Informing the Good Society (InGSoc): New Direction in Information Policy

Inspecting the bad society? Bentham’s panopticon revisited. (2016)
Journal Article
Duff, A. (2016). Inspecting the bad society? Bentham’s panopticon revisited. The Asian Conference on Technology, Information & Society, 13-25

In Panopticon; or, The Inspection-House (2008 [1797]), the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham outlined what he perceived to be a model prison, based on ‘the inspection-principle’ (p. 68). It was centrally about power, the control of miscreants by... Read More about Inspecting the bad society? Bentham’s panopticon revisited..

The ecology of the ePundit: surveying the new opinion-making landscape. (2016)
Journal Article
Forrest, E., & Duff, A. S. (2016). The ecology of the ePundit: surveying the new opinion-making landscape. First Monday, 21(4), https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i4.6351

This paper explores hybrid forms of contemporary political opinion-making online, which we name ePunditry. The ePundit utilizes Web 2.0 technologies and networks to distribute their work: changing and challenging the boundaries and hierarchies of the... Read More about The ecology of the ePundit: surveying the new opinion-making landscape..

Cyber-Green: idealism in the information age (2015)
Journal Article
Duff, A. S. (2015). Cyber-Green: idealism in the information age. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 13(2), 146-164. https://doi.org/10.1108/jices-10-2014-0049

Purpose This paper retrieves relevant aspects of the work of idealist thinker T.H. Green in order to improve comprehension of, and policy responses to, various dilemmas facing contemporary ‘information societies’. Design/methodology/approach The... Read More about Cyber-Green: idealism in the information age.

Contra Bentham: ethical information policy in the PanopticEon (2017)
Journal Article
Duff, A. S., & Bentham, C. (2017). Contra Bentham: ethical information policy in the PanopticEon. Journal of Information Ethics, 26(1), 93-111

The article addresses the problem of surveillance within the framework of ethical information policy. Jeremy Bentham’s plan for a panoptic penitentiary is subjected to forensic analysis, using primary as well as published sources. The panopticon, it... Read More about Contra Bentham: ethical information policy in the PanopticEon.

Ethical ePunditry? The role of expertise in online opinion-making (2017)
Journal Article
Forrest, E., & Duff, A. S. (2017). Ethical ePunditry? The role of expertise in online opinion-making. Journal of Information Ethics, 26(1),

The use of blogs to communicate ideas, opinions and knowledge has grown over the past two decades. Social media platforms have facilitated the rise of hybridised forms of written, verbal and visual communication and opinion-making, output which we de... Read More about Ethical ePunditry? The role of expertise in online opinion-making.

The census as an information source in public policy-making (2016)
Journal Article
Killick, L., Hall, H., Duff, A. S., & Deakin, M. (2016). The census as an information source in public policy-making. Journal of Information Science, 42(3), 386-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551516628471

This paper provides an assessment of the value of national population censuses as information sources with specific reference to UK census data and its use in policy-making. Mixed methods were adopted to collect quantitative and qualitative data fro... Read More about The census as an information source in public policy-making.