A vigilância e a redefinição dos indivíduos e realidade

This essay provides an overview of the relationship between surveillance, individuals, and reality. To do this, I use a multilevel perspective that connects power (from agency to structure) to social systems theory. This novel approach means taking a holistic view on how individuals are managed beyond ideas of resistance and technology. At the agency level, individuals are constrained by continuous interactions through digital and behavioral exploitation. In the second meso-level, individuals attach to an informational system that renders, sorts, and distorts data fragments that resemble their ontology. Finally, at the structural level, more than being fragmented subjects, I argue that individuals and data constitute a new hermeneutic cycle in which reality itself is redefined in an autopoietic reading of things distanced from subjects and knowledge.Este ensayo hace un repaso de la relación entre la vigilancia, los individuos y la realidad. Para ello utilizo una perspectiva multinivel que conecta el poder (desde la agencia hasta la estructura) con la teoría de los sistemas sociales. Este planteamiento novedoso propone una visión holística sobre cómo se gestionan los individuos más allá de las ideas de resistencia y tecnología. En el primer nivel de agencia, los individuos se ven limitados por interacciones continuas a través de la explotación digital y del comportamiento. En el segundo nivel (o mesonivel), los individuos se adhieren a un sistema de información que presenta, clasifica y distorsiona fragmentos de datos que simula su realidad. Por último, en el tercer nivel estructural, más que sujetos fragmentados, sostengo que los individuos y los datos constituyen un nuevo ciclo hermenéutico en el que la propia realidad se redefine en una lectura autopoiética de las cosas alejada de los sujetos y del conocimiento.Este ensaio faz uma visão geral da relação entre vigilância, indivíduos e realidade. Para fazer isso, lanço mão de uma perspectiva multinível que conecta poder (da agência à estrutura) à teoria de sistemas sociais. Esta nova conexão pretende apresentar uma visão holística sobre como os indivíduos são gerenciados além de idéias sobre resistência e tecnologia. No primeiro nível de agência, os indivíduos são limitados pela interação contínua por meio da exploração digital e da manipulação comportamental. No segundo meso nível, os indivíduos se fundem num sistema de informações que renderiza, classifica e distorce fragmentos de dados que emulam a ontologia deles. Por fim, no terceiro nível estrutural, mais do que sujeitos fragmentados, argumento que indivíduos e seus dados constituem um novo ciclo hermenêutico no qual a própria realidade é redefinida em uma leitura autopoiética das coisas que se afasta dos sujeitos e dos saberes

The Role of the Media and Civil Society in Intelligence Accountability: The Cases of Spain and Brazil

This article analyses the accountability of intelligence agencies in Spain and Brazil. Drawing from critical intelligence studies, this article will argue that the goal of accountability is to expand legitimacy by incorporating the civil society. This requires redeveloping the scope of intelligence and its audience beyond legal norms and traditional decision-makers. To do so, the article will consider the following actors: 1) the media; 2) whistleblowers and leaks; 3) scholars; and 4) fiction writers. These actors may complement intelligence by gathering information or acting as knowledge advisory groups. Moreover, they can also challenge intelligence by promoting deeper scrutiny and transparency, while constructing archetypes that represent secret agencies. The conclusion will summarize the strengths and limitations deriving from these actors to promote accountability. It will also claim that, through a critical approach, exploring new accountability forms are necessary to expand the social legitimacy of intelligence policies. Received: 2022-10-07Revised: 2022-01-0

Beautiful and disgusting politics: Taming evil and the importance of controlling the uncontrollable

Evil doing is part of everyday social life and is extremely difficult to be counter-balanced by “good”practices, let alone to be eliminated. Even in the realm of abstract politics, there is no simple solution or way to understand their overlapping nature. In that sense, this study explores the relationship between both sides through aesthetics and constructs a dialogical analysis transposed to politics. This relationship shows that beautiful and disgusting politics are not simply two sides of the same coin. The former has a limited potential to counterbalance the latter and, paradoxically, without its counter-part it has a limited potential to promote social transformations

Constructing and restraining the societies of surveillance: Accountability, from the rise of intelligence services to the expansion of personal data networks in Spain and Brazil (1975-2020)

541 p.The objective of this study is to examine the development of socio-technical accountability mechanisms in order to: a) preserve and increase the autonomy of individuals subjected to surveillance and b) replenish the asymmetry of power between those who watch and those who are watched. To do so, we address two surveillance realms: intelligence services and personal data networks. The cases studied are Spain and Brazil, from the beginning of the political transitions in the 1970s (in the realm of intelligence), and from the expansion of Internet digital networks in the 1990s (in the realm of personal data) to the present time. The examination of accountability, thus, comprises a holistic evolution of institutions, regulations, market strategies, as well as resistance tactics. The conclusion summarizes the accountability mechanisms and proposes universal principles to improve the legitimacy of authority in surveillance and politics in a broad sense

Militarización y legalismo como encauces de la gestión policial de la criminalidad en Brasil

This paper aims to analyze how the militarization and legalism structures attached to police institutions affected these institutions and the answers against criminality in Brazil. This double feature of the Brazilian system is supposed to affect the proportionality of coercion and the ability to prosecute crimes before the courts. It is verified how those structures were maintained from the beginning of the New Republic, imposing the limits and the logics to security policies, whereas individualistic and conservationism solutions against crime appear as current meta-political goals in this subject.El objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo la militarización y el legalismo de las instituciones policiales brasileñas afectan su rol y la gestión de la criminalidad en Brasil. Esta característica doble del sistema brasileño mantendría una funcionalidad que regula, de forma cualitativa, la proporcionalidad del uso de la fuerza y la capacidad de procesar delitos ante la Justicia. Se verifica cómo esas estructuras se mantuvieron desde el inicio de la Nueva República, y se concluye que la militarización y el legalismo de los cuerpos de seguridad policial siguen imprimiendo los límites de la acción gubernamental mientras se amplifican salidas individualistas y conservacionistas como horizontes meta-políticos para tratar la criminalidad

