The Data Class

Algorithm Power and the Rise of a Data Class in Singapore
1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-1-041-32373-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 306 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This book studies algorithmic power by examining surveillance in Singapore. Drawing on critical theorists, it introduces the 'authorised domain': an elite status group with exclusive access to surveillance algorithms and data. This group maintains power through data 'mobilisation' and 'demobilisation'. The Singapore case study demonstrates how automated law enforcement (ALE) and predictive analytics may be used to normalize skewed data realities, reinforcing social inequalities and reshaping class and power in the digital age.

The author suggests that algorithmic power is primarily exercised by an 'authorised domain'—a technocratic actors acting as a status group—which leverages exclusive access to surveillance systems and data algorithms for political and economic advantage. Drawing on Foucault, Deleuze, and Weber, the study uses Singapore as a case to consider how a group sustains power by managing data flows through mobilisation (selectively introducing information) and demobilisation (selectively withholding information). These practices enable automated law enforcement (ALE), automated decision making systems, and predictive analytics to reproduce existing social inequalities, may disproportionately affect vulnerable groups and ultimately forging a new data class protected from surveillance and equipped to shape the algorithmic environment.

The primary audience for this book is clearly defined as scholars and students across a range of interdisciplinary fields, specifically including communications theory, sociology, surveillance studies, criminology, political science, and data governance, with a particular focus on graduate and PhD students who will engage with the theoretical depth. The secondary audience consists of policy analysts, technologists, and legal scholars interested in the practical applications and socio-political implications of automated surveillance systems, privacy, AI and ethics, as they are concerned with the real-world impact and regulation of the concepts the book explores.

Zielgruppe

Professional Reference and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Seow, Isa

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Ethische Themen & Debatten
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Innen-, Bildungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Daten / Datenbanken Data Mining
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Digital Lifestyle Internet, E-Mail, Social Media

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction. Chapter 1: Power In Data Societies of Control Chapter 2: Power and the Surveillance Assemblage Chapter 3: The Technology Assemblage and Law Enforcement Chapter 4: Singapore and Its Technology Strategies Chapter 5: Automated Law Enforcement and Bias from Traffic Systems Chapter 6: The Management of Data Chapter 7: Power in Data Societies

Über Autor(innen)

Isa Seow is a communications scholar whose interdisciplinary career has traversed technology, media, public policy, and academia. His early intellectual development was shaped by internationally renowned academics in sociology, politics, and communications. Over the course of his career, Dr. Seow has represented multinational corporations, financial institutions, governments, the United Nations, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on matters related to technology and data regulation. At the age of 19, Seow signed a recording contract with a major Japanese label, beginning an unconventional career spanning music, technology, public policy, and academia. His musical career was interrupted shortly afterwards by compulsory military service in Singapore. He subsequently moved to Boston and studied at Harvard University before completing an MPhil at the University of Cambridge, where he also chaired the University Graduate Union in 2004. He has taught courses on Internet Policy, Digital Marketing, the Creative Industries, Media Ethics, and Data Ethics at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Republic Polytechnic, and Curtin University. Dr. Seow now lives in New Zealand, where he completed his PhD in Sociology at the University of Auckland and was awarded a prestigious research fellowship. In this book, he examines how technology, data, and algorithms shape society and the exercise of power.