Light-touch inspection regimes outsource surveillance inward and generate permanent anxiety

Evidence

Under the new, ‘improved’ system, if a college can demonstrate that its internal assessment systems are effective, it will only have to undergo a ‘light’ inspection. But the downside of this ‘light’ inspection is obvious – surveillance and monitoring are outsourced from OFSTED to the college and ultimately to lecturers themselves, and become a permanent feature of the college structure (and of the psychology of individual lecturers). The difference between the old/heavy and new/light inspection system corresponds precisely to Kafka’s distinction between ostensible acquittal and indefinite postponement, outlined above. With ostensible acquittal, you petition the lower court judges until they grant you a non-binding reprieve. You are then free from the court, until the time when your case is re-opened. Indefinite postponement, meanwhile, keeps your case at the lowest level of the court, but at the cost of an anxiety that has never ends. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 103

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Kafka analogy of ‘indefinite postponement’ maps onto modern self-monitoring; worth noting this Kafka distinction was introduced in an earlier chapter.
• XREF: This connects to the reader’s knowledge about disappearing monitoring and self-governance, and the surveillance-and-self-auditing theme. — connects to: Fear of social invisibility drives user acceptance of surveillance features — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1462; Actual inspection probability intensifies the subjective feeling of being watched — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 154; Brand monitoring is exhausting unpaid emotional labor enforcing a dual gaze of self-surveillance — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 491 (+9 more)

Related

• Permanent measurement systems produce unending anxiety that periodic review avoided (similarity 0.84)
• Managerial surveillance techniques in education deliberately spread anxiety and erode teacher autonomy (similarity 0.81)
• Managerialist surveillance generates anxiety deliberately, not as a side effect (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Unpredictable surveillance produces self-surveillance and disempowerment in its targets #corroborates (0.90) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 482
• Uncertainty about being watched suffices to make surveillance effective #expands (0.85) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 303
• Surveillance is outsourced to unwitting casual laborers in exposed jobs #exemplifies (0.85) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 173
• External surveillance becomes internalized as self-imposed bodily discipline #expands (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 512
• Actual inspection probability intensifies the subjective feeling of being watched #expands (0.80) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 154
• Ongoing audience surveillance generates anxiety in online performers #exemplifies (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 511
• Fear of social invisibility drives user acceptance of surveillance features #complicates (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1462
• Brand monitoring is exhausting unpaid emotional labor enforcing a dual gaze of self-surveillance #corroborates (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 491
• Managerial surveillance techniques in education deliberately spread anxiety and erode teacher autonomy #exemplifies (0.72) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2215
• Even imperfect invisibility can sustain the illusion of constant surveillance #expands (0.72) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 303
• Managerialist surveillance generates anxiety deliberately, not as a side effect #corroborates (0.70)