El/la investigador/a joven como creador/a de saberes y como forma de trabajo

How do the artistic and labor field relate to each other dynamically? If the construction of knowledge is descendent from traditional and artisanal ways of creation, How do the structural conditions of production that intercross the academic and the labor field affect to the construction of knowledge? To answer this, and based on the genealogy of the artistic ‘know to create’ and ‘know to work’, this article explores different approaches on the conditions of the artistic and labor activities. More specifically, we take into account seven in-depth interviews to PhD candidates of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication (UPV/EHU) – a group that exemplifies the immediate trajectory between the intellectual activity and the labor training in the academic field. These answers depict the young researchers’ contradictions forth in an exploratory way, especially when it comes to executing an academic career relating creation/work to ‘knowledge’ itself.; ¿Cómo se produce la relación dinámica entre el campo artístico y el campo laboral en el mundo académico? Si la actividad de construcción de conocimiento es heredera de una tradición ‘artesanal’ de creación ¿Cómo se ve afectada por las condiciones estructurales de producción que atraviesan el mundo académico y el laboral? De cara a respuestas, se exploran diferentes arquitecturas teóricas en torno a las condiciones de la actividad artística y del trabajo a través de una genealogía entre el ‘saber crear’ artístico y el ‘saber trabajar’. Tomando en consideración siete entrevistas a personal predoctoral de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y de la Comunicación (UPV/ EHU) - colectivo que ejemplifica la trayectoria intermediaria entre el quehacer intelectual y el aprendizaje laboral en el medio académico- el estudio arroja luz sobre algunas características de este medio laboral. Al mismo tiempo, estas respuestas exponen -de forma exploratoria- las contradicciones de jóvenes investigadores en la consecución de una carrera académica relacionando el crear/trabajar con el propio ‘saber’

La aseguración como proceso de gestión y producción de riesgos: Entre la normalidad y la excepcionalidad política en la seguridad

This article rebuilds the securitization theory in order to create a model able to capture the modus operandi and the consequences of this phenomenon in a context of public safety. Taking into account interdisciplinary references, the first part of the article proposes the bases of the securitization model: a) the risk management society, b) incremental security networks, and c) the interrelation among the levels of security, factual and built risk, and tolerance, in order to understand the fluctuation between normal and emergency situations. On these grounds, the second part of the article analyzes the consequences of securitization in areas that range from the implicit social control to the explicit criminal law. The conclusions summarize the bases of the model and point to collateral effects, both for individuals embodying certain risks and for the rest of the society. Those effects help to verify that a securitization process could even foster authoritarian outbreaks and redefine the limits of political exceptionality in the security realm.Este artículo reconstruye la teoría de la aseguración o securitización con el objetivo de formular un modelo que permita analizar el modus operandi y las consecuencias de este fenómeno en un contexto de seguridad ciudadana. Tomando como base aportaciones teóricas interdisciplinares, la primera parte del artículo postula las bases que constituyen el modelo de aseguración: a) la sociedad de la gestión de riesgos; b) las redes incrementales en la seguridad, y c) la interrelación entre niveles de seguridad, riesgo fáctico/construido y tolerancia, con vistas a entender la oscilación entre situaciones de normalidad y de emergencia. La segunda parte del artículo se apoya en esas bases para analizar las consecuencias de la aseguración en ámbitos que van desde el control social implícito hasta el derecho penal explícito. Las conclusiones sintetizan las bases del modelo y señalan la producción de efectos colaterales, tanto para individuos que personifican ciertos riesgos como para el resto del cuerpo social. Esos efectos sirven para verificar cómo la aseguración fomenta incluso brotes autoritarios y redefine los límites de la excepcionalidad política en la seguridad

MILITARIZAÇíO E LEGALISMO NA GESTíO POLICIAL DA CRIMINALIDADE NO BRASIL

This paper aims to analyze how the militarization and legalism structures attached to police institutions affect the answers against criminality in Brazil. This double feature of the Brazilian system is supposed to affect the proportionality of coercion and the ability to prosecute crimes before the courts. It is verified how those structures were maintained from the beginning of the New Republic, imposing the limits and the logics to security policies whereas individualistic and conservationism solutions are enhanced as meta-political goals in this subject.El objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo la militarización y el legalismo de las policías brasileñas afecta el rol de estas instituciones en la gestión de la criminalidad de Brasil. Esta característica doble del sistema brasileño mantendría una funcionalidad que regula, de forma cualitativa, la proporcionalidad del uso de la fuerza y la capacidad de procesar delitos ante la Justicia. Se verifica cómo esas estructuras se mantuvieron desde el inicio de la Nueva República, y se concluye que la militarización y el legalismo de los cuerpos de seguridad policial siguen imprimiendo los límites de la acción gubernamental mientras se amplifican salidas individualistas y conservacionistas como horizontes meta-políticos para tratar la criminalidad.O objetivo deste artigo é analisar como a militarização e a advogadização afetam o rol preponderante dessas órgãos na gestão da criminalidade no Brasil. Essa característica dupla do sistema de segurança pública teria mantido uma funcionalidade que marcou qualitativamente a proporcionalidade de ação e a capacidade de processar delitos frente às esferas judiciais. Verifica-se a forma em que essas estruturas se mantiveram desde o começo da Nova República, e conclui-se que a militarização e o legalismo das forças de segurança continuam a dar o tom e trazem limites à ação governamental enquanto se amplificam saídas individualistas e conservacionistas como horizontes metapolíticos para tratar a criminalidade