The Context-Variable Self and Autonomy: Exploring Surveillance Experience, (Mis)recognition, and Action at Airport Security Checkpoints

Abstract

This paper critiques and extends the notion of autonomy by examining how common autonomy definitions construct selfhood, with the support of an analysis of airport surveillance experiences. In psychology, autonomy is (1) often oriented around volition and action rather than the-self-that-acts and (2) the-self-that-acts is construed in singular terms. This neglects the multiple, context-variable self: while others may confirm our self-definitions (recognition), identity claims may also be rejected (misrecognition). The autonomy critique is sustained through an ethnographic analysis of airport security accounts (N = 156) in multiple nations with comparable security procedure (e.g., identification checks, luggage screening, questioning). Such procedures position people in multiple ways (e.g., as safe/dangerous, human/object, respectable/trash). Where respondents felt recognized, they experienced the security procedures positively, actively assisted in the screening process (engaged participation), and did not adapt their behaviors. Where respondents felt misrecognized, they experienced surveillance negatively, were alienated, and responded by either accommodating their behavior to avoid scrutiny, seeking to disrupt the process, or else withdrawing from screening sites. In misrecognition, the strategies that are open to the subject are incompatible with autonomy, if autonomy is defined solely in terms of volition. Accordingly, the concept of autonomy needs to be analyzed on two levels: in terms of the subject’s ability freely to determine their own sense of self, as well as the actor’s ability freely to enact selfhood.

Racism and misrecognition

“…Our research adds detail to previous studies on misrecognition and racism. For instance, research on misrecognition in airport security showed that misrecognition was treated as racism to the extent that it functioned in racialized terms (e.g., singling out people by nationality or ethnic appearance) and communicated a lack of belonging (Blackwood et al., 2013b; McNamara & Reicher, 2019). We have illustrated how accounts of such incidents are worked up publicly, managed sensitively, and depend on their reception.…”

“…They noted that participants reported having to manage both the incorrect attribution of religious affiliation and racist assumptions associated with Islam. In one account in McNamara and Reicher's (2019) study, misrecognition was described as 'kind of racist' by one of the participants but most instances cited did not explicitly characterize misrecognition as racism. Rawls and Duck (2017), by contrast, made direct connections with racism in their interviewed-based study of accounts of 'nonrecognition' from Black men in professional contexts in the United States.…”

“…They noted that participants reported having to manage both the incorrect attribution of religious affiliation and racist assumptions associated with Islam. In one account in McNamara and Reicher’s (2019) study, misrecognition was described as ‘kind of racist’ by one of the participants but most instances cited did not explicitly characterize misrecognition as racism.…”

Where are you really from? Understanding misrecognition from the experiences of French and Dutch Muslim women students

“…The lack of power leads to a lack of autonomy on two levels: to define and to act upon one's own identity (McNamara & Reicher, 2019). Misrecognition is thus a materialisation of negative power in which powerful others impose identities on the relative disempowered.…”

TQM in Aviation Security

“…Thus, practical management tools have become necessary for both airports and airlines in the process of optimizing the security processes while keeping a high customer service level and profitability¹. (McNamara & Reicher, 2019).…”