Showing papers in "surveillance and society in 2015"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the social and legal privileging of police officers' perspectives and provide an explanation for design decisions that produced Taser's AXON Flex on-officer cameras and why police are embracing these new technologies.
Abstract: Cameras are ubiquitous and increasingly mobile. While CCTV has captured considerable attention by surveillance researchers, the new visibility of police activities is increasingly produced by incidental sousveillance and wearable on-officer camera systems. This article considers advocacy for policing’s new visibility, contrasting that of police accountability activists who film police with designers and early adopters of on-officer cameras. In both accounts, these devices promise accountability by virtue of their mechanical objectivity. However, to each party, accountability functions rather differently. By attending to the social and legal privileging of police officers’ perspectives, the article provides an explanation for design decisions that produced Taser’s AXON Flex on-officer cameras and for why police are embracing these new technologies. Critics of these cameras cite privacy concerns, officer discretion in operating cameras, and department disclosure of footage. Nonetheless, advocates of police accountability often presume more video documenting police use of force is always helpful. However, the utility of surveillance video is conditioned by point of view. Police agencies in the U.S. are rapidly adopting on-officer camera systems, because they acknowledge ubiquitous surveillance and that these devices aid in nullifying third-party documentation in favor of a perspective that favors officers. As such, these cameras are counter-sousveillance technologies.
66 citations
TL;DR: The authors surveys the various voter surveillance practices recently observed in the United States, assesses the extent to which they have been adopted in other democratic countries, and discusses the broad implications for privacy and democracy.
Abstract: This paper surveys the various voter surveillance practices recently observed in the United States, assesses the extent to which they have been adopted in other democratic countries, and discusses the broad implications for privacy and democracy. Four broad trends are discussed: the move from voter management databases to integrated voter management platforms; the shift from mass-messaging to micro-targeting employing personal data from commercial data brokerage firms; the analysis of social media and the social graph; and the decentralization of data to local campaigns through mobile applications. The de-alignment of the electorate in most Western societies has placed pressures on parties to target voters outside their traditional bases, and to find new, cheaper, and potentially more intrusive, ways to influence their political behavior. This paper builds on previous research to consider the theoretical tensions between concerns for excessive surveillance, and the broad democratic responsibility of parties to mobilize voters and increase political engagement. These issues have been insufficiently studied in the surveillance literature. They are not just confined to the privacy of the individual voter, but relate to broader dynamics in democratic politics.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of physical conduits including fibre-optic cables within circuits or power, of global networks of security and intelligence professionals, and of the minutiae of everyday social media practices.
Abstract: The drip-feed disclosures about state surveillance following Edward Snowden’s dramatic departure from his NSA contractor, Booz Allen, carrying over one million revealing files, have ired some and prompted some serious heart-searching in others. One of the challenges is to those who engage in surveillance studies. Three kinds of issues present themselves: One, research disregard: responses to the revelations show a surprising lack of understanding of the large-scale multi-faceted panoply of surveillance that has been constructed over the past 40 years or so that includes but is far from exhausted by state surveillance itself. Two, research deficits: we find that a number of crucial areas require much more research. These include the role of physical conduits including fibre-optic cables within circuits or power, of global networks of security and intelligence professionals, and of the minutiae of everyday social media practices. Three, research direction: the kinds of surveillance that have developed over several decades are heavily dependent on the digital – and, increasingly, on so-called big data -- but also extend beyond it. However, if there is a key issue raised by the Snowden revelations, it is the future of the internet. Information and its central conduits have become an unprecedented arena of political struggle, centred on surveillance and privacy. Those concepts themselves require rethinking.
37 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a framework for the study of surveillance legitimizing strategies in scandal discourses that can be used for future cross-case comparisons, and analyze how the legitimacy of surveillance practices is maintained or repaired by surveillance advocates when it is contested in times of a scandal.
