donderdag 28 mei 2020

Care of the self and discipline in smart cities: Sensors in Singapore

With Joost Alleblas I contributed a chapter in the book Contemporary Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West: Care of the Self, nicely edited by Gregory Bracken. 

cover book
Joost Alleblas made a study trip with Saxion students to Singapore, a city with cameras and sensors everywhere. Our question is if and how there is a place for 'care of the self' in a sensor city where discipline seems to come first. A reportage about Singapore is combined with revisiting surveillance theory in the wake of Michel Foucault. Some say Foucault's Panopticon analysis is outdated; we think it is as inspiring as ever. Both Bentham's ideas and Foucault account are very rich and flexible, actually previsioning many of the more recent developments in surveillance theory. We elaborate this by "pulling surveillance apart and inside out". 

The corona outbreak and lock down measures give an unforeseen actuality to this research.