Do new technologies of surveillance encourage self regulation

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2. Do new technologies of surveillance encourage self-regulation? Discuss

A fundamental dimension of modernity is the emergence of coordinated administrative power. The nation state is the prime site if such power but is also a part of modern organisations in general. Administrative power is based upon the control of information. Administrative power is enforced through surveillance where information is routinely used to monitor the activities of a subject population. No less than capitalism or industrialism, surveillance is a tool in levering the modern social world further away from traditional modes of socialisation.
Over the last twenty years the progress in the technologies which handle information have appeared very dramatic and has therefore posed a threat to information privacy. Analysis of this progress reveals that this progress is not in terms of new technologies being invented but those technologies already known have increased dramatically in their power while also falling dramatically in their prices. This has happened to such a degree that the market penetration could only have been dreamed about by the most optimistic of market analysts a decade ago. The countries that are predominately concerned are those of the developed first world but as a result of the tremendous market penetration of these products their prices have now fallen to such a level that it cannot be long before the technology spreads progressively through the developed world also.

From the moment we leave the privacy of our own homes we are almost under constant surveillance by cameras. Closed circuit television (C.C.T.V) are deployed and monitored in town centres, shopping centres, railways and tube networks. Traffic cameras monitor car speeds and drivers compliance with red lights. Leisure centres, hospitals and universities are increasingly under the spotlight. A combination of modern video, powerful computers and telecommunication systems are capable of turning our cities into electronic grids which allow information which includes images to be passed around a multiplicity of social actors who are separated in the forms of time and space. The direct supervision of the subject population no longer requires the physical presence of an observer and images can be lifted out at any required time with authoritative interventions made at some future time and place.

Since the installation of Britain’s first street based closed circuit television system in Bournemouth initiated by vandalism on the seafront the local council and police decided to install eight C.C.T.V cameras. Sixteen years later there are now 203 cameras situated around the town centre, beaches and car parks.

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