How State Surveillance Was Fought

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this month’s edition of Le Monde diplomatique, I have an article in French tracing the history of struggles against state surveillance in the United States in the sixties and seventies.

Abstract

Based on a longer study published earlier this month as a chapter, this article offers a historical perspective on resistance to state surveillance in the United States. It highlights strategies of resistance, but also transformations in the repertoires of actions deployed by the New Left to challenge political surveillance conducted by intelligence agencies (CIA, FBI, military). In particular, it emphasizes the crucial role of alliances between social movements, technical experts, and legal actors in repelling certain surveillance projects and obtaining certain legal guarantees, even if the latter also had a depoliticizing effect.

New Edition: Counter-History of the Internet

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’m really glad to announced a revised and updated French edition of Counter-History of the Internet: From the 15^th Century to Today, published by Agone, an independent publisher based in Marseille.¹ The book is adapted from my PhD in Political Studies at EHESS and offers a foucaldian reinterpretation of Jürgen Habermas’ history of the public sphere.

Publisher’s presentation

“The state control of public sphere — particularly the media — is based on centuries-old strategies that have been constantly renewed and adapted to the new reality brought about by the Internet. This technology has thus rapidly evolved from an instrument with emancipatory potential to an instrument of unprecedented state and economic power. Understanding the thread of this change requires placing this technology in a long history: that of the conflicts that have arisen each time new means of communication have been invented.

History on Félix Tréguer

How State Surveillance Was Fought

Abstract

New Edition: Counter-History of the Internet

Publisher’s presentation