Welfare Governance in the Surveillance Society: A Positive‐Realistic Cybercriticalist View

Abstract

In exploring the implications of information and communication technologies (ICTs), Fitzpatrick has suggested the need for a new category of rights-virtual rights. To explore this claim, we consider how developments in information management and processing differentially impact on citizens. Using examples from the public and private sectors we explore the dangers posed by the emergent surveillance society and agree these may require new rights. But we suggest that the state has by no means been an exemplar and, moreover, that many of the "surveilling" practices employed by commercial organizations might be used by the state to pursue socially just ends. We argue against a criticalist perspective that narrowly focuses on the dangers posed by new ICTs. Indeed, from a realist perspective we argue that a positive cybercriticalism that seeks to tackle exclusion by harnessing and constraining the surveillance qualities of ICTs is a pressing policy priority.

Welfare Surveillance, Income Management and New Paternalism in Australia

“…This post war settlement around employment and welfare policies became increasingly brittle following the demise of the Whitlam Labor Government in 1975 and throughout successive Conservative and Labor administrations (Kennedy 1982;Pusey 1991;Bessant et al 2006). Given the pervasiveness of all forms of surveillance and that 'cyberspace is not a flat, multilateral plane and the nodes of the network are not all equal' (Fitzpatrick 2000: 390) arguably, the classic formulation by Marshall and Bottomore (1950) of social, political and civil citizenship rights now needs to take into account a form of virtual citizenship rights-or rights over one's virtual, data self, analogous to rights and protections concomitant with being a physically constituted being (Dornan and Hudson 2003).…”

The Social Division of Welfare Surveillance

“…To be fair, targeted forms of surveillance do not always reinforce disadvantage. As Dornan and Hudson (2003) argue, targeted surveillance can be an important tool in enhancing equity, by providing enhanced services and resources to those most in need. Australia's celebrated Job Seekers Classification Index, whereby the unemployed are categorised and given graduated services based on projected risk of long-term unemployment, is one example (DEWSRB, 1998; McDonald et al ., 2003).…”

“…He notes that, while the technophiles praise the internet and advanced ICTs for their democratising capabilities, ‘the fact [is] that cyberspace is not a flat, multilateral plane and the nodes of the network are not all equal’ (2000: 390). To promote critical engagement of the social impact of emerging information technologies, Fitzpatrick promotes the idea of virtual rights, to which Dornan and Hudson (2003) respond that such virtual rights are unnecessary because traditional rights are sufficient. Regardless of these interventions, the relative novelty of surveillance is evident in Tony Fitzpatrick's discussion of surveillance in his recent book New Theories of Welfare (2005), with the emphasis on ‘new’.…”

Digital apartheid and the effect of mobile technology during rural fieldwork

“…The South African context adds the third dimension, that of digital skills development 4,8 to further compound student aca- The virtual dimension emerges from the intentional act of 'digital redlining' which takes on a number of forms. It may be under the guise of protecting an organisation from spam and illicit, harmful cyber-attacks, but has the secondary outcome of blocking or filtering out communities who only have access through cheaper portals, as these are attractive avenues for hackers and spammers 9 . Another form of 'digital redlining' from South Africa is the rollout of Vumatel's VUMA © high-speed fibre product offered only to neighbourhoods with a large enough portion of the community 'pre-committing' online to using the service 10 .…”