Transparency: New Trajectories in Law(New Trajectories in Law)

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:
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

About the Author :
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.