Synopsis
An investigative study of how automated systems in welfare, housing, and child services surveil and punish poor Americans.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workDigital tools used to administer public assistance often entrench inequality by profiling, policing, and excluding the poor under a veneer of neutrality.
It reveals that technical systems carry political choices, automating old prejudices while obscuring accountability behind algorithms.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State.
Reading note
Read it as reported case studies, following the specific people and programs Eubanks investigates rather than abstract theory.
Best paired with
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State