A special workshop hosted by the ANU School of Sociology
Wednesday, 27 August, 1-7.30 pm
 

Data-capturing technologies and informatic practices play an increasingly pivotal role in the organisation and experience of social life. Sensing devices, for instance, are now commonly embedded in camera units, smart cards, smart phones, satellite navigation systems, biometric readers, webpages, and imaging scanners. These networked sensors are constantly transmitting masses of decontextualised data, which are in turn analysed and aggregated by a variety of audiences, from commercial marketers, health practitioners and law enforcement agents, to insurance actuaries, journalists and community groups.

In the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s revelations concerning the scale and intensity of state, commercial and industrial espionage, issues of surveillance excess and democratic process have appeared on both public and political radars. Publics are gradually becoming more aware of the data retrieval and archiving capacities of smart technologies and their positioning within vast personal data economies, as both producers and consumers of personal information circulations.

How is the onset this ‘sensor society’ transforming traditional organisational operations and citizenry roles? How is it altering who we are, what we know about ourselves and how we think and act? What types of power differentials and asymmetries are being consolidated? In other words, what desires, appetities, interests and rationalities lurk behind these developments? The onset of mass sensorisation, and the widespread sharing and processing of personal information, demands that we engage what ‘citizenship’ is coming to mean conceptually, empirically, politically and practically – what precisely it implies contractually in terms of citizenry rights and responsibilites in the informatic age. It necessitates that we critically consider personhood and identity politics and explore how publics understand and relate to the personal data trails that recurrently emanate from their actions, motions and activities. It is these issues and thematics that provide an intellectual context for the colloquium and the frames of reference for interdisciplinary analysis.

Program

Imminent Citizenships program

Keynote address

The keynote address for the workshop is a free and open to the public lecture. Registration to the keynote address is separate to that for the workshop.

The Mind Transparent: Reading the human brain

Professor Nikolas Rose, Kings College London
Public lecture, 6 - 7:30 pm

The human body was made legible long ago. But what of the human mind? Is it possible to ‘read’ the mind, for one human being to know what another is thinking or feeling, their beliefs and intentions? And if I can read your mind, how about others – could our authorities, in the criminal justice system or the security services?

Some developments in contemporary neuroscience suggest the answer to this question is ‘yes’. On the one hand, evolutionary neurobiologists and cognitive neuroscientists argue that humans have an evolved capacity to ‘read the minds’ of others, and that this is a condition for human sociality; as a corollary the lack of this capacity in some humans – from autists to psychopaths – is argued to underlie their particular pathologies.

On the other, a range of novel technologies of brain imaging have been used to claim that specific mental states, and even specific thoughts, can be identified by characteristic patterns of brain activation; this has led some to propose their use in practices ranging from lie detection to the assessment of brain activity in persons in persistent vegetative states.

In this talk, I explore the history of these developments, sketch their scientific and technical bases, and consider some of the epistemological and ontological mutations involved. I point to the ecological niches where they have – or have not – found a hospitable environment. I end by asking whether a new expertise of the readable, knowable, transparent mind is taking shape, and if so, with what consequences.

Nikolas Rose is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, School of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College London. Rose is a co-director of the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI), a major research collaboration between King’s and Imperial College London. A member of numerous advisory groups engaging key stakeholders, he has also held high-level academic posts in LSE and at Goldsmiths. He has published widely across numerous fields and disciplines, with his work translated into 13 languages.

Registration

Register at Eventbrite for the workshop, 'Imminent Citizenships: personhood and identity politics in the informatic age'.

Register at Eventbrite for the keynote address, 'The mind transparent: Reading the human brain', a public lecture by Professor Nikolas Rose.

Enquiries

For seminar enquiries, contact Dr Gavin Smith on (02) 6125 0323 or gavin.smith@anu.edu.au.