Hegemonic Surveillance at Work: Fabricating the cyberized, totalized and thespianized employee

Abstract

Recent developments in technology have intensified the totalizing potential of surveillance within the workplace. Our paper proposes a theory of hegemonic surveillance to enhance our understanding of these processes. We argue that it is necessary to theorize surveillance as a multilevel phenomenon. Accordingly, we propose a model of hegemonic surveillance that starts from the outer socio/political level, characterized by neoliberalism. This sees workers in wholly economic terms, as units of productive capacity, rather than fully fledged human beings. It is an ideological context that underpins the growth of surveillance within the workplace. We employ Gramsci’s ideas of hegemony to theorize the normalization of surveillance that is thus produced. Surveillance is increasingly inescapable (performance is monitored and measured at all times, in all spaces) and pervasive (it encompasses all aspects of human performance, including emotions, health and lifestyle). Extending Burawoy’s ideas of consent, we argue that the performance of consent is central to the perpetuation of hegemony. Such performances, while seemingly voluntary, are becoming mandatory in ever more work contexts. At an individual level, we articulate the risk of totally surveilled employees becoming cyberized, totalized and thespianized. While acknowledging resistance, and ourselves seeking to resist technological determinism, the purpose of this paper is to theorize a dystopian future of work that could come to pass if present trends remain unchecked.