable of the bees
