Mobile cameras as new technologies of surveillance? How citizens experience the use of mobile cameras in public nightscapes

Abstract

In surveillance studies the terms “sousveillance” and “inverse surveillance” describe forms of surveillance that have a bottom-up and democratic character. However, in this paper this democratic notion is questioned by looking into practices and experiences with both Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and mobile cameras by Dutch citizens. By intervening in the nightlife district of the Rotterdami city centre, data has been gathered on both mobile- and CCTV camera confrontations. From this, an exploration is made into how mobile cameras are experienced in the Nightlife landscape. Comparing these experiences with CCTV provides insight into new surveillance issues that emerge due to the mobile camera. The perspective of analyzing surveillance technologies as hybrid collectives that may take different shapes in different places, allows for a contribution that attempts to improve our understanding of the current changes in the surveillance technology landscape.i Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands.

Video-Surveillance and the Production of Space in Urban Nightlife Districts

“…We first examined their awareness of CCTV and then asked whether the fact that cameras had been pointed out to them altered their feelings of safety. From the responses to this question we were able to derive valuable insights about how participants thought CCTV worked and affected their safety (more details available in Brands et al 2014;Timan and Oudshoorn 2012). The results from this part of our research indicate a number of contradictions regarding CCTV.…”

“…A first sense of openness pertains to the destination and use of camera footage. One interesting result reported by Timan and Oudshoorn (2012), who compare the experience of various forms of video-recording in public space by nightlife consumers in Rotterdam, is that the destination of CCTV footage was clear to participants. However, the recording of images with a mobile camera triggered uneasy responses, primarily because the destination of footage was uncertain.…”

“…The multiplication of recording devices in nightlife districts has potentially profound consequences for the surveillance enacted by distributed assemblages. On the basis of initial research within our project (as described in Timan and Oudshoorn 2012), it can be argued that this multiplication inserts a dual openness in existing surveillance assemblages. A first sense of openness pertains to the destination and use of camera footage.…”

“…However, the democratic potential of OCTV should not be overrated (Timan and Oudshoorn 2012), at least not in the short term. During the previously mentioned on-site interviews with nightlife consumers in Rotterdam and Utrecht OCTV and CCTV were associated with different subject positions for the participants.…”

Whose Body Is It?: The body as physical capital in a techno-society

“…Others argue that conformance is much more social and is the result of the individual adopting culturally-bound practices within one's defined sub-culture [6]. A third perspective is that of a top-down approach that views technology and the need for adherence, as being the result of an organizational governmental endeavor [7] to ensure civil order and eradicate social injustice, which one day will aid in bringing about world-wide emancipation [8]. We note this in the mandatory adoption of certain ID cards for transport and social security, or even in the planned obsolescence of products developed by companies to ensure the consumer is locked-in to an endless array of upgrades [9].…”