The Morality of Transparency; Clarity versus Emptiness

With transparency being either a state of clarity or the exposure emptiness, this paper focuses on the practices of transparency, termed ‘transparenting’. Focus on transparenting practices can provide a better tool for understanding the ‘rise of transparency’, and its moral, practical and political aspects. Three types of transparenting are defined: the voluntary transparenting conducted by organizations, the “flashlight” transparenting of suspicious outsiders, and renegade transparenting by the whistleblower. Examples are given from the field of anti-corruption programs and business ethics and compliance. Through a focus on transparenting, we can better understand both the risks and dark sides of transparency.