Domestic drones: the politics of verticality and the surveillance industrial complex

Abstract

Abstract. Drones are being introduced as innovative and cost-effective technologies for civil, commercial, and recreational purposes in the domestic realm. While the presence of these technologies is increasing, regulations are being introduced in order to ensure their safe and responsible use. As drones are adopted for a number of purposes, the "de facto practices settle around it, rendering change much more difficult" (Gersher, 2014), and so the policy debates must consider all contingencies and unintended consequences of their use. This paper discusses the background of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), their role as surveillance technologies, and how they reinforce asymmetries in power and visibility that contribute to a politics of verticality, ultimately arguing that surveillance concerns must become part of the discussion at the policy and regulatory level in order to mitigate any harms. Where drones are already used for care and control as technologies of surveillance, privileged use of drones by public and police agencies could further reinforce a politics of verticality (Weizman, 2002), resulting in specific types of space, risk, and population management.

Big data from the sky: popular perceptions of private drones in Switzerland

“…In this sense, the politics of visibility conveyed by the proliferating drone gaze adds a new chapter to the long history of the vertical gaze, adopted in order to understand, order, control, and act on space (Gregory, 1994;Shapiro, 1997). "Aerial power" and "power through the air" become a social and a political issue in new ways (Williams, 2011a, b;Adey et al, 2013;Bracken-Roche, 2016).…”

Drone methodologies: Taking flight in human and physical geography

“…In avoiding the uncritical deployment of drones as simple tools for data capture, and refusing to condemn them as simple components of the “military–industrial complex”, off limits to critical researchers (Bracken‐Roche, ), we suggest that a new nexus for understanding lay in the experiential, where praxis pitches drones as a way of differently experiencing the environments around us. While we agree with Shaw (, p. 3) that “we are entering an era of complex, aleatory, and risky skyscapes”, we suggest that not all of those risks are negative – much of the unfolding complexity creates compound capacities for novel forms of participation.…”

“…This means that if you buy into closed‐source drone technology, the democratizing potential of drones is compromised through hardware, firmware or software updates enforced by corporations. Technological barriers to operation (like geofences) are futile in the face of home‐brew or open‐source drone technology and Bracken‐Roche (, p. 168) suggests that “building your own drone” (something that physical geographers have long experimented with) is just one of many simple ways to subvert such structures of control. Figure shows how hobbyist expertise has guided some developments within physical geography (also see Cunliffe et al., for research stemming from a self‐build example)…”

The Dual-use of Drones

“…The military application of drones has received considerable attention in the media and in scholarly debate due to the capabilities of remote killing (also referred to as 'precision killing') and the public outcry this causes (Bendel, 2016). While, initially, drones have been used for covert observation, reconnaissance, and espionage (Braun, Friedewald & Valkenburg, 2015;Lidynia, Philipsen & Ziefle, 2017), the use has changed from surveillance to lethal missions against terrorists, first conducted in Pakistan around 2007 (Luppicini & So, 2016). Public concerns triggered ethical debate about the collateral damage caused by these actions (the ratio of civilian to terrorist casualties being 50:1 (Luppicini & So, 2016 referring to Lewis, 2014).…”

“…States recognise the opportunity offered by drones in crime-fighting, disaster-relief, immigration control, environmental monitoring and scientific research (West & Bowman, 2016). Drones are considered useful for performing dull, dirty, and dangerous 1 work (Braun, Friedewald & Valkenburg, 2015;Boucher, 2015;Clarke, 2014a;Finn & Wright, 2012;Pauner, Kamara & Viguri, 2015;West & Bowman, 2016). Drones have been reportedly used for policing, law enforcement, and persontracking activities since 2006.…”