Description
Book SynopsisThis book argues that transparency is a concept that has gained increasing currency and favour as an organizing principle and administrative goal in recent years. Calls for transparency have been directed towards states, markets, corporations and national political processes as well as towards large institutions such as the European Union.
Focusing on empirically rich case studies, the contributors explore the ideas and practices of transparency in different contexts, encouraging a discussion of the many facets of the term and its strengths, ambiguities and limitations. They aim to shed light on the powerful global discourse and practices contained in the concept, and to fill a gap in the literature since few attempts have, until now, been made to examine the actual content and practice of transparency. Also discussed are the complex negotiations through which it is determined what should be displayed and what should remain hidden, the uses of power and control, and the processes through which transparency is, or is not, achieved.
This analysis of the concepts, models and metaphors that guide and shape organizational, social and aesthetical practices today will provide a much-needed contribution to the literature for academics, researchers and students focusing on these areas.
Table of ContentsContents: Preface Introduction: Examining the Politics of Transparency Christina Garsten and Monica Lindh de Montoya PART I: TRANSPARENCY AND UTOPIA: VISIBILITY, TRUTH, FUTURE 1. Truth in 3D: Displaying Historical Evidence at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Bodil Birkebæk Olesen 2. Practices of Transparency: Exporting Swedish Business Culture to the Baltic States Anja Timm 3. The Social Life of Brands: On Choosing Values for Visions (and Divisions) Raoul Galli 4. The Naked Corporation: Visualization, Veiling and the Ethico-politics of Organizational Transparency Christina Garsten and Monica Lindh de Montoya PART II: TRANSPARENCY AND REGULATION: NEGOTIATION, IDEALS, COMPROMISES 5. Economies through Transparency Emiliano Grossman, Emilio Luque and Fabian Muniesa 6. Transparency, Democracy and the SEC: Seventy Years of Securities Market Regulation Christopher Yenkey 7. Transparency at Work: The Production of Indicators for EU Employment Policy Renita Thedvall 8. ‘…What gets Measured gets Managed!’ Sorting out ‘the Social’ in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Anna Hasselström 9. Transparency through Labelling? Layers of Visibility in Environmental Risk Management Mikael Klintman and Magnus Boström PART III: TRANSPARENCY AND THE PUBLIC: PARTICIPATION, EXCLUSION, AMBIVALENCE 10. Transparency and Participation: Partnership and Hierarchies in British Urban Regeneration Simone Abram 11. A Traumatizing Transparency Exercise on Mobile Phones and Health Risks Linda Soneryd 12. Promoting Transparency, Preventing War: Neoliberalism, Conflict Preventionism and the New Military Mattias Viktorin 13. Transparency as Tool and Weapon: The Case of the Venezuelan Presidential Recall Referendum Miguel Montoya In Retrospect: The Play of Shadows Christina Garsten and Monica Lindh de Montoya Index
