The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism was published in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The post-pandemic society is characterized by new digital connections. How might Shoshana Zuboff’s book speak to this new era of technological dependency? Are there aspects of her argument that are now outdated?

Discussions of the term “surveillance” typically conjure thoughts of the “Panopticon,” an architectural design invented by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century that allowed prison guards to observe and analyze prisoners without being observed themselves. How might Zuboff’s book connect to the Panopticon and its representation of the relationship between knowledge and power?

Zuboff relied on an interdisciplinary methodology in writing her book, incorporating sources from fields such as history, economics, and philosophy. Do you think using multiple subjects strengthened her argument? Or do you think analyzing surveillance capitalism would have benefited from a more specific, targeted approach?