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Theorizing Surveillance

The Panopticon and beyond

Edited by David Lyon (Queen’s University, Ontario)
'Exhibiting an impressive depth and breadth of analysis, the volume provides a valuable assessment of and reflection on the core theories driving surveillance studies.'
- Michael Zimmer (Yale Law School) Surveillance Society 5(2) 'David Lyon is the pioneer of the study of surveillance and the supreme authority in the assessment of its mechanisms and consequences for the contemporary living. This book is a major addition to the long series of his eye-opening studies: it collates the best in the most recent empirical studies of the spectacular career of surveillance and of its influence on the rapidly changing nature of our society, and some of the most profound theoretical insights into its impact on power relations and the shape of human interaction.'
- Zygmunt Bauman, University of Leeds and University of Warsaw

No Text This book is about explaining surveillance processes and practices in contemporary society. Surveillance studies is a relatively new multi-disciplinary enterprise that 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 the panopticon and this book explores why this metaphor has been central to discussions of surveillance, what is fruitful in the panoptic approach, and what other 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.
Review of 'Theorizing Surveillance'

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

Title Information:

Categories: Crime and Crime Prevention, Criminology and Criminal Justice
Imprint: Willan Publishing
ISBN-10: 1-843921-92-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-84392-192-9
Edition: 1st
Format: Hardback
Published: August 2006
Dimensions: 234x156mm
Pages: 360pp
Publisher: Willan Publishing
Also available in: Paperback

Price: GBP£ 62.00

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Status: Available

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Cover of Reclaiming the Streets: Surveillance, social control and the city Reclaiming the Streets: Surveillance, social control and the city Roy Coleman

'Powerful and relevant as the panopticon metaphor has been for understanding surveillance technologies, their rapid proliferation, diversification and intensification demands that we expand our repertoire for understanding them. This book gathers many of the foremost theorists in the emerging surveillance studies field. Together they mark out not so much a turning point as an expansion point for the field. For surveillance studies this is a tool-book, an inspiration source, and a necessary reference - read it, and go to work!'
- Ann Rudinow Saetnan, Norwegian University of Science and Technology 'As befits the ambiguity and complexity of what appear to be ever more omnipotent and omnipresent scrutinizing machines, this volume paradoxically serves to both undermine and strengthen the idea of the panopticon as a theoretical construct. The book is richly informative and provocative, offering a strong conceptual anchoring for the merging field of surveillance studies.'
- Gary T. Marx, MIT 
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