Conclusions

Abstract

In this book, we have analysed a series of social phenomena from the perspective of a relational ontology of visibility. Visibility has proved to be a useful category for theorising and studying phenomena that are inherent, for instance, in mass media and social representations, new media and networked social morphology, the public domain, recognition, surveillance, social control and the life of democratic societies. Throughout the book an attempt has been made to make our understanding of visibility more complex than simply a physical or dichotomic phenomenon; rather, visibility has been described as a social dimension that is inherently ambiguous and highly dependent upon contextual social, technical and political complexes or regimes.