Abstract: This paper conceptualizes scandals as a special type of discourse in which the legitimacy of institutions or practices like surveillance is in question. This forces surveillance advocates to engage in legitimacy management (Suchmann 1995). They therefore adopt legitimization strategies that can be observed. This paper presents a framework for the study of surveillance legitimizing strategies in scandal discourses that can be used for future cross-case comparisons. The aim is to analyze how the legitimacy of surveillance practices is maintained or repaired by surveillance advocates when it is contested in times of a scandal. The research questions are, what rhetorical strategies are used to legitimize surveillance and to prevent the scandal from escalating? The case that is studied is the reaction by the German federal Government between June and October 2013. Because of the Federal Election in September that year and the strong notions about privacy and data protection within Germany, this discourse is especially relevant. The surveillance legitimizing practices follow an escalation logic: from denial of knowledge, denial of participation, acknowledging of limited participation to complaining about the monitoring of Angela Merkel’s cellphone.
30 citations
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper examined how Chinese practices of security governmentality are enacted in everyday online censorship and surveillance/dataveillance of word flows in the Chinese internet, and found that search engine filtering is based on a two-layer system where short-lived political incidents tend to be filtered for brief periods of time, while words that are conducive to building oppositional awareness tends to be censored more continuously.
Abstract: This article examines how Chinese practices of security governmentality are enacted in everyday online censorship and surveillance/dataveillance of word flows in the Chinese internet. Our analysis of crowdsourced lists of filtered words on the Sina Weibo microblog shows that search engine filtering is based on a two-layer system where short-lived political incidents tend to be filtered for brief periods of time, while words that are conducive to building oppositional awareness tend to be censored more continuously. This indicates a distinction between ‘bad’ and ‘dangerous’ circulations of information from the viewpoint of Chinese internet censorship. Our findings also point out, perhaps counterintuitively, that the ruling Chinese Communist Party is much more inclined to filter words associated with itself than the opposition, or protests, which are usually regarded as the foci of Chinese internet censorship efforts. Our explanation for this is that through surveillance and censorship, the post-totalitarian party-state protects its political hard core against dangerous circulation by trying to prevent public discourse on its leaders and key opponents from going viral. The Chinese online politics of insecurity makes this feasible in a post-totalitarian political order.
28 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the NSA leaks potentially open new conceptual repertoires and research sites by discussing devices that leak data versus devices that are inserted into computers or networks in order to capture data.
Abstract: The NSA disclosures have put the issue of surveillance at center stage, and with that, a range of technologies by which data are captured. This article aims to break up devices for data collection by discussing devices that leak data versus devices that are inserted into computers or networks in order to capture data. Taking a post-Foucauldian trajectory within surveillance theory as a point of reference, in which conceptual frameworks tended to emphasize data bodies and data flows, this article argues that the leaks potentially open new conceptual repertoires and research sites. Amongst other things, we might want to start focusing on devices that ‘get close’.
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a new methodological tool, which combines traditional citizen summit method with an innovative mixed-method research design, for risk analysis and public engagement in science and technology.
Abstract: Pre-emptive security emphasizes the necessity of envisioning and designing technologies enabling the anticipation and management of emergent risks threatening human and public security. Surveillance functionalities are embedded in the design of these technologies to allow constant monitoring, preparedness and prevention. Yet surveillance-orientated security technologies, such as smart CCTVs or Deep Packet Inspection, bring along with their implementation other risks, such as risks of privacy infringement, discrimination, misuse, abuse, or errors, which have often triggered public outrage and resistance. The same measures meant to foster human security, can potentially make people feel insecure, vulnerable, and exposed. This outcome is the result of a narrow approach toward problem solving that does not take into account those same people the technology is supposed to protect. Drawing from both the socio-cultural and psychometric approaches to risk analysis and from the literature on public engagement in science and technology, this article presents a new methodological tool, which combines traditional citizen summit method with an innovative mixed-method research design. The objective of this new form of participatory exercise is to engage the public and gather socially robust and in context knowledge about the public acceptability of these technologies. The method has been developed as part of the SurPRISE project, funded by the European Commission under the SeventhFramework Program. The article presents the theoretical framework and preliminary results of citizen summits organized across Europe.
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a new field of research called Activist intelligence and covert strategy, based on previous research published in Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark, corporate and police spying on activists.
