Digital technologies and data mining in the service of repression

Review: Darren Byler (2021): In The Camps. Columbia Global Reports.

Abstract

In this review, we present Darren Byler's book In The Camps, in which the re-education camps in Xinjiang are presented as total institutions equipped with cutting edge technology. In this article, we use interview excerpts from the book to dissect the socio-psychological processes at work in the detainees, using concepts from Goffman and Bettelheim. We also review the local context of the economic role of the camps and the global context of digital technologies. Furthermore, we analyse the epistemological infrastructure that made the camps possible, as a consequence of centuries of colonial history.