IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v36y2011i3p135-155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond panopticism: On the ramifications of surveillance in a contemporary professional setting

Author

Listed:
  • Brivot, Marion
  • Gendron, Yves

Abstract

This paper provides fieldwork evidence, which solidifies an emerging view in literature, regarding the limitations of the panoptical metaphor in informing meaningfully and productively the analysis of contemporary surveillance and control. Our thesis is that the panopticon metaphor, which conceives of the organization as a bounded enclosure made up of divisible, observable and calculable spaces, is becoming less and less relevant in the age of contemporary surveillance technologies. Through a longitudinal socio-ethnographic study of the ramifications of surveillance ensuing from the implementation of a computerized knowledge management system (KMS) in a Parisian tax/law firm, our analysis points to the proliferation of lateral networks of surveillance having developed in the aftermath of implementation. In this complex and unstable constellation of rhizomatical controls, peers are involved in scrutinizing the validity of one another's work, irrespective of the office's hierarchies and official lines of specialization. As a result, games of visibility (exhibitionism), observation (voyeurism) and secrecy (hiding one's work from the KMS) abound in the office. One of our main conclusions is to emphasize the pertinence of apprehending control and surveillance from angles that take into account the ambiguities, complexities and unpredictability of human institutions, especially in digitalized environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Brivot, Marion & Gendron, Yves, 2011. "Beyond panopticism: On the ramifications of surveillance in a contemporary professional setting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 135-155, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:36:y:2011:i:3:p:135-155
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368211000237
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dirsmith, Mark W. & Heian, James B. & Covaleski, Mark A., 1997. "Structure and agency in an institutionalized setting: The application and social transformation of control in the Big Six," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-27, January.
    2. Yves Gendron & Laura F. Spira, 2009. "What Went Wrong? The Downfall of Arthur Andersen and the Construction of Controllability Boundaries Surrounding Financial Auditing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 987-1027, December.
    3. Gerardine DeSanctis & Marshall Scott Poole, 1994. "Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 121-147, May.
    4. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    5. Arnold, P. J., 1998. "The limits of postmodernism in accounting history: The Decatur experience," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 665-684, October.
    6. Hoskin, Keith W. & Macve, Richard H., 1986. "Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 105-136, March.
    7. Wei He & Yulin Fang & Kwok‐Kee Wei, 2009. "The role of trust in promoting organizational knowledge seeking using knowledge management systems: An empirical investigation," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(3), pages 526-537, March.
    8. Baxter, Jane & Chua, Wai Fong, 2003. "Alternative management accounting research--whence and whither," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 97-126.
    9. Preston, Alistair M., 1989. "The taxman cometh: Some observations on the interrelationship between accounting and inland revenue practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 14(5-6), pages 389-413, October.
    10. Roberts, John, 2009. "No one is perfect: The limits of transparency and an ethic for 'intelligent' accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 957-970, November.
    11. Robson, Keith & Willmott, Hugh & Cooper, David & Puxty, Tony, 1994. "The ideology of professional regulation and the markets for accounting labour: Three episodes in the recent history of the U.K. accountancy profession," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 527-553, August.
    12. Carmona, Salvador & Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Gutierrez, Fernando, 2002. "The relationship between accounting and spatial practices in the factory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 239-274, April.
    13. B. Malsch & Y. Gendron & F. Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature," Post-Print halshs-00783872, HAL.
    14. Hoskin, Keith W. & Macve, Richard H., 1988. "The genesis of accountability: The west point connections," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 37-73, January.
    15. Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Willmott, Hugh & Worthington, Frank, 2004. "Accounting and management-labour relations: the politics of production in the 'factory with a problem'," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 269-302.
    16. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron & Frédérique Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 194-228, February.
