Ambivalence of surveillance, dualism of datafied society, and possibilities of flourishing

In The Dualism of Human Nature and Its Social Conditions , Durkheim differentiates the body and the soul as two substantially different and conflictual parts of the human being. Durkheim argues that the two opposite sides together produce the individual being who needs both body and soul, and their cooperation. Society has a similar existence produced by the antagonism of its body and its soul. Following Durkheim, I understand surveillance as the administration of this complicated duality of society. Surveillance society is a society where its soul is settled at a different level through re-embodiment. Datafied society is a higher form of this re-embodiment and tends to resolve the Durkheimian duality. Through this resolution, it threatens the very existence of society. This paper examines this tendency in datafication processes. The brief analysis also demonstrates the possible ways human flourishing may operate owing to the ambivalence of datafication. I argue that ambivalence is the very condition of (human) flourishing.