Papers by Dr. Becky Kazansky
This article explores how targeted communities counter preemptive, data-driven regimes of violenc... more This article explores how targeted communities counter preemptive, data-driven regimes of violence in their daily work and organizing strategies, drawing on findings from a four-year qualitative study of resistance to data-driven surveillance amongst international digital rights nonprofit organisations and grassroots groups focused on social justice organising. The article explores an imperative by surveillance targeted communities to proactively act before violent preemptive surveillance driven measures can exert harmful effects, with proactivity understood as the need to act before probable harm. The article investigates proactivity as it arises within two strategies of resistance. The first strategy discussed is one of data-driven resilience in the context of digital security/safety practices in human rights organisations. The second strategy discussed is abolitionist refusal within community organising against predictive policing harms. The article explores the tensions and ambi...
Big Data & Society, 2021
While many forms of data-driven surveillance are now a ‘fact’ of contemporary life amidst datafic... more While many forms of data-driven surveillance are now a ‘fact’ of contemporary life amidst datafication, obtaining concrete knowledge of how different institutions exploit data presents an ongoing challenge, requiring the expertise and power to untangle increasingly complex and opaque technological and institutional arrangements. The how and why of potential surveillance are thus wrapped in a form of continuously produced uncertainty. How then, do affected groups and individuals determine how to counter the threats and harms of surveillance? Responding to an interdisciplinary concern with agency amidst datafication, this article explores what I term ‘anticipatory data practices’ – future-oriented practices which provide a concrete anchor and a heuristic for action amidst the persistent uncertainties of life with data. This article traces how anticipatory data practices have emerged within civil society practices concerned with countering the harms of surveillance and data exploitatio...
Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material inf... more Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
New Media & Society, 2021
Through an array of technological solutions and awareness-raising initiatives, civil society mobi... more Through an array of technological solutions and awareness-raising initiatives, civil society mobilizes against an onslaught of surveillance threats. What alternative values, practices, and tactics emerge from the grassroots which point toward other ways of being in the datafied society? Conversing with critical data studies, science and technology studies, and surveillance studies, this article looks at how dominant imaginaries of datafication are reconfigured and responded to by groups of people dealing directly with their harms and risks. Building on practitioner interviews and participant observation in digital rights events and surveying projects intervening in three critical technological issues of our time—the challenges of digitally secure computing, the Internet of Things, and the threat of widespread facial recognition—this article investigates social justice activists, human rights defenders, and progressive technologists as they try to flip dominant algorithmic imaginarie...
International Studies Perspectives, 2019
The Internet and digital technologies have become indispensable in academia. A world without emai... more The Internet and digital technologies have become indispensable in academia. A world without email, search engines, and online databases is practically unthinkable. Yet, in this time of digital dependence, the academy barely demonstrates an appetite to reflect upon the new challenges that digital technologies have brought to the scholarly profession. This forum's inspiration was a roundtable discussion at the 2017 International Studies Association Annual Convention, where many of the forum authors agreed on the need for critical debate about the effects of online surveillance and censorship techniques on scholarship. This forum contains five critiques regarding our digitized infrastructures, datafied institutions, mercenary corporations, exploitative academic platforms, and insecure online practices. Together, this unique collection of articles contributes to the research on academic freedom and helps to frame the analysis of the neoliberal higher education sector, the surveilla...
The Fibreculture Journal, 2015
Ninth Computing within Limits 2023
The Engine Room, 2022
This research report, based on research conducted by The Engine
Room from October 2021 to April 2... more This research report, based on research conducted by The Engine
Room from October 2021 to April 2022, is part of a larger body of
work around the intersection of digital rights with environmental
and climate justice, supported by the Ford Foundation, Ariadne
and Mozilla Foundation. This research project aims at better
equipping digital rights funders to craft grantmaking strategies
that maximise impact on these issues.
