Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics

Sean P. Hier · Josh Greenberg

Jan 2010 · UBC Press

About this ebook

Surveillance is commonly rationalized as a practice to address existing political or social problems such as crime, fraud, and terrorism. This book explores how surveillance, disguised as managing risk or reducing harm, can cause a range of problems, including poverty, over-policing, and exclusion.

The scholars represented in this volume interrogate the moral and ideological bases and material effects of surveillance practices and systems in diverse cultural and institutional arenas: policing, consumerism, welfare administration, disaster management, popular culture, moral regulation, news media, social movements, and anti-terrorism campaigns.

Surveillance addresses and asks us to consider the question: How can we ensure a future in which surveillance and its consequences are not accepted as normal, or necessary, features of modern life?

About the author

Sean P. Hier is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria. Josh Greenberg is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.

Contributors: Charlene D. Elliott, Neil Gerlach, Kevin D. Haggerty, Sheryl N. Hamilton, Laura Huey, Simon J. Kiss, Mike Larsen, Shoshana Magnet, Patrick F. Parnaby, Justin Pich�, C. Victoria Reed, Joseph Scanlon, Scott Thompson, Kevin Walby, and Dwayne Winseck