Fabian Pittroff

Fabian Pittroff works at the department of Sociological Theory at the University of Kassel. His research topics include the future of privacy, subjectivation in the 21st century, and the mapping of controversies. In his dissertation he investigates the relation between privacy and personhood. While privacy has facilitated personhood for most of modernity, this traditional bond is loosening and alternative environments of personhood like social networking sites take hold. What often is being observed as a demise of privacy is connected to this shift of personhood away from its former home. To explore this transition Fabian sketches out a sociological theory of personhood that can grasp the situation by combining different theoretical traditions like systems theory, Foucauldian studies, and actor-network theory. Additionally, he investigates contemporary arenas of privacy and digitisation. It becomes apparent in these controversies how privacy problems in the course of digitalisation are linked to crises of subjectivity. Finally, Fabian explores contemporary technologies of the self like self tracking and selfie taking to map new environments of personhood and their consequences for the future of privacy.