This report was published alongside several publications, including
issue briefs by Association for Progressive Communications (APC), BSR,
and the Open Environmental Data Project and Open Climate. All publications
can be found at https://engn.it/climatejusticedigitalrights
New Media & Society, 2021
Through an array of technological solutions and awareness-raising initiatives, civil society mobi... more Through an array of technological solutions and awareness-raising initiatives, civil society mobilizes against an onslaught of surveillance threats. What alternative values, practices, and tactics emerge from the grassroots which point toward other ways of being in the datafied society? Conversing with critical data studies, science and technology studies, and surveillance studies, this article looks at how dominant imaginaries of datafication are reconfigured and responded to by groups of people dealing directly with their harms and risks. Building on practitioner interviews and participant observation in digital rights events and surveying projects intervening in three critical technological issues of our time-the challenges of digitally secure computing, the Internet of Things, and the threat of widespread facial recognition-this article investigates social justice activists, human rights defenders, and progressive technologists as they try to flip dominant algorithmic imagin-aries. In so doing, the article contributes to our understanding of how individuals and social groups make sense of the challenges of datafication from the bottom-up.
Big Data & Society, 2021
While many forms of data-driven surveillance are now a 'fact' of contemporary life amidst datafic... more While many forms of data-driven surveillance are now a 'fact' of contemporary life amidst datafication, obtaining concrete knowledge of how different institutions exploit data presents an ongoing challenge, requiring the expertise and power to untangle increasingly complex and opaque technological and institutional arrangements. The how and why of potential surveillance are thus wrapped in a form of continuously produced uncertainty. How then, do affected groups and individuals determine how to counter the threats and harms of surveillance? Responding to an interdisciplinary concern with agency amidst datafication, this article explores what I term 'anticipatory data practices'-future-oriented practices which provide a concrete anchor and a heuristic for action amidst the persistent uncertainties of life with data. This article traces how anticipatory data practices have emerged within civil society practices concerned with countering the harms of surveillance and data exploitation. The mixed-method empirical analysis of this article draws from 50 interviews with digital security educators and technology developers; participant observation at 12 civil society events between 2016 and 2019 and the textual analysis of 100 security manuals produced by NGOs and grassroots groups.
The Internet and digital technologies have become indispensable in academia. A world without emai... more The Internet and digital technologies have become indispensable in academia. A world without email, search engines, and online databases is practically unthinkable. Yet, in this time of digital dependence, the academy barely demonstrates an appetite to reflect upon the new challenges that digital technologies have brought to the scholarly profession. This forum's inspiration was a roundtable discussion at the 2017 International Studies Association Annual Convention, where many of the forum authors agreed on the need for critical debate about the effects of on-line surveillance and censorship techniques on scholarship. This forum contains five critiques regarding our digitized infrastructures, datafied institutions , mercenary corporations, exploitative academic platforms, and insecure online practices. Together, this unique collection of articles contributes to the research on academic freedom and helps to frame the analysis of the neoliberal higher education sector, the surveillance practices that students and staff encounter, and the growing necessity to improve our "digital hygiene."
In this article, we argue that many difficulties associated with the protection of digital privac... more In this article, we argue that many difficulties associated with the protection of digital privacy are rooted in the framing of privacy as a predominantly individual responsibility. We examine how models of privacy protection, such as Notice and Choice, contribute to the 'responsibilisation' of human rights activists who rely on the use of technologies for their work. We also consider how a group of human rights activists countered technology-mediated threats that this 'responsibilisation' causes by developing a collective approach to address their digital privacy and security needs. We conclude this article by discussing how technological tools used to maintain or counter the loss of privacy can be improved in order to support the privacy and digital security of human rights activists.
