Beyond Big Brother: How to Study Tech-Driven Authoritarianism With Restricted Access to State Institutions
Beyond Big Brother: How to Study Tech-Driven Authoritarianism With Restricted Access to State Institutions
Ethnography, Ahead of Print.
With the tremendous advancements in Internet, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, the power and potential of digital technologies has a special appeal to political rulers. How can qualitative researchers explore tech-driven authoritarianism when they have limited access to state institutions? This article addresses this question by arguing for a wider and more nuanced understanding of tech-driven authoritarianism as a state-market complex mediating the political application of digital technologies. Based on my own research on China’s Internet surveillance, I find that the engagement of the private sector, especially technology companies, in authoritarian control creates new opportunities for qualitative researchers to study state power in non-state fields. By reflecting on my experience of field-site choice, gaining access, and informant recruitment, I discuss how thorough preparation in both theory and fieldwork approaches help qualitative investigators develop creative ways of collecting information on tech-driven authoritarianism.
With the tremendous advancements in Internet, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, the power and potential of digital technologies has a special appeal to political rulers. How can qualitative researchers explore tech-driven authoritarianism when they have limited access to state institutions? This article addresses this question by arguing for a wider and more nuanced understanding of tech-driven authoritarianism as a state-market complex mediating the political application of digital technologies. Based on my own research on China’s Internet surveillance, I find that the engagement of the private sector, especially technology companies, in authoritarian control creates new opportunities for qualitative researchers to study state power in non-state fields. By reflecting on my experience of field-site choice, gaining access, and informant recruitment, I discuss how thorough preparation in both theory and fieldwork approaches help qualitative investigators develop creative ways of collecting information on tech-driven authoritarianism.