Publisher Description

This 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.

Author Biography

Edited by Christina Garsten, Professor of Social Anthropology, Department of Social Anthropology and Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (SCORE), Stockholm University, Sweden and Monica Lindh de Montoya, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Table of Contents

Contents:PrefaceIntroduction: Examining the Politics of TransparencyChristina Garsten and Monica Lindh de MontoyaPART I: TRANSPARENCY AND UTOPIA: VISIBILITY, TRUTH, FUTURE1. Truth in 3D: Displaying Historical Evidence at the United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumBodil Birkebæk Olesen2. Practices of Transparency: Exporting Swedish Business Culture to the Baltic StatesAnja Timm3. The Social Life of Brands: On Choosing Values for Visions (and Divisions)Raoul Galli4. The Naked Corporation: Visualization, Veiling and the Ethico-politics of Organizational TransparencyChristina Garsten and Monica Lindh de MontoyaPART II: TRANSPARENCY AND REGULATION: NEGOTIATION, IDEALS, COMPROMISES5. Economies through TransparencyEmiliano Grossman, Emilio Luque and Fabian Muniesa6. Transparency, Democracy and the SEC: Seventy Years of Securities Market RegulationChristopher Yenkey7. Transparency at Work: The Production of Indicators for EU Employment PolicyRenita Thedvall8. '…What gets Measured gets Managed!' Sorting out 'the Social' in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)Anna Hasselström9. Transparency through Labelling? Layers of Visibility in Environmental Risk ManagementMikael Klintman and Magnus BoströmPART III: TRANSPARENCY AND THE PUBLIC: PARTICIPATION, EXCLUSION, AMBIVALENCE10. Transparency and Participation: Partnership and Hierarchies in British Urban RegenerationSimone Abram11. A Traumatizing Transparency Exercise on Mobile Phones and Health RisksLinda Soneryd12. Promoting Transparency, Preventing War: Neoliberalism, Conflict Preventionism and the New MilitaryMattias Viktorin13. Transparency as Tool and Weapon: The Case of the Venezuelan Presidential Recall ReferendumMiguel MontoyaIn Retrospect: The Play of ShadowsChristina Garsten and Monica Lindh de MontoyaIndex

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