1st Edition

Transparency New Trajectories in Law

By Rachel Adams Copyright 2020
    116 Pages
    by Routledge

    116 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book critiques the contemporary recourse to transparency in law and policy.



    This is, ostensibly, the information age. At the heart of the societal shift toward digitalisation is the call for transparency and the liberalisation of information and data. Yet, with the recent rise of concerns such as 'fake news', post-truth and misinformation, where the policy responses to all these phenomena has been a petition for even greater transparency, it becomes imperative to critically reflect on what this dominant idea means, whom it serves, and what the effects are of its power. In response, this book provides the first sustained critique of the concept of transparency in law and policy. It offers a concise overview of transparency in law and policy around the world, and critiques how this concept works discursively to delimit other forms of governance, other ways of knowing and other realities. It draws on the work of Michel Foucault on discourse, archaeology and genealogy, together with later Foucaultian scholars, including Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Judith Butler, as a theoretical framework for challenging and thinking anew the history and understanding of what has become one of the most popular buzzwords of 21st century law and governance.



    At the intersection of law and governance, this book will be of considerable interest to those working in these fields; but also to those engaged in other interdisciplinary areas, including society and technology, the digital humanities, technology laws and policy, global law and policy, as well as the surveillance society.



    Table of Contents





    Acknowledgements



    Preface





    Introduction: The Discourse of Transparency



    ‘Beginning with the things it produced’



    The Discourse of Transparency



    Transparency in Scholarship



    Book Outline



    Approach: The Order of Discourse



    Summary



    Further Reading





    PART I: THE DISCOURSE OF TRANSPARENCY



    Chapter 1: A Brief History of Transparency’s Entry in Discourse



    Abstract



    Introduction



    Archaeology



    Transparency, the Enlightenment and Human Rights



    Designing Transparency



    Transparency as Metaphor



    Summary



    Further Reading



    Chapter 2: Access to Information Delimited



    Abstract



    Introduction



    Epistemic Violence of Transparency



    Law and Exclusion



    Summary



    Further Reading



    Chapter 3: Transparency Universal



    Abstract



    Introduction



    Transparency and Inclusivity



    Proselytising Transparency



    Summary



    Further Reading





    PART II: TOWARD THE POST-TRANSPARENT



    Chapter 4: The Fallacies of Transparency: Fake News, Artificial Intelligence and the Hyperinformation Society



    Abstract



    Introduction



    Fake News: Baudrillard and the Hyperinformation Society



    The Illusion of Transparency



    Summary



    Further Reading



    Chapter 5: Producing the Transparent Subject: The Gaze Turns Inward



    Introduction



    Foucault and Subjectivity



    The Transparent Subject



    Self-Disclosure



    Legislating for the Transparent Subject



    Whistleblowing Laws



    Depoliticising Effects



    Summary Further Reading





    PART III: RESISTANCE



    Chapter 6: Resisting Transparency



    Abstract



    Introduction



    Foucault, Power and Resistance



    Resistance to Transparency



    Summary



    Further Reading





    Conclusion



    Biography

    Rachel Adams is a Senior Research Specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, and a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Information Law and Policy Centre, at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.