Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SAMCOM (Surveillance and Moral Community: Anthropologies of Monitoring in Germany and Britain)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-12-31
In light of this, this project is intended as an extensive investigation on why people use digital monitoring technologies to advance projects they value, as well as the risks for democratic societies that are posed by these technologies.
The project involves four ethnographic studies carried out by anthropologists, on the use of: i) health trackers used to support mental health in Britain ii) location-based apps to support childcare in Germany iii) the use of information security technologies iv) social critiques of digital monitoring among data activists in Germany.
We seek to understand where the line lies between 'good' or 'moral' forms of monitoring, that support human health, happiness, and dignity, and those that in some way threaten these goods. We do this primarily by talking to people themselves about the technologies, and observing how people use the technologies, to present a portrait of these different perspectives across two of its largest states, Britain and Germany.
To disseminate this research we have participated in and/or organised conferences, workshops, podcasts, published a range of articles for both scholarly and lay audiences, and given presentations and lectures, as well as engaged in discussions on social media. We have also founded an 'Anthropology of Surveillance Network' to bring together anthropologists working on this subject.
Another major theme around the link between digital monitoring and concepts of community, whether these technologies are used to care for or control those within it, or to exclude those outside it, is still in progress and will be the major focus of the remainder of the project.