research on digital security and privacy can be riddled with ethical and practical challenges. Th... more research on digital security and privacy can be riddled with ethical and practical challenges. This talk will surface the tensions that have arisen for us as researchers and activists through projects on a range of issues around privacy and security in rights-based activist and advocacy communities.These questions and tensions are about methodological approaches, and ethics in framing issues and practices. This is an
opportunity to speak to a research community about the limits and
opportunities for research, methods and approaches and to ask
how activist practices and spaces become research sites whilst
being mindful of the risks to communities we work with
Fibreculture Journal by Dr. Becky Kazansky
The Fibreculture Journal:
Issue 26 2015 Entanglements - Activism and Technology
Editors: Pip Shea... more The Fibreculture Journal:
Issue 26 2015 Entanglements - Activism and Technology
Editors: Pip Shea, Tanya Notley, Jean Burgess, Su Ballard
Articles:
FCJ-188 Disability’s Digital Frictions:
Activism, Technology, and Politics—Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin, Mike Kent
FCJ-189 Reimagining Work: Entanglements and Frictions around Future of Work Narratives—Laura Forlano, Megan Halpern
FCJ-190 Building a Better Twitter: A Study of the Twitter Alternatives GNU social, Quitter, rstat.us, and Twister—Robert W. Gehl
FCJ-191 Mirroring the Videos of Anonymous: Cloud Activism, Living Networks, and Political Mimesis—Adam Fish
FCJ-192 Sand in the Information Society Machine: How Digital Technologies Change and Challenge the Paradigms of Civil Disobedience—Theresa Züger, Stefania Milan & Leonie Maria Tanczer
FCJ-193 Harbouring Dissent: Greek Independent and Social Media and the Antifascist Movement—Sky Croeser & Tim Highfield
FCJ-194 From #RaceFail to #Ferguson: The Digital Intimacies of Race-Activist Hashtag Publics—Nathan Rambukanna
FCJ-195 Privacy, Responsibility, and Human Rights Activism—Becky Kazansky
FCJ-196 Let’s First Get Things Done! On Division of Labour and
Techno-political Practices of Delegation in Times of Crisis—Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Jara Rocha & Femke Snelting
FCJ-197 Entanglements with Media and Technologies in the
Occupy Movement—Megan Boler & Jennie Phillips
Practitioner Reports:
FCJMESH-005 Technology and Citizen Witnessing:
Navigating the Friction Between Dual Desires for Visibility and Obscurity—Sam Gregory
FCJMESH-006 From Information Activism to the Politics of Data—
Maya Indira Ganesh and Stephanie Hankey
FCJMESH-007 Our Enduring Confusion About the
Power of Digital Tools in Protest—Ivan Sigal and Ellery Biddle
FCJMESH-008 Solutions for Online Harassment Don’t Come Easily—Jillian C. York
FCJMESH-009 Ranking Digital Rights: Keeping the Internet Safe for Advocacy—Nathalie Maréchal
FCJMESH-010 Getting Open Development Right—Zara Rahman
FCJMESH-011 : ‘We don’t work with video, we work with People’:
Reflections on Participatory Video Activism in Indonesia—M. Zamzam Fauzanafi & Kampung Halaman
Uploads
Papers by Dr. Becky Kazansky
Room from October 2021 to April 2022, is part of a larger body of
work around the intersection of digital rights with environmental
and climate justice, supported by the Ford Foundation, Ariadne
and Mozilla Foundation. This research project aims at better
equipping digital rights funders to craft grantmaking strategies
that maximise impact on these issues.
This report was published alongside several publications, including
issue briefs by Association for Progressive Communications (APC), BSR,
and the Open Environmental Data Project and Open Climate. All publications
can be found at https://engn.it/climatejusticedigitalrights
opportunity to speak to a research community about the limits and
opportunities for research, methods and approaches and to ask
how activist practices and spaces become research sites whilst
being mindful of the risks to communities we work with
Fibreculture Journal by Dr. Becky Kazansky
Issue 26 2015 Entanglements - Activism and Technology
Editors: Pip Shea, Tanya Notley, Jean Burgess, Su Ballard
Articles:
FCJ-188 Disability’s Digital Frictions:
Activism, Technology, and Politics—Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin, Mike Kent
FCJ-189 Reimagining Work: Entanglements and Frictions around Future of Work Narratives—Laura Forlano, Megan Halpern
FCJ-190 Building a Better Twitter: A Study of the Twitter Alternatives GNU social, Quitter, rstat.us, and Twister—Robert W. Gehl
FCJ-191 Mirroring the Videos of Anonymous: Cloud Activism, Living Networks, and Political Mimesis—Adam Fish
