Editorial: Surveillance from a Post-Communist Perspective

Abstract

This special issue is the result of a research initiative that began in 2013, just before the annexation of Crimea by Russia. We, the guest editors, together with Paweł Waszkiewicz at the University in Warsaw, wanted to fill a gap in research on surveillance, which had at that time not yet addressed post-communist societies to any great extent. Today the situation is slightly different, but the need for further research is still pressing. It is therefore with great pleasure that we present a collection of five research articles by both senior and early-stage researchers, as well as a postscript by Professor Emeritus Maria Łoś, who is one of the few researchers who has written extensively on surveillance-related issues from a post-communist perspective. Below we introduce the special issue with a conceptual overview of post-communist research and its connections to surveillance studies.

Between liberty and control: citizens’ attitudes towards Romanian state surveillance

“…Similarly, freedom of expression and thought are prohibited by communist regimes, which usually obliged the population to accept without question the state's ideology (Corner, 2009). That being said, Communism is well-known for its repressive nature and control of the population, which usually is performed via intensifi ed surveillance (Svenonius, & Björklund, 2018b).…”