Visibility in social theory and social researchUpplaga 2010

What is social visibility? How does it affect people and public issues? How are visibility regimes created, organised and contested? Tackling both social theory and social research, this book provides an exploration into how intervisibilities produce crucial sociotechnical and biopolitical effects. It elaborates the concept of visibility as a general category for social theory and social research. The issue of the visibility and intervisibility of social events, subjects and sites proves relevant to a wide range of disciplines including sociology, cultural and media studies, political science, urban studies, criminology, identity studies, and science and technology studies. However, to date no comprehensive reflection on the topic of visibility as a distinct category -- ranking it as a basic sociological category -- has been attempted: this book fills that gap.