Information Polity

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0262

Taylor, Emmeline

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0247

Clavell, Gemma Galdon

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0251

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems are a growing phenomenon in most Western countries and a fixed item on security agendas in urban environments around the world. But while several authors have studied the proliferation of CCTV from a comparative perspective, in most cases the analysis is focused at the national level, assuming that local processes are no more than the locus of implementation of national agendas. Moreover, issues related to political configurations and reconfigurations, historical factors and internal dynamics of power have seldom been tackled, and some of the assumptions about proliferation patterns in the most widely researched areas have become general assumptions. The new empirical research findings presented in this article offer a detailed and empirically evidenced account of the political and policy environment surrounding the uptake of video surveillance in Catalonia and suggests that zooming in on local processes adds complexity to the understanding of the process of CCTV proliferation at the global level. Specifically, the article addresses: the role of local/global interaction in the emergence of CCTV as a new orthodoxy, the relationship between video surveillance and economic and commercial pressures on urban restructuring, the role of party politics and political ideologies in surveillance policy, and the specific articulation of the interaction between video surveillance and urban disorder. The article ends by exploring both local narratives and global-local policy dynamics, concluding that there is a need to conduct further research on the specific ways in which CCTV policy travels through borders and between the scales of government, and the processes by which it becomes embedded in diverse geographic, political and institutional settings.

Musik, Christoph

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0252

An increase in video surveillance systems, paired with increased inquiry for efficiency, leads to the need of systems which are able to process and interpret video data automatically. These systems have been referred to as 'algorithmic video surveillance', 'smart CCTV', or 'second generation CCTV surveillance'. This paper differentiates and focuses on 'high-level semantic video surveillance' by referring to two case studies: Facial Expression Recognition and Automated multi-camera event recognition for the prevention of bank robberies. Once in operation these systems are obscure, therefore, the construction process of high-level semantic VS is scrutinized on the basis of a 'technology in the making' approach.

Björklund, Fredrika

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0260

Surveillance is an important governance technique of modern societies and is linked to particular governmental rationalities. This article examines the Swedish policy on camera surveillance, using the analytical framework of governmentality, the art of government, in advanced liberal societies as its theoretical framework. The focus is on three features that characterise current developments in the Swedish policy. These are labelled situational prevention, generalisation of distrust and the significance of the informed citizen. The study shows how prevention, i.e. situational prevention, was successfully introduced as a main rationale for monitoring only after the technology had been in place for some years. Monitoring as a form of general situational prevention, the congruent generalised distrust that affects the public and the Swedish requirement to inform citizens about cameras are viewed as elements of a governmental rationality based on the notion of the autonomous, free and self-responsible subject. Accordingly, the popular idea that camera surveillance is an indicator of an expanding security state must be modified.

Heilmann, Eric

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0249

This article presents a historical account of the introduction and use of video surveillance cameras in France. Specific reference is made of the introduction of regulatory and legislative arrangements and to political debates surrounding the provision of video surveillance cameras. A feature of the French context has been a desire by national government to install cameras more widely in public places and a resistance to do so by local regions (departments). This highlights a traditional tension between central and local government in France and the significance of political rhetoric to the ongoing installation and operation of video surveillance cameras.

Fonio, Chiara

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0248

This paper aims to analyze the growth of video surveillance in Italy through a focus on the legislative framework and the politics, in particular urban security policies. The paper explores whether the decentralization of security polices has impacted on the implementation of surveillance cameras within national urban contexts. A specific emphasis will also be given to the limited empirical data available, namely a qualitative research carried out in the city of Milan in 2005 (4). Efforts are made to understand potential discrepancies between the national Data Protection Authority provisions on video surveillance and the reception of it by the camera operators. This contribution also seeks to shed light on "lost surveillance studies" (15) within a non-Anglophone framework in order to sketch out an approach to surveillance that differs from countries where the issue has been broadly explored (inter alia (21)).

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0256

2011 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0257

2011 Information Polity

doi: