From 9/11 to the Snowden leaks, stories about surveillance increasingly
dominate the headlines. But surveillance is not only 'done to us' - it
is something we do in everyday life. We submit to surveillance,
believing we have nothing to hide. Or we try to protect our privacy or
negotiate the terms under which others have access to our data. At the
same time, we participate in surveillance in order to supervise
children, monitor other road users, and safeguard our property. Social
media allow us to keep tabs on others, as well as on ourselves. This is
the culture of surveillance.
This important book explores the imaginaries and practices of everyday
surveillance. Its main focus is not high-tech, organized surveillance
operations but our varied, mundane experiences of surveillance that
range from the casual and careless to the focused and intentional. It
insists that it is time to stop using Orwellian metaphors and find ones
suited to twenty-first-century surveillance -- from 'The Circle' or
'Black Mirror.'
Surveillance culture, David Lyon argues, is not detached from the
surveillance state, society and economy. It is informed by them. He
reveals how the culture of surveillance may help to domesticate and
naturalize surveillance of unwelcome kinds, and considers which kinds of
surveillance might be fostered for the common good and human
flourishing.
