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Introduction: On urban Indefensibility: Friction Lines in the Production of the Open City: Contested Public Spaces in the 21st Century
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Contemporary philanthropy relies on a gift/counter-gift process: a person making a donation receives benefits for it, mostly financial (tax deductions) or symbolic (recognition). Donor recognition is an important part of philanthropy and comes in many forms. One of them is donor plaques—on walls, signs, or objects/buildings—associated with naming, i.e., the material traces of recognition that have the name of the donor on them. The analysis of donor plaques deepens our understanding of the way the act of giving leaves traces. What are these traces of philanthropy? How long do donor plaques stay on the walls of institutions? How are they negotiated? How do they change the urban landscape at a bigger scale? This chapter aims at understanding the specificity and the symbolic role of donor plaques as traces left voluntarily by philanthropic donors. Focusing on an understudied topic (philanthropic traces) and based on two qualitative research conducted in philanthropic settings, it questions the relationship elite donors have with time and space through the analysis of a concrete object (the plaque). It also examines the meaning of these traces (and the values they convey), as well as the power relations (and resistances) they create.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
The growing masses of digital traces generated by the datafication process make the algorithms that manage them increasingly central to contemporary society.
There is widespread agreement in considering traces and algorithms as complex objects that intertwine social and material practices with their own cultural, historical, and institutional nature (Halford et al., 2010).
Accordingly, given this strong intertwining between the social world and the digital world that is formed by material and technological objects, it becomes possible to consider the algorithms and traces as socio-digital objects. For this reason, this article aims to identify the features that allow us to frame them as socio-digital objects starting from concepts borrowed from the actor-network theory (Latour and Woolgar 1879). In particular, we will first discuss opacity, authority and autonomy concepts and then see how those features emerge in digital geographical traces.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Visits to museums in the twenty-first century do not merely involve coming in contact with art but also living an interactive and relational experience that has changed the organization of museums, not only the exhibition rooms but also other museum spaces: boutiques, cafés, restaurants, and public areas. This new type of visit implies the role of an original agent: the frontalier visitor who, by inhabiting spaces adjacent to exhibition rooms, expands and reinforces the museum’s boundaries and the museum experience itself. This work is focused on visitors’ footprints as material and virtual marks and aims at showing the results of a field analysis carried out from 2017 to 2019 addressing the architecture of modern art museums. Fourteen museums have been analyzed, and four of them have been selected as the main objects of analysis: Malba, Moma, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou. We have studied their façades, esplanades, and entrance halls as spaces advancing what the public will experience inside the buildings. This analysis considers these adjacent spaces essential for the pass-through from the material experience to the virtual experience and from material footprints to virtual ones.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
In this chapter, I reflect on the relationship between shame and digital traces in cases of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) (I am thankful to Giovanni Zampieri, Dario Lucchesi and Massimo Cerulo for their invaluable help in writing and revising this chapter.). I will introduce the concept of shameful trace to describe records of diverse nature that can be used by a group of people participating in an effort to stigmatise an appearance, a conduct, an attitude or any other cause of social disapproval. Such a record is an object of shame only in a latent form. For it to become a shameful trace, it is necessary that it be shared and focussed on particular situations of moral condemnation.
This is neither a purely theoretical nor a purely empirical article. Rather, I first consider a case study of moral violence against a young Italian woman, Tiziana Cantone, who committed suicide in 2016 after the widespread non-consensual dissemination of intimate images. Further, I propose a theoretical understanding of the diffusion of shameful traces as a process of concerted social action including five elements: first, the ontology of the trace; second, the actors involved in its production and diffusion; third, the temporal and spatial coordinates of the shame diffusion and the technical or social means employed in it; and finally (fourth and fifth), the cultural and normative frameworks. Finally, I investigate how social bonds and sociotechnical and normative regulations favour the diffusion of shame in cases of IBSA.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
This chapter explores the traces that we voluntarily leave behind on social media platforms, dictated by the selection of what we want to show and what we want to hide and how this affects the perception of ourselves.
Nowadays, digital platforms have a huge impact on our lives, in re-shaping both our habits and our personal attitudes. Particularly on social media, both tangible and intangible aspects of our lives can be datafied , which in turn affect and shape our feelings and experiences.
In order to explore this dynamic, I interviewed a selected target group of young media professionals who are used to promoting themselves and their work on social media, through the so-called practice of self-branding .
