Reimagining the white surveillance gaze : a practical theological proposal for repentant and solidaristic engagement

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Title: Reimagining the white surveillance gaze : a practical theological proposal for repentant and solidaristic engagement
Authors: Stoddart, Eric
Contributors: University of St Andrews.Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics, University of St Andrews.School of Divinity
Publication Year: 2022
Collection: University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository
Subject Terms: Surveillance, Whiteness, Preferential option, Dataism, White theology, BV Practical Theology, T-NDAS, MCC, BV
Description: This surveillance gaze is White in the sense that while it may, on occasion, intentionally target people who are non-white for special scrutiny, this gaze comprises operations and experiences of surveillance that assume Whiteness as normative and unremarkable. It raises barriers which are of no, or minimal hindrance, to white people. This article draws on examples and theories of racial bias within Artificial Intelligence technologies to identify dataism (a naïve trust in data) to be a significant dimension of the problematic gaze. Using Stoddart’s cruciform Christian theology of surveillance and the preferential optic for the (digitally) poor, in conjunction with Trozzo’s theological critique of data and Pattison’s theological notion of enfacement, proposals are made for dismantling the White surveillance gaze. These include acknowledging biases in White theology and imagining a redeemed White gaze as a paradigm of repentant and solidaristic surveillance. The article concludes with recommendations for enhanced practice by Christians who are developers, users, and subjects of surveillance technologies. ; Peer reviewed
Document Type: article in journal/newspaper
File Description: application/pdf
Language: English
Relation: Practical Theology; 277369131; 85124180076; 000749605300001; https://hdl.handle.net/10023/24789
DOI: 10.1080/1756073X.2021.2023947
Availability: https://hdl.handle.net/10023/24789
https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2021.2023947
Rights: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Accession Number: edsbas.2D0906DF
Database: BASE
Description
Abstract:This surveillance gaze is White in the sense that while it may, on occasion, intentionally target people who are non-white for special scrutiny, this gaze comprises operations and experiences of surveillance that assume Whiteness as normative and unremarkable. It raises barriers which are of no, or minimal hindrance, to white people. This article draws on examples and theories of racial bias within Artificial Intelligence technologies to identify dataism (a naïve trust in data) to be a significant dimension of the problematic gaze. Using Stoddart’s cruciform Christian theology of surveillance and the preferential optic for the (digitally) poor, in conjunction with Trozzo’s theological critique of data and Pattison’s theological notion of enfacement, proposals are made for dismantling the White surveillance gaze. These include acknowledging biases in White theology and imagining a redeemed White gaze as a paradigm of repentant and solidaristic surveillance. The article concludes with recommendations for enhanced practice by Christians who are developers, users, and subjects of surveillance technologies. ; Peer reviewed
DOI:10.1080/1756073X.2021.2023947