Publisher's Synopsis
The surveillance society has significantly been discussed in social sciences over the last ten years. Phenomena like terrorist threats and illegal migration flows on the one hand, and an anxious Western population on the other, which seem to legitimize a considerable growth and sophistication of databases and surveillance technologies. Surveillance technologies may lead towards a more secure society for some. However, they also have a profound rearranging effect on society and may be a threat for fundamental human rights. For these reasons, social scientists have tried to slow down this fast-moving and self-evident evolution in the last ten years. In this volume, the debate continues by discussing the protagonists in the surveillance society: the surveillants and the surveilled. The book's contributions lay out the consequences of surveillance technologies in specific settings for: the large diversity of public, private, official, and informal surveillants * the diversity of included or excluded, rich or poor, anxious or careless people under surveillance * the social interaction of the different actors in surveillance settings.