From the qualitative analysis of 20 in-depth interviews, this chapter investigates traces derived from implicit self-branding practices , which can take the form of controlling what is not to be shared, measuring the online reactions, and hiding relevant information. All these non-activities are also strategic in building and managing the users’ online branded personas.
Thus, through the management of the visible and invisible traces on social media profiles, users convey a branded and polished version of themselves.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Why do users generally pay little attention to the serious threats to their privacy inherent in new communication technologies? In attempting to answer this question, I consider two different and complementary approaches to the issue of surveillance: the now classic view of Bauman and the more recent, but already well-known, view of Zuboff. I show how Bauman focuses mainly on subjective factors, represented by the psychic motivations of the user, and assigns little importance to technology, whereas technology as an objective factor plays a fundamental role in Zuboff’s analysis of surveillance capitalism.
Hence, I propose to broaden the theoretical framework in order to better capture the intertwining of subjective and objective factors, particularly by taking into account studies on the new philanthropy. On closer inspection, the fact that the new economy tycoons are also often committed to ostentatiously doing good for the less fortunate could explain users’ overconfidence. Since ordinary people see the alleged generosity of the owners of Microsoft, Amazon, or Facebook widely publicized, it is reasonable for them to assume that these “modern-day heroes” are offering their services free of charge to all and sundry for the common good.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
In the United States, gentrification typically involves whites displacing African American, working-class communities. This work uses a political economy framework to better understand the clues displacement leaves behind. Specifically, this research investigates what happened to a former community in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, known as Silver Hill, which was an enclave of mostly African American residents founded in the late nineteenth century just west of the city. Through archival research and investigation of the remaining traces of the neighborhood, we develop a theory of spatial erasure that highlights how wealthy white communities that grew up around Silver Hill subsumed and eradicated it. Specifically, racial capitalism played a major role in the abuse and neglect of Silver Hill. The neighborhood became surrounded by wealthy white developments which cut off road access to their homes. Today, a cemetery, two houses, and a litany of historical records offer clues about what was once a thriving African American community. Additionally, descendants of the neighborhood’s residents provide key information about its life and death. We discuss the implications of examining this history, especially as it pertains to the collective remembrance of Silver Hill.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
This chapter deals with the analysis of Julian Assange as a public figure through the use of three perspective angles. In the first part, Assange’ history is briefly outlined, tracing it back to the systems of thought of authors such as Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu, with the aim of highlighting how the Australian journalist’s biography helps to illuminate his (and our) historical time and, vice versa, how historical time helps to depict his biography and his courageous journalistic campaigns more precisely. The second part shows how the apparently subversive aspects of Assange’s activity in fact need to be analysed within the web of social control and the subsequent fight between rulers and outsiders. The criminalisation of Julian Assange is, by this token, a consequence of the reaction enacted by power against militant practice aimed at claiming an alternative use of the web. The third paragraph examines three basic principles of Enlightenment which are apparent in the WikiLeaks approach and explicitly recalled by Assange: the connection between the duty to improve knowledge and the right to communicate, publicity as a test to reveal injustice and the understanding of freedom of the press as an antitotalitarian device.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Understanding social practices as they co-evolve between researcher-community is fundamental in “design and social innovation” where local knowledge, resources, and agency meet to solve wicked problems (Rittel and Webber, Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169, 1973). In this chapter, we seek to explore the traces that researchers and community members leave behind as indexical forms of representation. Contemporary perspectives urge a critical examination of the interplay between design and broader structural and cultural issues (Björgvinsson et al., CoDesign, 8(2–3), 127–144, 2012). Design methods, however, are often chosen arbitrarily reflecting a “toolbox” mentality that potentially misses culturally embedded nuances (Dourish, Implications for design. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541–550), 2006). Cultural probes as part of this “toolbox” are often associated with ethnographic methods, yet were never intended to generate data, whereas ethnography goes beyond data gathering to analyze socio-cultural meaning and practices (Boehner et al., How HCI interprets the probes. In CHI Proceedings Designing for Specific Cultures, 2007). We present two case studies to discuss the use of cultural probes in participatory design as enablers of dialogue in open-ended conversations with communities. We draw on reflexive practices and Manzini’s concept of “diffuse design” and “expert design.” Working in communities can thus become a form of “public ethnography,” an effort to understand and analyze social practices from multiple knowledge perspectives as an ongoing process.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
