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Studies in Christian Ethics
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Who Watches the Watchers? Towards an Ethic of Surveillance in a Digital Age

Eric Stoddart

St Mary's College, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews KY16 9JU, Scotland, es61{at}st-andrews.ac.uk

The essay considers contemporary surveillance strategies from a Christian ethical perspective. It discusses first surveillance as a form of speech in the light of biblical themes of truthfulness, then draws on principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. Surveillance is dignified as human work whilst its dehumanizing outcomes are challenged. It is concluded that surveillance must contribute to human dignity and that accountability for data must follow a revised model of subsidiarity, appropriate to network rather than linear socio-political relationships. Mutual responsibility for one another's data-image is derived from solidarity which, further, offers a response to the angst of a culture of suspicion.

Key Words: networks • solidarity • subsidiarity • surveillance • suspicion • terrorism

Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 21, No. 3, 362-381 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0953946808096816
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