Engineering care in pandemic technogovernance: The politics of care in China and South Korea’s COVID-19 tracking apps

Abstract

This article critically examines South Korea and China’s COVID-19 tracking apps by bridging surveillance studies with feminist technoscience’s understanding of the “politics of care”. Conducting critical readings of the apps and textual analysis of discursive materials, we demonstrate how the ideological, relational, and material practices of the apps strategically deployed “care” to normalize a particular form of pandemic technogovernance in these two countries. In the ideological dimension, media and state discourse utilized a combination of vilifying and nationalist rhetoric that framed one’s acquiescence to surveillance as a demonstration of national belonging. Meanwhile, the apps also performed ambivalent roles in facilitating essential care services and mobilizing self-tracking activities, which contributed to the manufacturing of pseudonormality in these societies. In the end, we argue that the Chinese and South Korean governments managed to frame their aggressive surveillance infrastructure during COVID-19 as a form of paternalistic care by finessing the blurred boundaries between care and control.

Where horizontal and vertical surveillances meet: Sense-making of US COVID-19 contact-tracing apps during a health crisis

“…The very divergence can imply (un)expected marginalization of certain populations for both “too little privacy” and “too much privacy” ( Gilman & Green, 2018 ). Most recent studies on COVID-19 tracking apps/algorithms in Asian countries have suggested such a relational turn to the understanding of digital contact tracing as a surveillance technology ( Kim et al, 2021 ; Liu & Graham, 2021 ), and the need for relational examination of surveillance technologies is not and should not be limited to a particular culture (e.g., collectivist vs. individualistic cultures). Our study identified patterns of both “care” and “concern” for community members together with institutional (dis)trust and ongoing privacy concerns in the US context that is not generally deemed a collectivist culture.…”

“…While horizontal surveillance systems may not be always voluntary, these studies speak to the social aspects of surveillance technologies individuals consider. Recent studies on diverse forms of contact-tracing systems in China and South Korea have found that people often approve these technologies to “care for” and “protect” others in the community ( Kim et al, 2021 ; Liu & Graham, 2021 ).…”

Pandemic Nationalism: Use of Government Social Media for Political Information and Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories in China

“…Although social media can facilitate greater access to diverse information and boost online political participation ( Diamond 2015 ; Enikolopov et al 2020 ), recent studies have also highlighted that governments in different national contexts utilize social media for early warnings of natural disasters and disease control during crises ( Chatfield et al 2013 ; Kim et al 2021 ). Moreover, governments in authoritarian contexts have increasingly been using social media to mobilize content for publicity and to maintain state stability ( King et al 2013 ; Schlæger and Jiang 2014 ).…”

Crisis management, surveillance, and digital ethics in the COVID‐19 era

“…And a focus on mental health surveillance and service provision reveals a strong element of (paternalistic) “care” at the heart of the Chinese approach to COVID surveillance (c.f. Kim et al, 2021 , for a feminist critique of the notion of care through surveillance).…”