FCJ-192 Sand in the Information Society Machine: How Digital Technologies Change and Challenge the Paradigms of Civil Disobedience—Theresa Züger, Stefania Milan & Leonie Maria Tanczer
FCJ-193 Harbouring Dissent: Greek Independent and Social Media and the Antifascist Movement—Sky Croeser & Tim Highfield
FCJ-194 From #RaceFail to #Ferguson: The Digital Intimacies of Race-Activist Hashtag Publics—Nathan Rambukanna
FCJ-195 Privacy, Responsibility, and Human Rights Activism—Becky Kazansky
FCJ-196 Let’s First Get Things Done! On Division of Labour and
Techno-political Practices of Delegation in Times of Crisis—Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Jara Rocha & Femke Snelting
FCJ-197 Entanglements with Media and Technologies in the
Occupy Movement—Megan Boler & Jennie Phillips
Practitioner Reports:
FCJMESH-005 Technology and Citizen Witnessing:
Navigating the Friction Between Dual Desires for Visibility and Obscurity—Sam Gregory
FCJMESH-006 From Information Activism to the Politics of Data—
Maya Indira Ganesh and Stephanie Hankey
FCJMESH-007 Our Enduring Confusion About the
Power of Digital Tools in Protest—Ivan Sigal and Ellery Biddle
FCJMESH-008 Solutions for Online Harassment Don’t Come Easily—Jillian C. York
FCJMESH-009 Ranking Digital Rights: Keeping the Internet Safe for Advocacy—Nathalie Maréchal
FCJMESH-010 Getting Open Development Right—Zara Rahman
FCJMESH-011 : ‘We don’t work with video, we work with People’:
Reflections on Participatory Video Activism in Indonesia—M. Zamzam Fauzanafi & Kampung Halaman
Room from October 2021 to April 2022, is part of a larger body of
work around the intersection of digital rights with environmental
and climate justice, supported by the Ford Foundation, Ariadne
and Mozilla Foundation. This research project aims at better
equipping digital rights funders to craft grantmaking strategies
that maximise impact on these issues.
This report was published alongside several publications, including
issue briefs by Association for Progressive Communications (APC), BSR,
and the Open Environmental Data Project and Open Climate. All publications
can be found at https://engn.it/climatejusticedigitalrights
opportunity to speak to a research community about the limits and
opportunities for research, methods and approaches and to ask
how activist practices and spaces become research sites whilst
being mindful of the risks to communities we work with
Issue 26 2015 Entanglements - Activism and Technology
Editors: Pip Shea, Tanya Notley, Jean Burgess, Su Ballard
Articles:
FCJ-188 Disability’s Digital Frictions:
Activism, Technology, and Politics—Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin, Mike Kent
FCJ-189 Reimagining Work: Entanglements and Frictions around Future of Work Narratives—Laura Forlano, Megan Halpern
FCJ-190 Building a Better Twitter: A Study of the Twitter Alternatives GNU social, Quitter, rstat.us, and Twister—Robert W. Gehl
FCJ-191 Mirroring the Videos of Anonymous: Cloud Activism, Living Networks, and Political Mimesis—Adam Fish
FCJ-192 Sand in the Information Society Machine: How Digital Technologies Change and Challenge the Paradigms of Civil Disobedience—Theresa Züger, Stefania Milan & Leonie Maria Tanczer
FCJ-193 Harbouring Dissent: Greek Independent and Social Media and the Antifascist Movement—Sky Croeser & Tim Highfield
FCJ-194 From #RaceFail to #Ferguson: The Digital Intimacies of Race-Activist Hashtag Publics—Nathan Rambukanna
FCJ-195 Privacy, Responsibility, and Human Rights Activism—Becky Kazansky
FCJ-196 Let’s First Get Things Done! On Division of Labour and
Techno-political Practices of Delegation in Times of Crisis—Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Jara Rocha & Femke Snelting
FCJ-197 Entanglements with Media and Technologies in the
Occupy Movement—Megan Boler & Jennie Phillips
Practitioner Reports:
FCJMESH-005 Technology and Citizen Witnessing:
Navigating the Friction Between Dual Desires for Visibility and Obscurity—Sam Gregory
FCJMESH-006 From Information Activism to the Politics of Data—
Maya Indira Ganesh and Stephanie Hankey
FCJMESH-007 Our Enduring Confusion About the
Power of Digital Tools in Protest—Ivan Sigal and Ellery Biddle
FCJMESH-008 Solutions for Online Harassment Don’t Come Easily—Jillian C. York
FCJMESH-009 Ranking Digital Rights: Keeping the Internet Safe for Advocacy—Nathalie Maréchal
FCJMESH-010 Getting Open Development Right—Zara Rahman
FCJMESH-011 : ‘We don’t work with video, we work with People’:
Reflections on Participatory Video Activism in Indonesia—M. Zamzam Fauzanafi & Kampung Halaman