    17. Diana R. Gordon, 1987. "The Electronic Panopticon: A Case Study of the Development of the National Criminal Records System," Politics & Society, , vol. 15(4), pages 483-511, December.
    18. Mark Bevir, 1999. "Foucault, Power, and Institutions," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 47(2), pages 345-359, June.
    19. B. Malsch & Y. Gendron & F. Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature," Post-Print halshs-00586846, HAL.
    20. Sikka, Prem, 2009. "Financial crisis and the silence of the auditors," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 868-873, August.
    21. McKinlay, Alan & Pezet, Eric, 2010. "Accounting for Foucault," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 486-495.
    22. Carmona, Salvador & Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Gutierrez, Fernando, 1997. "Control and cost accounting practices in the Spanish Royal Tobacco Factory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 411-446, July.
    23. Suddaby, Roy & Gendron, Yves & Lam, Helen, 2009. "The organizational context of professionalism in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 409-427, April.
    24. Froud, J. & Williams, K. & Haslam, C. & Johal, S. & Williams, J., 1998. "Caterpillar: Two stories and an argument," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 685-708, October.
    25. Martinez, Daniel E., 2011. "Beyond disciplinary enclosures: Management control in the society of control," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 200-211.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Constable, Philip & Kuasirikun, Nooch, 2020. "From cosmological to commercial form: A Buddhist theory of ‘form’, ‘space’ and ‘stream of re-becoming’ in mid-19th century Thai accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Nikidehaghani, Mona & Cortese, Corinne & Hui-Truscott, Freda, 2021. "Accounting and pastoral power in Australian disability welfare reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    4. Stringfellow, Lindsay & McMeeking, Kevin & Maclean, Mairi, 2015. "From four to zero? The social mechanisms of symbolic domination in the UK accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 86-100.
    5. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron, 2013. "Re-Theorizing Change: Institutional Experimentation and the Struggle for Domination in the Field of Public Accounting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 870-899, July.
    6. Bigoni, Michele & Antonelli, Valerio & Cafaro, Emanuela Mattia & D'Alessio, Raffaele & Funnell, Warwick, 2020. "Accounting for the ‘deviant’ in 19th century Italian prisons," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Toms, Steven & Fleischman, Richard K., 2015. "Accounting fundamentals and accounting change: Boulton & Watt and the Springfield Armory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-20.
    8. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Matringe, Nadia & Power, Michael, 2024. "Memories lost: a history of accounting records as forms of projection," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120410, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Gendron, Yves, 2018. "On the elusive nature of critical (accounting) research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-12.
    11. Funnell, Warwick & Antonelli, Valerio & D'Alessio, Raffaele, 2019. "Accounting and psychiatric power in Italy: The royal insane hospital of Turin in the 19th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    12. Massimo Sargiacomo, 2009. "Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 13(3), pages 269-280, August.
    13. Aziza Laguecir & Bernard Leca, 2018. "Strategies of visibility in contemporary surveillance settings: Insights from misconduct concealment in financial markets, Critical Perspectives on Accounting," Post-Print hal-01914996, HAL.
    14. Vaivio, J., 2006. "The accounting of "The Meeting": Examining calculability within a "Fluid" local space," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 735-762, November.
    15. Matringe, Nadia & Power, Michael, 2024. "Memories lost: A history of accounting records as forms of projection," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    16. Vollmer, Hendrik, 2019. "Accounting for tacit coordination: The passing of accounts and the broader case for accounting theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 15-34.
    17. Laguecir, Aziza & Leca, Bernard, 2019. "Strategies of visibility in contemporary surveillance settings: Insights from misconduct concealment in financial markets," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 39-58.
    18. Himick, Darlene, 2016. "Actuarialism as biopolitical and disciplinary technique," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 22-44.
    19. Modell, Sven, 2017. "Critical realist accounting research: In search of its emancipatory potential," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 20-35.
    20. Duval, Anne-Marie & Gendron, Yves & Roux-Dufort, Christophe, 2015. "Exhibiting nongovernmental organizations: Reifying the performance discourse through framing power," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 31-53.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:36:y:2011:i:3:p:135-155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.