Wrecking My Timelines: Heidegger, Schurmann, Stigma Management, and Poetic Inquiry in the Criminology of Google's Enframing

• In Event: Convict Criminology Panel #2: Language, Stigma, and Inclusion

Abstract

Hermeneutic injustice arises when marginalized groups lack the conceptual resources to articulate their experiences within dominant societal structures. This paper situates hermeneutic injustice within Schurmann’s concept of the hegemonic fantasm, examining how stigma management resources perpetuate identity constraints. Specifically, we analyze how Google’s Heideggerian enframing of registered individuals reinforces stigma by limiting their ability to employ existing hermeneutical tools, such as the experimental concept of ‘leveling down’. Heidegger often critiques the dilution or inauthentic weakening of concepts, experiences, and existence itself, particularly in the context of modernity and everydayness. While he does not have a single term that directly translates to "diluting," several related terms capture this idea Nivellierung ‘“Meaning "leveling down" or "flattening," this describes how one stigmatized person can have a sense of erases reclaimant through publishing. Through Poetic Inquiry Criminology and three unpublished poems, we explore how hermeneutical justice may offer a countermeasure to such enframing, revealing how hegemonic fantasm sustains stigma while restricting self-comprehension and communication. By interrogating the interplay between stigma, identity, and interpretive agency, this paper challenges conventional understandings of hermeneutic injustice and argues for a deeper recognition of how digital infrastructures mediate the conditions of self-knowledge. Drawing on Schurmann’s critique of hegemonic structures, Heidegger’s enframing, and the breakdown of imposed identities, we propose dilution as a means of disrupting the linguistic and ontological fixity imposed upon registered individuals.

Author

• Lucas Alan Dietsche, Adams State University