Abstract: Building on previous research published in Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark, corporate and police spying on activists (2012), the author proposes a new field of research called Activist intelligence and covert strategy. Using exclusive access to previously confidential sources, Secret Manoeuvres showed how companies such as Nestle, Shell and McDonald’s use covert methods to evade accountability. The author concluded that corporate intelligence gathering has shifted from being reactive to proactive, and identified a seriously under-researched area: the state’s concern with corporate interests, their close cooperation in collecting intelligence on campaigners, and a shared agenda in dealing with dissent. This paper encompasses an introduction to the published case studies, a definition of the proposed research field, and an exploration of its positioning in a multidisciplinary area as well as its theoretical embedding. The discussion under Methods: Hybrid Projects makes a case for the fusion of journalistic and social scientific approaches to the subject matter.
19 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue for a wider and more nuanced understanding of ethnography's role in surveillance studies than has sometimes historically been the case, and suggest that approaches oriented towards empirically understanding surveillance practices as 'everyday life' have a significant future contribution to make, particularly with respect to building and developing our theoretical understandings of surveillant assemblages in everyday life contexts.
Abstract: This article argues for a wider and more nuanced understanding of ethnography’s role in Surveillance Studies than has sometimes historically been the case. The article begins by (briefly) deconstructing some of the ways that the concepts of both ‘surveillance’ and ‘ethnography’ have been deployed in empirical surveillance research over time, in order to set the scene for a critical interrogation of the variety of ethnographic approaches so far used within Surveillance Studies. The paper then goes on to review Surveillance Studies approaches broadly, and a range of qualitative and ethnographically-informed approaches in particular, within interdisciplinary empirical research related to surveillance relations. The ensuing discussion identifies several points where the existing empirical evidence base would benefit from more extensive ethnographic studies, at multiple sites and scales, that methodologically recognize surveillance as situated and meaningful everyday life processes and practices, rather than surveillant activities and relationships in settings defined as ‘surveillance’ in an a priori fashion. The article concludes by suggesting that approaches oriented towards empirically understanding surveillance practices as ‘everyday life’ have a significant future contribution to make, particularly with respect to building and developing our theoretical understandings of surveillant assemblages in everyday life contexts.
14 citations
TL;DR: A very brief history of National Security Agency whistleblowers and investigations before Edward Snowden is given in this paper, which sets the current wave of NSA whistleblowing in the context of a growing demand for openness, transparency and accountability opposing the renewed closures and secrecy of the War on Terror.
Abstract: This editorial for the Surveillance and Security Intelligence After Snowden issue provides a very brief history of National Security Agency whistleblowers and investigations before Edward Snowden, and sets the current wave of NSA whistleblowing in the context of a growing demand for openness, transparency and accountability opposing the renewed closures and secrecy of the War on Terror. It also provides some links for further research and reading.
14 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that these contradictions are not the product of confusion, but in fact are constitutive of the ways in which communities are rhetorically and materially formed.
Abstract: Community safety has complex connotations for sex workers. This complexity is, in part, a function of the contradictory nature of ideas of community and the positioning of sex workers as both at-risk and risky, victims and criminals. ‘Community’ is simultaneously inclusive of everyone, including sex workers, and that which needs to be defended against the perceived dangers posed by sex work and sex workers. Denied in these contexts is any sense that harm may indeed flow from community to sex workers, not just the reverse. Drawing on data from a study with a diversity of sex working women in Toronto, Canada, this article argues that these contradictions are not the product of confusion, but in fact are constitutive of the ways in which communities are rhetorically and materially formed. They have structured legislative responses to sex work, reflect normative conceptions of community, bodies, and public space, and have actively produced unsafe and insecure conditions for sex workers. Indeed, sex workers themselves consistently identify the contradictory nature of ideas of community and the harm that flows from them. This is strongly evident in one of the key ways in which projects for ‘community safety’ are currently implemented, namely the installation of Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV).
TL;DR: This paper explored the role of surveillance in and is gendered by migrant Filipino practices of care in Saudi Arabia, an overlooked but vital part of the way that people create "platforms for living" as well as enact social control and normative conformity, in sometimes precarious situations.
