Cultures of Transparency

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He is the co-editor of Contested Transparencies, Social Movements and the Public Sphere: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives and The History of Social Movements in Global Perspective. Susanne Fengler is Professor of International Journalism and Director of the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at TU Dortmund University. She is the co-editor of Journalists and Media Accountability, Mapping Media Accountability in Europe and Beyond, and the European Handbook of Media Accountability. Dimitrij Owetschkin is a Permanent Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He is the co-editor of Contested Transparencies, Social Movements and the Public Sphere: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. Julia Sittmann is Research Associate at the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, and a writer and editor at Deutsche Welle Akademie, Germany.

Cultures of Transparency in a Changing World – an Introduction
Dimitrij Owetschkin, Julia Sittmann, Stefan Berger
Part I: Transparency and Public Policy - Historical and Methodological Perspectives




Transparency in Public Affairs: The Rise of a Successful Political Metaphor
Sandrine Baume



Transparency and Economic Development
Jens Forssbaeck
Part II: Transparency in the Digital Age




Bullets of Truth: Julian Assange and the Politics of Transparency
Mark Fenster



Whistleblowers, Media, and Democracy in Latin America
Rogério Christofoletti



Blind Spots: Shedding Light on Media Transparency Research Across the World
Susanne Fengler, Dominik Speck, Mariella Bastian and Judith Pies
Part III: The Limits of Informational Openness




Does Transparency Endanger Trust? Reflections on a Delicate Relationship
Martin Hartmann



Can Transparency be a Sin? On the Advantages and Obstacles of the New Silver Bullet in Academic Research
Stefan Hornbostel



The Limits of Transparency: China, the United States and the World Trade Organization
Padideh Ala’i & Katayoon Beshkardana
Part IV: Transparency and the Individual - The "End of Privacy"




Transparency and Privatisation
Thomas Docherty



Transparency, Privacy, and Civil Inattention
Emmanuel Alloa
Part V: Towards a "Transparent Society"?




Stainless Subjects: Transparency Imaginaries of the Avantgardes
Vincent Kaufman



The Idea of the Public Sphere and Social Movements as Agents of Transparency: Historical Perspectives
Stefan Berger and Dimitrij Owetschkin