(Be)Labouring the subject : employee e-mail surveillance and the limits of surveillance theory
Date
1996
Authors
Kahale, Sandra Diane
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Abstract
Surveillance is arguably one of the central features of modernity. In general terms, the literatures on surveillance have tended to frame the problem as one of law, technology, or sociology. This thesis traces how surveillance has been problematized by these literatures, and outlines how each has contextualized , accounted for, and theorized emerging patterns of surveillance, focusing specifically on the practice of employee e-mail monitoring. In doing so, it builds the case that certain ·issues that are central to understanding what surveillance is and what it does have been largely ignored by the literature. In particular, it makes the point that contemporary surveillance theory fails to account for or consider the effects of surveillance on subjectivity . The thesis concludes by arguing that the literature on surveillance would be tremendously enriched by a consideration of some of the themes which have preoccupied post-structuralists.