Abstract: Surveillance features routinely in discussions of migration in terms of boundary crossing and border policing; that is, of how states and state-like entities seek to limit and control movement, often at a distance. What is less frequently examined is how migrants who are excluded from care by forms of selective non/surveillance have to rely on their own informal social networks, referred to here as embodied infrastructures, to provide both care and the forms of watching that enable that care. Drawing together Foucault’s (2009) notion of pastoral power and Simone’s (2004) notion of ‘people as infrastructure’, I explore ethnographically the way that surveillance features in and is gendered by migrant Filipino practices of care in Saudi Arabia, an overlooked but vital part of the way that people create ‘platforms for living’, as well as enact social control and normative conformity, in sometimes precarious situations.
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative and comprehensive methodology was used to explore the barriers between the potential utility of scientific methods and new technologies in criminal investigations, and explore these barriers through a set of interviews and informal conversations with criminal investigators.
Abstract: Technological elements and scientific knowledge are steadily transforming both the traditional image of the detective and the nature of contemporary police work. However, despite the potential utility of scientific methods and new technologies in criminal investigations, there are many barriers surrounding their application. We explore these barriers through a qualitative and comprehensive methodology, utilising a set of semi-structured interviews and informal conversations with criminal investigators. We use theoretical contributions from social studies of science and technology, surveillance studies and policing research to analyse how soft and hard forms of surveillance are applied in the practices of the Portuguese Criminal Investigation Police ( Policia Judiciaria ). The technological artefacts are both shaped by and shape how criminal investigators work. Consequently, it is necessary to explore how the collectives of human and non-human elements are constituted. By analysing the fusion of traditional methods of criminal investigation ( hard surveillance ) with new technologies of collection and use of information ( soft surveillance ) we see a hybrid figure of the contemporary detective emerging; a product of both the past and the present. In a context where innovation is sometimes constrained, traditional methods continue to endure. Nevertheless, the expansion of computerisation and police databases has had significant impact on how police information is collected and recorded.
TL;DR: Palmer and Warren as mentioned in this paper discuss how the processes of mutual legal assistance that ordinarily govern the search, seizure and transfer of digital evidence from one jurisdiction to another are increasingly considered to undermine police efficiency, even though they protect the due process rights afforded to crime suspects under established principles of sovereignty.
Abstract: Seeking better understanding of the relationship between criminal law and surveillance demands investigating the evolving nature of sovereignty in an era of transnational digital information flows. While territorial boundaries determine the limits of police investigative and surveillance powers under the criminal law, several recent United States (US) examples demonstrate how new forms of extraterritorial surveillance that enable police to access online communications by foreign citizens and digital information stored in offshore locations are authorized by US courts. This discussion outlines how the processes of mutual legal assistance that ordinarily govern the search, seizure and transfer of digital evidence from one jurisdiction to another are increasingly considered to undermine police efficiency, even though they protect the due process rights afforded to crime suspects under established principles of sovereignty (Palmer and Warren 2013).
TL;DR: This study found that lateral surveillance had a more powerful effect on social behaviours, contributed significantly by the presence and usage of publicity channels such as FaceBook, and other local popular news websites.
Abstract: With the high Internet penetration rate, and the dense saturation of audio-visual-capturing mobile smartphones among its citizens, Singapore provides a ripe technological infrastructure for a surveillance society. Its citizens have been serendipitously capturing, on photo or video, socially undesirable and controversial incidents of daily living. Widespread adoption and use of social media have enhanced the viewership of these behaviours captured, and provided a platform for responses of criticisms. Panopticism, in the modern day context, is used as a metaphor to describe the effect of surveillance by authorities that shapes and manipulates social behaviour. Lateral surveillance is an opposite of panopticism, which portrays the impact of surveillance of the few, by the unseen many. This study explored the perception and impact of these activities on citizens’ social behaviours. Respondents were questioned on their awareness of surveillance in different milieu of their daily lives, such as commuting, driving, interactions in public spaces, and checking into, or uploading of photos onto social media, and its impacts on their social behaviours in those public spaces. This study recruited a sample of 223 university students, aged between 19 and 24 years, comprising of both genders, to undergo an online survey. These students were directed to an online survey, which did not capture identifiable information, by the authors who have access to the students at their university. Data collected provided descriptive statistics of the awareness and impact of panopticism, and lateral surveillance, by media-rich and media-savvy young citizens. Comparisons were made between panopticism versus lateral surveillance’s effect on social behavior. This study found that lateral surveillance had a more powerful effect on social behaviours, contributed significantly by the presence and usage of publicity channels such as FaceBook, and other local popular news websites.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that an attenuated understanding of surveillance by politicians and other stakeholders has contributed to a failure to adequately consider the social control dimensions of this new universal provision.
