Surveillance

Abstract

The concept of surveillance is vital for a digital era, especially considering that the term surveillance is several centuries old. It has been modified over time to fit new circumstances. Today, when surveillance has become part of the very infrastructure of contemporary societies, the task of understanding and updating the concept of surveillance is more important than ever. Here, the concept is defined, traced over time, elaborated upon and its current uses discussed. It is shown to be a multi-disciplinary concept, one that requires multi-faceted understanding. Today, the ubiquitous use of smart phones -a key surveillance-enabling device -and the data-analysing capacities of large organisations, public and private, means that the concept has an ongoing life and impact. It is an analytical concept but also a contested and critical one, required for understanding and engaging with our times.

Between Technological Utopia and Dystopia: Online Expression of Compulsory Use of Surveillance Technology

“…This study asked a research question: What are people’s utopian and dystopian views (as well as a pragmatic view) of society-wide, compulsory use of surveillance technology? By referring to Foucault’s ( 1977 ) panopticon metaphor and Lyon’s ( 2022 ) digitized and datafied surveillance as a social practice, this study was conducted to understand how people with utopian, pragmatic, and dystopian views would differently influence their behavior, subjectivities, and counter-conduct, i.e., the strategies people use to resist ruling power structures and forms of control.…”

“…Digital surveillance scholars have argued that the public use of interactive media technologies contributes to turning an information society into an infrastructural surveillance society (Boucher et al, 2018 ; Lyon, 2022 ; Marx, 2016 ). New media technologies can cultivate and empower bureaucratic surveillance to observe, categorize, and control the public in a society (Gandy Jr., 2021 ).…”

“…The visible and unverifiable power under the panopticon fits the dystopian narrative of a surveillance society (Foucault, 1977 ) and relates to surveillance through digital technologies (Bossewitch & Sinnreich, 2013 ; Elmer, 2003 ). Because of the advancement in interactive media technologies, the concept of surveillance has changed from direct observation and categorization of people to digitized and datafied surveillance (Lyon, 2022 ). Indeed, surveillance as a social practice could be defined as regular and systematic monitoring of personal information for the objectives of management, influence, and protection (Lyon, 2007 ).…”

Surveillance as information practice

“…Definitions of surveillance within the surveillance studies literature generally share three primary characteristics. First, the objects of surveillance are most commonly human beings , whether as individuals or groups—although this framing risks occluding references to surveillance of non‐human creatures, such as birds, or to epidemiological surveillance focusing on viruses (Haggerty & Trottier, 2015; Lyon, 2022, p. 3). As such, we might refer to human surveillance (see Calzolari et al, 2012) to describe the surveillance practices that dominate within surveillance studies scholarship.…”

Pox populi: Anti-vaxx, anti-politics

“…Moreover, and while promoting vaccination as an important public health initiative, public figures like former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have opposed vaccine mandates for workers in the British National Health Service. 3 Furthermore, surveillance studies academic David Lyon's recent book Pandemic Surveillance shows that concerns regarding the overreach of Silicon Valley solutionism and state surveillance are hardly restricted to conspiracy theorists or neo-Nazis (Lyon, 2022). 4 Lyon's work also showcases the extent to which pandemic surveillance taken more broadlysuch as 'checking for masks, for 2-meter distance on sidewalks, for signs that neighbours are meeting with others beyond family'modifies social bonds and cultural practices in ways that are not neutral, and are worthy of scrutiny (Lyon, 2022, pp.…”