--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 17:31:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Derrick Cameron <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mind the gap...between libertarianism and
Foucauldian approaches?
Sender: [log in to unmask]
To: "Nicole D. Matthews" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
Hi - thought I'd reply, well.. try to...
On Thu, 26 Oct 2000 15:13:30 +0000 "Nicole D.
Matthews" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Can I be reflexive for a moment?
>
> It's interesting to me that a lot of the traffic on this list relates
> to ongoing changes to legal frameworks around privacy and surveillance
> in Britain, like the recent contributions from Derrick and Robert.
That's only because of what I keep finding from the
few regular sources I read - what can I do if local
newspapers keep reporting CCTV so uncritically?
>
> While I have a clear and critical personal my response to New Labour's
> authoritarian approach to law and order, I find it quite hard to talk
> about these changes within the theoretical apparatus I have in my head
> around surveillance.
>
> I'm not sure if this is simply because my own research is on popular
> media forms rather than legal debates. Perhaps it is because critical
> perspectives around these changes articulated in the popular press
> etc. so often seem to be framed in a libertarian/individualist language
> that I have theoretical problems with.
I don't know - I thought the popular press was falling
over itself to welcome the intrusions. It's
certainly true that NooLabour seems to think that 'the
people' positively welcome the idea of their e-mails
being read. Apart from Video Nation and the rather
obvious case of Big Brother, what other media examples
can we come up with?
>
> The post-Foucauldian work which seems so productive in understanding
> contemporary governmental strategies around self-management,
> self-surveillance and so on seems to leave me with little to say about
> Straw etc. beyond the same old same old notions of discipline and
> deviance.
>
> Am I missing something important and new about New Labour's
> governmental strategies?
You mean you think they have a strategy? :)
No, I don't know how much the debate has moved on
since, say, the Marxism Today special issue. Then
again, maybe NuLabour haven't worked out anything
beyond their 'managerial' approach either - which does
not bode well for their second term (if, etc...).
On the other hand, what is the relationship of
feminism to notions of surveillance, given that so
many of the key players in NouLabour are
white/male/middle-aged? (I'm not naively saying women
would make a difference - just look at Barbara Roche
at the Home Office - but that a feminist approach
might yield something?)
Don't know if this helps.
Love,
Derrick
>
> Nicole
>
> ----------------------
> Nicole D. Matthews
> [log in to unmask]
>
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