Abstract: The Scottish Parliament’s ‘Children and Young People’ Bill has extended statutory responsibilities for the welfare of children to include their well-being This article focuses on the ‘named person’ service, arguing that an attenuated understanding of surveillance by politicians and other stakeholders has contributed to a failure to adequately consider the social control dimensions of this new universal provision
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that CCTV systems are an inversion of broadcasting: "harvest media" and explore how harvest media impacts on cultural and legal perceptions of evidence, truth and deniability.
Abstract: This article adapts Marshall McLuhan’s writings on mass media to ubiquitous and universal surveillance systems, looking at surveillance as media . The term ‘broadcast media’ is derived from an agricultural metaphor, a technique of planting. I argue that CCTV systems are an inversion of broadcasting: ‘harvest media’. Drawing on three case studies in which CCTV has been relevant to allegations of police misconduct, I explore how harvest media impacts on cultural and legal perceptions of evidence, truth and deniability.
TL;DR: In this paper, a possible angle for linking surveillance subjects to broader social patterns may be achieved through concepts from science and technology studies, specifically Irwin and Michael's (2003) concept of the ethno-epistemic assemblage (EEA).
Abstract: Surveillance can be experienced in a variety of ways, but how these experiences might be linked to broader social patterns is currently underdeveloped. There is a growing body of research exploring the surveillance subject and how individuals may (dis)engage with surveillance practices. This includes (but is not limited to) surveillance as a bargaining process (Pallitto 2013), counter surveillance activities such as sousveillance (Mann, Nolan and Wellman 2003), and surveillance as a process of exposing subjects (Ball 2009). But while shedding light on the experiences of surveillance subjects, how these experiences might be placed in relation to broader social and surveillance structures is not always automatically evident. This paper presents an initial engagement with this topic, and suggests that a possible angle for linking surveillance subjects to broader social patterns may be achieved through concepts from science and technology studies, specifically Irwin and Michael’s (2003) concept of the ethno-epistemic assemblage (EEA). The EEA is a theoretical heuristic originally envisioned to help understand the blurred relationships between science and society, emphasising the heterogeneous composition and relationship of technoscience and society. The EEA specifically links an individual’s contexts (ethnos), and the forms of knowledge relevant to their contexts (episteme), into assemblages, highlighting the interwoven, dynamic, and fluid nature of ethno-epistemes against and in conjunction with other EEAs, and other social narratives. A brief exploration of the marginal positioning of surveillance subjectivities is presented, followed by a detailed description of the EEA, and how it may contribute to structuring and placing the complexities of surveillance subjects in society.
TL;DR: In this article, a small-scale ethnographic study of a community of windsurfers that use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to monitor and share their performance online is presented.
Abstract: This article presents material from a small-scale ethnographic study of a community of windsurfers that use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to monitor and share their performance online. Following recent debates within Surveillance Studies, these practices are categorised as a form of coveillance. The argument explores the subjectivity produced by the introduction of GPS technology and social media usage in the context of windsurfers. Suggesting that this form of coveillance is yielding a particular consumer culture among its members, the article explores how the GPS-social-media assemblage boosts the desire to consume .
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a conceptual understanding of the nature of the global mass surveillance policies and practices revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in collaboration with the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, and propose a socio-political and technologically-enabled modality of resistance that can resemantize contemporary politics of truth and lead towards a newborn digital agency for global(ized) civil society.
