Surveillance and the redefinition of individuals and reality

• Published in: Revista teknokultura Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 5 - 12
• Main Author: Yauri Miranda, Jaseff Raziel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Complutense de Madrid 01.01.2022
• Subjects: diferenciación hermenéutica; diferenciação hermenêutica; hermeneutic differentiation; power relations; relaciones de poder; relações de poder; resistance; resistencia; resistência; systems theory; teoria de sistemas; teoría de sistemas
• ISSN: 1549-2230; 1549-2230
• DOI: 10.5209/tekn.74723

This essay provides an overview of the relationship between surveillance, individuals, and reality. To do this, I use a multilevel perspective that connects power (from agency to structure) to social systems theory. This novel approach means taking a holistic view on how individuals are managed beyond ideas of resistance and technology. At the agency level, individuals are constrained by continuous interactions through digital and behavioral exploitation. In the second meso-level, individuals attach to an informational system that renders, sorts, and distorts data fragments that resemble their ontology. Finally, at the structural level, more than being fragmented subjects, I argue that individuals and data constitute a new hermeneutic cycle in which reality itself is redefined in an autopoietic reading of things distanced from subjects and knowledge.