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Surveillance Studies: An Overview

ISBN: 978-0-745-63592-7

June 2007

Polity

256 pages

Description
The study of surveillance is more relevant than ever before. The fast growth of the field of surveillance studies reflects both the urgency of civil liberties and privacy questions in the war on terror era and the classical social science debates over the power of watching and classification, from Bentham to Foucault and beyond. In this overview, David Lyon, one of the pioneers of surveillance studies, fuses with aplomb classical debates and contemporary examples to provide the most accessible and up-to-date introduction to surveillance available.

The book takes in surveillance studies in all its breadth, from local face-to-face oversight through technical developments in closed-circuit TV, radio frequency identification and biometrics to global trends that integrate surveillance systems internationally. Surveillance is understood in its ambiguity, from caring to controlling, and the role of visibility of the surveilled is taken as seriously as the powers of observing, classifying and judging. The book draws on international examples and on the insights of several disciplines; sociologists, political scientists and geographers will recognize key issues from their work here, but so will people from media, culture, organization, technology and policy studies. This illustrates the diverse strands of thought and critique available, while at the same time the book makes its own distinct contribution and offers tools for evaluating both surveillance trends and the theories that explain them.

This book is the perfect introduction for anyone wanting to understand surveillance as a phenomenon and the tools for analysing it further, and will be essential reading for students and scholars alike.

About the Author
D.Lyon, Professor of Sociology, Queens University, Kingston
Features

  • The first ever textbook on the relatively new discipline of Surveillance Studies
  • Written by an internationally renowned scholar and a pioneer of the study of surveillance
  • Draws on a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, media studies, geography and politics, to outline a comprehensive introduction
  • Uses a host of contemporary and effective examples and at the same time gives students the tools to analyze ongoing surveillance trends
  • Clearly written, with pedagogical features such as end of chapter discussion points, a glossary and further reading suggestions