Research on Surveillance, Privacy and Personal Data -- Identity and Self - from Enlightened to Fragmented -- Methodological Approach and Research Design -- Conditions of the Current Digital State -- Conditions of Control and Agency -- Conditions of the Self -- Conditions for Consequences -- Synthesis of Thoughts: Mise en Abyme.

The book explores the ambivalent relationship between identity, agency and personal data in the age of digitalisation. Using qualitative empirical research including a heterogeneous sample the author analyses the conditions under which humans share personal data, construct their selves and act socially. The results show how different data and the meaning attached to them vary over time und thus create distortions and fragmentations in relation to how the self is (re)presented. The subjects face a loss of agency in light of the power ascribed to data, which are often perceived and positioned as objective and unchallengeable. This leads to a sense of unease about sharing data, for which different coping techniques are found. The book critically reflects on these findings and concludes both empirically and theoretically on how identity and agency are constituted in the digital world and the educational implications that result out of this dynamic. Author Estella Ferraro (née Hebert) is an international researcher working at the department for education at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her research interests lie in the intersection of education, digitalisation and mediatisation, including the implications of the digital transformation for educational theory and identity formation as well as ethical considerations of datafication.