On Wednesday September 13th at 2pm UK Professor Ariane Ollier Malaterre will present research from her forthcoming book 'Living with Digital Surveillance in China: Citizens' Narratives on Technology, Privacy and Governance'. The book is the latest release in the Routledge Studies in Surveillance book series and will be avaiable to buy on October 6th 2023

The book explores how Chinese citizens make sense of digital surveillance and live with it. It investigates their imaginaries about surveillance and privacy from within the Chinese socio-political system. Based on in-depth qualitative research interviews, detailed diary notes, and extensive documentation, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre strives to ‘de-Westernize’ the internet and surveillance literature. She shows how the research participants weave a cohesive system of anguishing narratives on China’s moral shortcomings and redeeming narratives on the government and technology as civilizing forces. Although many participants cast digital surveillance as indispensable in China, their misgivings, objections, and the mental tactics they employ to dissociate themselves from surveillance convey the mental and emotional weight associated with such surveillance exposure.

Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Ph.D., is a Management Professor and the founding Director of the International Network on Technology, Work and Family at the University of Quebec in Montreal (ESG-UQAM). Her research examines digital technologies and the boundaries between work and life across different national contexts. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in top-tier management, sociology, and information systems outlets (e.g., Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Human Relations, Annual Review of Sociology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Computers in Human Behavior

Join the seminar