## ****Portfolio 3****: Surveillance capitalism #### By: Lasse Utoft Vindbjerg, Jakob Markussen & Marius Holm. --- ### **Research question** :question: > To what extent can a Foucauldian perspective be used, reflecting Zuboff’s case of the China Syndrome, to describe the motives and rationale of surveillance capitalism? --- ## **Contents of our presentation** * ##### A History of Surveillance Capitalism * ##### A New Species of Power: Instrumentarianism, Rendition & Big Other * ##### Behavioural Nodification: Tuning, Herding and Conditioning * ##### The China Syndrome: surveillance capitalistic rationalities in a territorial state * ##### Instrumentarianism and rendition in perspective of disciplinary mechanisms and normalization * ##### Behavioural modification through the milieu: mechanisms of security * ##### Conclusion --- ### **A history of surveillance capitalism** - The start of surveillance capitalism - behavioural surplus & prediction products - The three economies (scale, scope & action) ---- #### The start of surveillance capitalism - Google as a pioneer - Silicon Valley & burts of the dot-com bubble - Google started advertising ---- #### Behavioural surplus & Prediction products - Data exhaust - biproduct - a way to understand the users - Data used to look at the users behavior with advertising in focus. - The surplus is created into prediction products sold into future behavioural markets. ---- #### The three economies - Economies of scale - Vast of data - Economies of scope - Varied data - Economies of action - Part of the execution --- ### **A new Species of power** - Instrumentarianism - Rendition - And the big other ---- #### Instrumentarianism - knowing, predicting and shaping human behaviour towards other's end (p. 8) - Instrumentarian power is constituted by networks of smart objects, seamlessly integrated into regular life (ibid.) - Relies on IoT (Internet of Things): > ##### group of infrastructures interconnecting connected objects and allowing their management, data mining and the access to the data they generate.” (Dorsemaine et al., 2015, p. 73) ---- #### Rendition - The capture and render of behavioural data, or behavioural surplus. - Relates to the phenomenon of UbiComp (ubiquitous computing) - Technology is ubiquitous, interwoven and embedded in as many aspects of life as possible (spatially and socialy). - Smart Devices - Increases breadth and depth of data capture. ---- #### Big Other - Instrumentarianism and Rendition aligned under Big Other. - Capturing, predicting and seeking to modify human life. - Google Now, Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Alexa > unprecedented *means* of behavioural modification (Zuboff, 2019, p. 376). --- ### **Behavioural modification**: tuning, herding and conditioning - Chapter 10, MAKING THEM DANCE (Zuboff, 2019, p. 292f) - ” a new phase of the prediction imperative that emphasizes economies of action” can be identified - The completion of the new means of behavior modification - A shift in power: Power is to modify - three key approaches to economies of action ---- ### Tuning: - technologies “can make people do things” (Zuboff, 2019, p. 294) - Richard Thaler: Choice architechture - “situations are already structured to channel attention and shape action” (Thaler in Zuboff, 2019, p. 293) ---- ### Herding: - control of individuals immediate context - Turn of the TV automatically at night :arrow_right: go to bed ---- ### conditioning: - Always-on networks :arrow_right: The schedule of reinforcement - deciding what behaviour is favourable and then making it rewardable for the user to act as such --- ### **The China Syndrome**: surveillance capitalistic rationalities in a territorial state - Chapter 13: The China Syndrome - Similarities/Differences between western surveillance capitalism and the chinese social credit system #### Foucauldian theories managing a territorial state - Similarities between Surveillance Capitalism and Foucaults theories --- ### **Instrumentarianism and rendition in perspective of disciplinary mechanisms and normalization** #### The correlation between: - Instumentarianism & Mechanisms of Discipline - Rendition, "Numbing Effect" & Normalization ---- ##### Instrumentarianism & Mechanisms of Discipline - ##### Disciplinary Mechanisms: an array of tools, techniques and instruments which can be extended to different realms of modern society, be it education, policing or health care (Foucault, 1991, p. 215f). - ##### an array of different products which can watch, and in combination with personalized digital assistants, discipline or nudge humans from as many points of interaction as possible (Zuboff, 2019, pp. 255-258). - ##### Decentralized and ubiquities forms of surveillance weaved into our lives seamlessly - ##### Panopticism & Big Other ---- - Internalizing norms to carry on the effects of power - Societal norms, disciplining through normalizing sanctions. - "Numbing effect" - use of surveillant technologies are normalized. - => Voluntarily subjecting ourselves to rendition. --- ### **Behavioural modification through the milieu: mechanisms of security** ---- ### A brief summary of mechanisms of security - "mechanisms of security are based on anticipating probabilities in space that can never be fully reduced or nullified, in order to maximize positive outcomes" (portfolio 1) - The notion of *milieu*: "a space in which a series of uncertain elements unfolds, but also a space in which individuals can be affected, rather than forced, to act in a favourable way." (portfolio 1) ---- ### parallels between mechanisms of security and economies of action - affecting decision making though modification of time, space and context :arrow_right: Economies of action - Affecting decision making through modification of the milieu :arrow_right: Mechanisms of security - very similar logics as well as practices :exclamation: - Difference: Who defines favorable behavior and thus, who benefits :question: --- ## **Conclusion** - ##### Zuboff presents profound insight in surveillance capitalism, and how the goal of behavioural modification is realised through instrumentarianism, rendition and the concept of Big Other, claiming the monetization of all aspects of human life. - ##### However, we wish to challenge Zuboff’s notion that surveillance capitalistic logics are indescribable without the rhetoric of this work. - ##### we argue, Foucault’s theories and vocabulary are in a great manner capable of describing parts of the ideologies and logics of surveillance capitalism. --- ## Thank you for listening :face_with_cowboy_hat: