Publications

Digital surveillance has become a defining feature of contemporary life in the Global South, shaped by the intersecting forces of state authority, corporate power, and historical legacies of colonialism. This paper examines the expanding scope of digital surveillance and the diverse forms of everyday resistance that emerge in response. It argues that surveillance in the Global South is not merely a top-down imposition but a complex, hybrid system embedded in socio-political, economic, and technological structures. Drawing on historical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives, the study explores state-led, corporate, and informal surveillance practices, highlighting how they influence individual autonomy, freedom of expression, and social organization. At the same time, it foregrounds grassroots digital agency, illustrating how individuals and communities employ creative, tactical, and networked strategies, such as anonymity practices, informal monitoring, mutual aid networks, and technological improvisation to resist, evade, or subvert surveillance systems. Through regional case studies across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, the paper demonstrates that resistance is deeply contextual, often intertwined with survival and shaped by local conditions of precarity and inequality. Ultimately, the paper contends that everyday resistance in the Global South reveals both the limits of surveillance and the resilience of subaltern actors, calling for more context-sensitive theories and policies that centre lived experiences and local innovations.