Cultures of Transparency: Between Promise and Peril

This volume addresses the major questions surrounding a concept that has become ubiquitous in the media and in civil society as well as in political and economic discourses in recent years, and which is demanded with increasing frequency: transparency. How can society deal with increasing and often diverging demands and expectations of transparency? What role can different political and civil society actors play in processes of producing, or preventing, transparency? Where are the limits of transparency and how are these boundaries negotiated? What is the relationship of transparency to processes of social change, as well as systems of social surveillance and control? Engaging with transparency as an interrelated product of law, politics, economics and culture, this interdisciplinary volume explores the ambiguities and contradictions, as well as the social and political dilemmas, that the age of transparency has unleashed. As such it will appeal to researchers across the social sciences and humanities with interests in politics, history, sociology, civil society, citizenship, public policy, criminology and law.

Table of Contents:
Cultures of Transparency in a Changing World – an Introduction Dimitrij Owetschkin, Julia Sittmann, Stefan Berger Part I: Transparency and Public Policy - Historical and Methodological Perspectives Transparency in Public Affairs: The Rise of a Successful Political Metaphor Sandrine Baume Transparency and Economic Development Jens Forssbaeck Part II: Transparency in the Digital Age Bullets of Truth: Julian Assange and the Politics of Transparency Mark Fenster Whistleblowers, Media, and Democracy in Latin America Rogério Christofoletti Blind Spots: Shedding Light on Media Transparency Research Across the World Susanne Fengler, Dominik Speck, Mariella Bastian and Judith Pies Part III: The Limits of Informational Openness Does Transparency Endanger Trust? Reflections on a Delicate Relationship Martin Hartmann Can Transparency be a Sin? On the Advantages and Obstacles of the New Silver Bullet in Academic Research Stefan Hornbostel The Limits of Transparency: China, the United States and the World Trade Organization Padideh Ala’i & Katayoon Beshkardana Part IV: Transparency and the Individual - The "End of Privacy" Transparency and Privatisation Thomas Docherty Transparency, Privacy, and Civil Inattention Emmanuel Alloa Part V: Towards a "Transparent Society"? Stainless Subjects: Transparency Imaginaries of the Avantgardes Vincent Kaufman The Idea of the Public Sphere and Social Movements as Agents of Transparency: Historical Perspectives Stefan Berger and Dimitrij Owetschkin

About the Author :
Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He is the co-editor of Contested Transparencies, Social Movements and the Public Sphere: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives and The History of Social Movements in Global Perspective. Susanne Fengler is Professor of International Journalism and Director of the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at TU Dortmund University. She is the co-editor of Journalists and Media Accountability, Mapping Media Accountability in Europe and Beyond, and the European Handbook of Media Accountability. Dimitrij Owetschkin is a Permanent Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He is the co-editor of Contested Transparencies, Social Movements and the Public Sphere: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. Julia Sittmann is Research Associate at the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, and a writer and editor at Deutsche Welle Akademie, Germany.