Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will be discussing my work on the affective impacts of living in a surveillance society. I am particularly concerned with the notion that the more pervasive surveillance becomes, the more it seems to be being rendered unconscious. For example, its ubiquity has given way to its normalisation, yet it is also increasingly complex and clandestine. I will be presenting qualitative interview data to look at ways in which surveillance is negotiated in everyday life. For example, one of the major responses I found was the sense that there is very little that can do done to avoid it, it is increasingly difficult to comprehend its complexity and magnitude, so concern about it is quite futile. Therefore one of the responses this has given way to is a form of apatheia, a way of psycho-culturally managing associated anxiety.