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Return to the Current Issue Index
David Harper - The Politics of Paranoia: paranoid positioning and conspiratorial narratives in the surveillance society
The notion of paranoia is often implicitly reproduced in the work of surveillance researchers. However, in this article I will argue that this notion needs to be interrogated since current conceptions of paranoia are inherently dualistic: viewing paranoia solely at an individual or intra-psychic level; or, alternatively solely at a societal level. Inevitably, either perspective is limited. Here I will attempt to break down this dichotomy by, firstly, drawing on the notion of discursive positioning to: analyse the cultural discourses which “produce” paranoia; examine how subjects (i.e. individuals, communities, societies etc.) become positioned by others as paranoid; and explore the effects of such positioning. Secondly, I will investigate the discursive positions through which people may position themselves as paranoid and describe some of the effects of such positioning. I conclude by drawing out some implications of a more nuanced view of paranoia for the field of surveillance studies.
Moira Carroll-Mayer, Ben Fairweather and Bernd Carsten Stahl - CCTV Identity Management and Implications for Criminal Justice: some considerations The UK Presidency of the European Union called for an expansive, mandatory policy of surveillance technologies aimed at the reduction of crime and the protection of citizens. Research indicates that the efficacy for this task of the technology, epitomised by CCTV, cannot be taken for granted. This paper asks whether the effects of the technological surveillance environment may be more problematic than currently posited in the literature to the extent that they render more vulnerable and undermine the identities of those they are pledged to safeguard. Much of the literature in surveillance studies debates whether surveillance technology, particularly CCTV, has the effects of crime reduction and prevention attributed to it by proponents. This paper goes one step further and through a process of critical analysis explores the import for individuals subjected to the process of surveillance technologies epitomized by CCTV. In particular the paper addresses the question as it is perceived through the postmodernist agenda. Accordingly in the process of critical analysis the paper considers the effects of transcarceration, the phenetic fix and the technological imperative.
In researching CCTV, it must be examined how people assess CCTV measures against the background of their individual knowledge about the technology in question. Research on visual surveillance needs to ask how they sense and perceive cameras. As cameras impact on spatial images and social perceptions, such as security, people’s confidence will not be explained solely by showing that cameras do or do not work in reducing crime. For that it is necessary to look at what expectations people have regarding CCTV and its possible shortcomings.
These assumptions provided the research frame for a qualitative study that focused on the assessment of visual surveillance in an urban environment. The study examined what knowledge people actually had about the technology and what meaning was ascribed to the cameras themselves. It seems that knowledge does not inform the meaning, but that the ascribed meaning is generated independently of this knowledge or the lack thereof. The results permit the conclusion that forms of spatial perception that socially produce ‘dangerous spaces’ have gained prominence. Hazard is then directly ascribed to the spatial context itself. Thus, CCTV seems to be a suitable measure for safeguarding these ‘crime hot spots’ and is being used as a projection screen for fears and felt insecurities. Although an expansion of CCTV is mostly rejected in our study, CCTV measurement is seen as a suitable means to counter crime in particular spatial settings. The study indeed revealed many contradictions in the individual assessment of cameras in relation to actual knowledge and the meaning of these in relation to personal safety and spatial perception.
This paper looks back on earlier pieces on CCTV in Britain by Groombridge and Murji and argues that the identified failures of CCTV, in terms of effectiveness and value-for money, have been consistently ignored both at the time and in more recent government evaluations.
