Writing opacity: Going beyond pseudonyms with spirit portraiture

Vita Peacock

doi:10.1111/plar.12560

Writing opacity: Going beyond pseudonyms with spirit portraiture

Vita Peacock

Digital Humanities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

What does it mean to go beyond pseudonyms? Building on fieldwork with privacy and data protection advocates in Germany, this article incorporates ethical imperatives coming from within and beyond the field, to develop a different mode of writing it calls spirit portraiture. This entails characterizing natural persons, without including any personal data through which they could be re-identified, with or without the use of computing. Drawing on three ethnographies that already go beyond pseudonyms, it repositions the axis of representation away from revelation and concealment—that pivots around a monist notion of empirical truth—towards opacity and legibility—that pivots instead around its own point of intervention.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	90-97
Number of pages	8
Journal	Political and Legal Anthropology Review
Volume	47
Issue number	1
Early online date	6 May 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/plar.12560
Publication status	Published - May 2024

Access to Document

10.1111/plar.12560Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{ccadd59b24e64252b685ebb4e7451465,

title = "Writing opacity: Going beyond pseudonyms with spirit portraiture",

abstract = "What does it mean to go beyond pseudonyms? Building on fieldwork with privacy and data protection advocates in Germany, this article incorporates ethical imperatives coming from within and beyond the field, to develop a different mode of writing it calls spirit portraiture. This entails characterizing natural persons, without including any personal data through which they could be re-identified, with or without the use of computing. Drawing on three ethnographies that already go beyond pseudonyms, it repositions the axis of representation away from revelation and concealment—that pivots around a monist notion of empirical truth—towards opacity and legibility—that pivots instead around its own point of intervention.",

author = "Vita Peacock",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 The Authors. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Anthropological Association.",

year = "2024",

month = may,

doi = "10.1111/plar.12560",

language = "English",

volume = "47",

pages = "90--97",

journal = "Political and Legal Anthropology Review",

issn = "1081-6976",

publisher = "Wiley - VCH Verlag GmbH & CO. KGaA",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Writing opacity

T2 - Going beyond pseudonyms with spirit portraiture

AU - Peacock, Vita

PY - 2024/5

Y1 - 2024/5

N2 - What does it mean to go beyond pseudonyms? Building on fieldwork with privacy and data protection advocates in Germany, this article incorporates ethical imperatives coming from within and beyond the field, to develop a different mode of writing it calls spirit portraiture. This entails characterizing natural persons, without including any personal data through which they could be re-identified, with or without the use of computing. Drawing on three ethnographies that already go beyond pseudonyms, it repositions the axis of representation away from revelation and concealment—that pivots around a monist notion of empirical truth—towards opacity and legibility—that pivots instead around its own point of intervention.

AB - What does it mean to go beyond pseudonyms? Building on fieldwork with privacy and data protection advocates in Germany, this article incorporates ethical imperatives coming from within and beyond the field, to develop a different mode of writing it calls spirit portraiture. This entails characterizing natural persons, without including any personal data through which they could be re-identified, with or without the use of computing. Drawing on three ethnographies that already go beyond pseudonyms, it repositions the axis of representation away from revelation and concealment—that pivots around a monist notion of empirical truth—towards opacity and legibility—that pivots instead around its own point of intervention.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192266445&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/plar.12560

DO - 10.1111/plar.12560

M3 - Article

SN - 1081-6976

VL - 47

SP - 90

EP - 97

JO - Political and Legal Anthropology Review

JF - Political and Legal Anthropology Review

IS - 1

ER -

Writing opacity: Going beyond pseudonyms with spirit portraiture

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this