Abstract: This article aims to provide a novel conceptual understanding of the nature of the global mass surveillance policies and practices revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in collaboration with the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. The critical analysis and conceptual reinterpretation of state and corporate surveillance and its impact on the political agency of civil society is multidisciplinary. An intersection of surveillance studies, political philosophy, and global politics/international relations provides an overview of the policies and practices that states and corporations develop and implement in relation to information and communications technologies (ICT). Clarifying how contemporary society is global and digital, it analyzes the way in which political economies inform contemporary policies and practices of surveillance. A critical analysis the relation of political economy to neoliberal governmentality, biopolitical technologies of power, and contemporary regimes of truth, leads to posit that global mass surveillance is a technology of power deployed by a contemporary biopolitics of information and communication. A conceptual reinterpretation of Foucault’s notion of parrhesia and Mann’s notion of sousveillance leads to posit that parrhesiastic sousveillance is a socio-political and technologically-enabled modality of resistance that can resemantize contemporary politics of truth and lead towards a newborn digital agency for global(ized) civil society.
TL;DR: In examining popular cultural responses to the rise of a Big Data discourse, two films are analysed, Sam Mendes's Skyfall and Tomas Alfredson's 2011 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, both of which seek to engage with changing frameworks.
Abstract: Working within the framework of a hypothesised shift between Michel Foucault’s model of discipline and Gilles Deleuze’s paradigm of the control society, this article considers the cinematic expression of emerging modes of monitoring in a surveillance society in which there has been an exponential increase in, and access to, information. In order to contextualise this interplay between these two models, three related areas are considered in this article. Firstly, the growing awareness of the consequences of Big Data, not only within teaching and research institutions, but through the dissemination of (sometimes erroneous) information in popular media and various news platforms is discussed. The British government’s response to such developments with a ‘rhetoric of transparency’, which has been critically undermined with the recent ‘leaks’ from whistleblowers affecting both British and American security agencies, in particular, is considered. Secondly, a brief outline of the changing theoretical models which can be employed to aid understanding of this situation is offered and, thirdly, in examining popular cultural responses to the rise of a Big Data discourse, two films are analysed, Sam Mendes's Skyfall (2012) and Tomas Alfredson's 2011 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, both of which seek to engage with these changing frameworks. These films in turn contribute to the fictions of transparency in relation to government espionage agencies.
TL;DR: Examples of collaboration and non-collaboration among workers from social, health and law enforcement agencies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Porto Alegre, Brazil in their daily interactions with drug users are brought to analyze the types of surveillance arising from these negotiations.
Abstract: If surveillance is understood as a complex multi-dimensional process, then collaboration between health, social and law enforcement sectors can be viewed as a part of the surveillance culture of particular societies and urban settings. Policies towards illicit drugs usually build on a two-track approach—public health and public order—with different objectives that have to be negotiated daily by street level workers in the light of their differing beliefs on drug use. This paper brings examples of collaboration and non-collaboration among workers from social, health and law enforcement agencies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Porto Alegre, Brazil in their daily interactions with drug users, to analyze the types of surveillance arising from these negotiations. The study utilizes results from 80 in-depth interviews with street level workers and 800 hours of participant observation carried out from February 2010 until March 2011, equally divided between the two cities. Different cultures of surveillance produce diverse state-citizen approaches in terms of coercion, care, and rights. In Amsterdam, close collaboration and information exchange among workers produce a ‘chain’ surveillance culture: an intensive screening allows drug users to have more access to care, yet, at the same time this can produce excessive control over users’ lives. In Porto Alegre, by contrast, insufficient collaboration produces a surveillance culture of ‘holes’: less systematic screening and lack of information sharing allows users to slip out of care, and of workers’ surveillance sight. Historically, though coming from apparently opposite extremes in terms of drug surveillance (respectively permissive and controlling), both Amsterdam and Porto Alegre in practice show surveillance cultures which combine care and order. Combinations, however, vary according to different assemblages between actors concerned with transforming drug users’ lives.
