IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v202y2025i1d10.1007_s10551-025-05971-5.html

The Re-enchantment of a Technologically Disenchanted World: An Affirmative Critique of Anti-surveillance Art

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Alacovska

    (Copenhagen Business School)

Abstract

Focussing on anti-surveillance art, this article makes the case that the arts have the unique capacity to induce and energize hope and caring in the otherwise hopeless context of a technologically disenchanted world of surveillance capitalism, characterised by a wholesale loss of privacy due to ubiquitous data capture, and an algorithmically powered exacerbation of social inequalities and discrimination. Drawing on theories of enchantment from literary studies, art history, philosophy and political thought, I theorize anti-surveillance art as an art-full means of enchantment generating an ‘ethical energetics’ that is capable, however momentarily or imperfectly, of dissolving the constraints of our imagination and moving people to act hopefully and caringly in spite of technology-induced malaise. Through an affirmative critique of anti-surveillance art practices, I illustrate the processual mechanisms and dynamics of activist art (artivism), showing how these art forms not only critique and subvert entrenched imaginaries of surveillance capitalism but also enact the ethical imperative of re-imagining better future worlds even in the face of present technological toxicity and breakdown. This article contributes knowledge on the ethico-political import of the arts in troubled social, business and organisational contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Alacovska, 2025. "The Re-enchantment of a Technologically Disenchanted World: An Affirmative Critique of Anti-surveillance Art," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 202(1), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:202:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05971-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-025-05971-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-025-05971-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-025-05971-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Premilla D’Cruz & Shuili Du & Ernesto Noronha & K. Praveen Parboteeah & Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich & Glen Whelan, 2022. "Technology, Megatrends and Work: Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 879-902, October.
    2. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2015. "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10581, December.
    3. Zlatko Bodrožić & Paul S. Adler, 2022. "Alternative Futures for the Digital Transformation: A Macro-Level Schumpeterian Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 105-125, January.
    4. Donna Ladkin, 2018. "‘The Aesthetic’ and Its Relationship to Business Ethics: Philosophical Underpinnings and Implications for Future Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 35-51, January.
    5. Hjorth, Daniel & Holt, Robin, 2016. "It's entrepreneurship, not enterprise: Ai Weiwei as entrepreneur," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 50-54.
    6. Buhmann, Alexander & Fieseler, Christian, 2023. "Deep Learning Meets Deep Democracy: Deliberative Governance and Responsible Innovation in Artificial Intelligence," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 146-179, January.
    7. Alacovska, Ana & Booth, Peter & Fieseler, Christian, 2023. "A Pharmacological Perspective on Technology-Induced Organised Immaturity: The Care-giving Role of the Arts," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(3), pages 565-595, July.
    8. Scherer, Andreas Georg & Neesham, Cristina & Schoeneborn, Dennis & Scholz, Markus, 2023. "New Challenges to the Enlightenment: How Twenty-First-Century Sociotechnological Systems Facilitate Organized Immaturity and How to Counteract It," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(3), pages 409-439, July.
    9. Dey, Pascal & Mason, Chris, 2018. "Overcoming constraints of collective imagination: An inquiry into activist entrepreneuring, disruptive truth-telling and the creation of ‘possible worlds’," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 84-99.
    10. Power, Michael, 2022. "Theorizing the economy of traces: from audit society to surveillance capitalism," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112167, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Emma Bell & Nik Winchester & Edward Wray-Bliss, 2021. "Enchantment in Business Ethics Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 251-262, November.
    12. Daniel Hjorth, 2017. "Critique nouvelle – an essay on affirmative-performative entrepreneurship research," Revue de l'Entrepreneuriat, De Boeck Université, vol. 16(1), pages 47-54.
    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. Melinda Timea Fülöp & Constantin Aurelian Ionescu & Dan Ioan Topor, 2025. "Digital business world and ethical dilemmas: a systematic literature review," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 23-41, March.
    2. Patrick Gregori & Patrick Holzmann, 2022. "Entrepreneurial practices and the constitution of environmental value for sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3302-3317, November.
    3. Rosa Fioravante, 2024. "Beyond the Business Case for Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Strategic CSR in Light of Digital Washing and the Moral Human Argument," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Patrick Gregori & Erich Schwarz & Patrick Holzmann, 2025. "Agencing entrepreneurial ecosystems for sustainability: A systematic review to rethink values, transformation, and boundaries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 1755-1790, October.
    5. Jan van Duppen, 2021. "Book review: The Botanical City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1746-1750, June.
    6. Eriksson, Axel, 2025. "A critical note on binaries in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Alexander Emile D'Aloia, 2024. "Circular Economies in an Unequal World: Waste, Renewal, and the Effects of Global Circularity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 100(331), pages 583-585, December.
    8. Devi Vijay & Héloïse Berkowitz & Benjamin Huybrechts & Luc Audebrand & Marcos Barros & Marianna Fotaki, 2025. "Another World is Possible, It's Already Here: A Review and Research Agenda on Alternative Organizing," Working paper serie RMT - Grenoble Ecole de Management hal-05132352, HAL.
    9. Meagher, Kate, 2019. "Working in chains: African informal workers and global value chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91590, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Oluwafemi Akanfe & Paras Bhatt & Diane A. Lawong, 2025. "Technology Advancements Shaping the Financial Inclusion Landscape: Present Interventions, Emergence of Artificial Intelligence and Future Directions," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 2189-2212, October.
    11. Meyer, Camille, 2020. "The commons: A model for understanding collective action and entrepreneurship in communities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    12. Annaleena Parhankangas & Rick Colbourne, 2023. "Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Venture Creation: A Typology of Indigenous Crowdfunding Campaigns," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(5), pages 1617-1659, September.
    13. Hervé Charmettant & Yvan Renou, 2021. "Cooperative conversion and communalization: Closely observed interactions between the material and the mental," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(1), pages 55-77, March.
    14. Xiaodong Yang & Yang Xu & Asif Razzaq & Desheng Wu & Jianhong Cao & Qiying Ran, 2024. "Roadmap to achieving sustainable development: Does digital economy matter in industrial green transformation?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 2583-2599, June.
    15. Marguerite van den Berg, 2025. "Welfare ruination, debris and Europeans’ make-shift practices: A research agenda," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 57(1), pages 77-92, February.
    16. Jarrahi, Mohammad Hossein & Karami, Amir & Conway, Patrick & Memariani, Ali & Lutz, Christoph, 2026. "Navigating the muddy waters of bias in artificial intelligence research: Understanding divergent meanings and conceptions," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Pramukh Nanjundaswamy Vasist & Satish Krishnan, 2025. "Navigating the Ethical Terrain Around the Challenges of Fake News and False Narratives: An Integrative Literature Review and a Proposed Agenda for Future Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 196(2), pages 473-493, January.
    18. Trent Brown, 2024. "Disrupted coping and skills for sustainability: A pluralist Heideggerian perspective," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(6), pages 585-605, December.
    19. Katherine Farley, 2022. "“We ain't never stolen a plant”: Livelihoods, property, and illegal ginseng harvesting in the Appalachian forest commons," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 309-321, June.
    20. Megan Horst & Nathan McClintock & Adrien Baysse-Lainé & Ségolène Darly & Flaminia Paddeu & Coline Perrin & Kristin Reynolds & Christophe-Toussaint Soulard, 2021. "Translating land justice through comparison: a US–French dialogue and research agenda," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(4), pages 865-880, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:kap:jbuset:v:202:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05971-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.