This book is about explaining surveillance processes and practises in contemporary society. Surveillance studies is a relatively new multi-disciplinary enterprise the aims to understand who watches who, how the watched participate in and sometimes question their surveillance, why surveillance occurs, and with what effects. This book brings together some of the world's leading surveillance scholars to discuss the ‘why’ question. The field has been dominated since the groundbreaking work of Michel Foucault, by the idea of panopticon and this book explores why this metaphor has been central in discussions of surveillance, what is fruitful in the panooptic approach and what are the possible approaches can throw better light on the phenomena in question. Since the advent of networked computer databases and especially since 9/11 questions of surveillance have come increasingly to the forefront of democratic political and policy debates in the global north and to an extent in the global South). Civil liberties democratic participation and privacy are some of the issues that are raised by these developments. But little progress can be made in responding to these issues without an adequate understanding of how, how well and whether or not surveillance works. This book explores the theoretical questions in a way that is grounded in and attuned to empirical realities.
Edited by:
David Lyon (Queen’s University Ontario Canada)
Imprint: Willan Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 710g
ISBN: 9781843921912
ISBN 10: 184392191X
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 01 August 2006
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents Introduction 1 Pre- and Post-Panopticism: The Search for Surveillance Theories, David Lyon (Queen's Research Chair, Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Canada; Director, The Surveillance Project) The Imperative Search for Good Surveillance Theory 2 Tear Down the Walls: On Demolishing the Panopticon, Kevin D. Haggerty (Director, Criminology Program, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada) 3 Security, Exception, Ban and Surveillance, Didier Bigo (Institut d'Etudes Politique, France) 4 Looking into the Future: Surveillance, Globalization and Totalitarian Potential, Maria Los (Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Canada) Surveillance as Social Sorting 5 The Bifurcation of Surveillance: Theorizing the British Criminal Justice System, Clive Norris (Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UK) 6 Telemonitoring for Cardiac Patients: User-Centred Research as Input for Surveillance Theories, Lynsey Dubbeld (Faculty of Business, Public Administration & Technology, Centre for Studies of Science, Technology and Society, University of Twente, the Netherlands) 7 Supplementing the Panoptic Paradigm: Surveillance, Moral Governance, and CCTV, Sean P. Hier (Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Canada), Kevin Walby (Department of Sociology, Carleton University, Canada), Josh Greenberg (School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Carleton University, Canada) Time, Space and Surveillance Theory 8 Surveillance Assemblages and Lines of Flight, William Bogard (Department of Sociology, Whitman College, USA) 9 Tense Theory: The Temporalities of Surveillance, Gary Genosko and Scott Thompson (Department of Sociology, Lakehead University, Canada) Theorizing Military and Security Surveillance 10 Surveillance, Urbanization, and the U.S. 'Revolution in Military Affairs', Stephen Graham (Department of Geography, Durham University, UK) 11 Pre-empting Panoptic Surveillance: Surviving the Inevitable War on Terror, Greg Elmer (Ryerson University, Bell Globemedia Research Chair, Rogers Communications Centre/School of Radio-TV Arts, Canada), Andy Opel (Department of Communication, Florida State University, USA) Power and Agency 12 'The Other Side of Surveillance': Webcams, Power and Agency, Hille Koskela (Department of Geography, Helsinki University, Finland) 13 Organization, Surveillance and the Body: Towards a Politics of Resistance, Kirstie Ball (Human Resources, Open University, UK) 14 The Role of Confession in Reflective Practice: Monitored Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Health Care and the Paradox of Professional Autonomy, Mark Cole (University of Greenwich, UK) Theory and Resistance 15 Electronic Government and Surveillance Oriented Society, Toshimaru Ogura (Department of Economics, Toyama University, Japan) 16 Quixotics Unite! Engaging the Pragmatists on Rational Discrimination, Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA) Index
David Lyon is Queen's Research Chair in the Sociology Department and Director of the Surveillance Project, at Queen's University, Ontario.
Reviews for Theorizing Surveillance
Jeremy BenthamaaC--a s panopticon was a revolutionary prison designed for its inmates to be observed by a central (but himself unseen) observeraaC-- a post for which the eminent philosopher, who hoped to reform as well as incarcerate prisoners, volunteered his own servicesaaC-- and the panopticon remains the central image of the expanding and indeed exploding subject of surveillance studies. Closed circuit television coverage makes us all subject to the gaze of the unseen observer, and the computers and mobile telephones at our disposal create further possibilities for surveillance.Should those possibilities be ignored, resisted, or analyzed and assessed in terms of their full implications? First, they to be made evident;and that is what this volume helps to do. David Lyon, a Canadian academic who has written widely on the implications of the development of the aaC--Eusurveillance societyaaC--a , points to a conundrum:aaC--Euthe more stringent and rigorous the panoptic regime, the more it generates active resistance, whereas the more soft and subtle the panoptic strategies, the more it produces the desired docile bodies.aaC--a This book considers a range of panoptic and post-panoptic devices, ranging from the maximum security prison to the self-imposed surveillance of aaC--Eucontinuing professional developmentaaC--a in the medical profession, in order to explore the implications of the surveillance society in greater depth.The result of an academic conference in Canada, it brings together an extraordinary range of ideas and is an absorbing if not an easy read. Peter Villiers