TL;DR: The authors examine how Britain's public authorities and private investors alike have come to define common activists as terrorists, using a range of security methods that have gained surprising ground during the past decade.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine how Britain's Public Authorities and private investors alike have come to define common activists as terrorists, using a range of security methods that have gained surprising ground during the past decade. In short, newfound terms such as "extremism" have been popularised to condemn the activities of groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS (Islamic State), but at the same time have been applied to campaigners for the 'far less politically correct deterrence of dissenting public discourse' (Leman-Langlois, 2009). This paper therefore argues that with the application of terms such as "extremists" to Britain's campaigners, these signifiers have notably radicalized protest groups - not by virtue of their actions per se [1] , but by way of the very deliberate repositioning of activists within national security and counter-terrorism frameworks. Nevertheless, it should be recognised that while such narratives are being disseminated at both a national and regional level in the UK, they also form part of a wider Strategic Dialogue, which occurs throughout the West [2] . Indeed the ultimately aim of such practices is to criminalize all forms of extremism (including public acts of direct action), for their capacity to incite civil unrest. Fundamentally speaking, while significant work has been undertaken by leading academics from Europe, Canada, and the USA, relatively little is known about Britain's fusion intelligence centres, in which case the following paper aims to make a valuable contribution to this emerging trend in the policing of domestic affairs, by highlighting the operational protocols and legitimizing narratives that are in use today. [1] Though the strategic dissemination of this dialogue, forms part of an overall campaign to reduce popular sympathy for demonstrators. [2] See the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), regarding the international mobilization of counter-terrorism/ extremism narratives.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe how CCTV has evolved in Denmark from 1954, where it was first mentioned in a specialist journal, to 1982, where legislation is passed that regulates how CCTV can be used and by whom.
Abstract: The article describes how CCTV has evolved in Denmark from 1954, where it is first mentioned in a specialist journal, to 1982, where legislation is passed that regulates how CCTV can be used and by whom. The article identifies four technological frames in which CCTV is placed in the period. Three of these are ‘use-directed’ as they point to various ways of using CCTV and identify certain advantages and obstacles for this use. These three frames are ‘CCTV in industries’, ‘CCTV in traffic’, and ‘CCTV in security practices’. The fourth technological frame is critical towards using CCTV; it fears that the relationship between citizens and state is hampered and that the privacy of citizens is at risk. This technological frame is labeled ‘CCTV as a democratic threat’. The article shows how there have been various controversies between the different interpretations of CCTV. Thus, CCTV in Denmark has not evolved through linear and uncontested progression; in fact, CCTV has been at the centre of several controversies in which surveillance practices have been negotiated and regulated.
TL;DR: This contribution examines the disappearance of bodies in the deployment of security scanners and post-Snowden developments to illustrate the productivity of dis-appearance and the emergence of surveillance’s ob-scene.
Abstract: Moving away from the traditional framing of surveillance in terms of in/visibility, this article proposes a conceptual journey that investigates the potential of the notions of dis-appearance and ob-scene as alternative theoretical tools. In particular, it explores how these different perspectives can help bringing politics back into the study and the critique of surveillance. Visibility is structurally linked to invisibility, and together they configure the different modes of in/visibility allowing for the very functioning of surveillance. However, the in/visibility dyad rather than merely describe surveillance contributes to its operations and stabilisation. In order to better understand and unpack surveillance it is thus necessary to tackle its practices not only in search of who watches whom, or what, but also by studying what is concealed through in/visibility, through both hiding and exposing, and what is left out of the scene (or being pushed away) in these processes. In a dialogue with surveillance and critical security studies, this contribution examines the disappearance of bodies in the deployment of security scanners and post-Snowden developments to illustrate the productivity of dis-appearance and the emergence of surveillance’s ob-scene. Against this background, the paper argues that through the lens of the ob-scene it is possible to grasp surveillance’s ripples, and open up their political discussion.
TL;DR: A transcript of the presentation of the Surveillance Studies Network Outstanding Achievement Award to Gary T. Marx at the Surveillance & Society Biennial Conference, Barcelona, April 2014.
Abstract: A transcript of the presentation of the Surveillance Studies Network Outstanding Achievement Award to Gary T. Marx at the Surveillance & Society Biennial Conference, Barcelona, April 2014.