The concept of trace is useful for a semiotic reflection upon what is left behind. Similar to the concepts of index and footprint, traces are traditionally described as already signs, or more precisely as something recognized as a sign (Violi, Riv Ital Filos Linguaggio, 2016, http://www.rifl.unical.it/index.php/rifl/article/view/365 ; Mazzucchelli, Riv Ital Filos Linguaggio, 2015, http://www.rifl.unical.it/index.php/rifl/article/view/312 ). This act of recognition is fundamentally dependent on a community’s work of interpretation, in order to actualize a potential narration lying in the trace, but what if the promised sense is not grasped? Adopting the notion of intentionality (Greimas and Courtés, Sémiotique: dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage. Hachette, Paris, 1979) to include partially unconscious traces within the sphere of semiotic investigation, the article considers the possibility to conceive traces as paradoxical signs standing for nothing, i.e., signs of insignificance (Leone, On insignificance. The loss of meaning in the post-material age. Routledge, 2020). Through the analysis of digital traces and trolling, (in)significance is disputed on the basis of a proposed paradigm, within which even such seemingly accidental traces may possess profound significance within a digital network constructed of distributed subjectivity. One conclusion drawn from the example is that strong normative claims about what may qualify as significant often conceal an ideologically charged agenda. For this reason in particular, a detailed account of digital traces should be the highest priority of semiotics today.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Physical daily contexts are replete with traces of the past. A statue in a park, the name of a street, or an old advertisement can all remind people of specific historical moments or periods. Often, they recall glorious episodes, but traces of less glorious pasts also persist. Among them, the most self-censored ones refer to past immoral actions that tarnish the overly idealized moral standard attributed to the group. As a case in point, material traces of the colonial past became the focus of controversies within formerly colonizing countries during the last decade. European anti-racist movements questioned the colonial heritage of European societies in an unprecedented manner and active social minorities also brought to the fore some traces still in the background of physical environments. Part of public opinion reacted by denouncing the “cancel culture” or the danger of “erasing” history. This chapter outlines a social psychological approach about contemporary perceptions and interpretations of still self-censored material traces of Italian colonialism. Results of a qualitative survey on Italian participants’ representations and attitudes toward a candy with a colonial wrapping will illustrate how Italian participants of different generations question this ephemeral trace and take on the challenge of a cumbersome past.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
This introduction chapter provides context and background to the concept of trace in social sciences, also presenting an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this volume. Information that was not meant to be informative and evidence that did not expect to possess evidential character, traces are construed as evidence only from the vantage point of the observer, inadvertently left behind by those who produced the trace in the first place (indeed, awareness might change footprints and make them fade out). Conceived as clues rather than statements, traces prove to be useful for studying current social facts and individuals who have not yet vanished. This holds to be true especially in our contemporary platform society, due to its datafication processes and the ensuing quantification of features never quantified before; digital footprints determine the selection of the most relevant content or services to offer, creating accordingly personalized feedback. Thus, individual and collective online behavior leading to traces production is shaped by digital environments’ affordances and constraints; at the same time, such socio-technically situated traces retroact over digital systems (by fueling algorithms and predictive models), thus reinforcing, or questioning, the power relations at stake. Conclusively, a brief remark is made on future research possibilities associated with the sociology of traces.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Individuals and groups leave evidence of their lives when they are engaged in their activities. In this way, they create a rich amount of material that tells us about their behaviours, opinions and values. This material is not created for research purposes and is different from that solicited by researchers. In recent decades, the spread of new communication technologies has amplified the possibility of creating and disseminating this kind of data outside the research context.
In this chapter, what people leave behind (WPLB) online is studied from a strictly methodological point of view. What kind of evidence are researchers dealing with? Is it possible to reconnect it with the traditional methodological framework? We suggest that data left behind by people and groups on the Internet should be divided into three different categories: online found data ( digital traces ), online retrieved data ( web-mediated documents ) and online captured data ( online behaviours ). The phase of contextualization proves essential in understanding the very nature of (online) data.
This work leads to rediscovering the potential of classical methodological tools such as simple observation, documentary analysis and trace analysis. These practices provide methodological value to research projects that analyse WPLB in physical and web-mediated environments.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
From the study of semiotic paradigms in relation to the face, we focus on the traces, understanding how some flourish from the tangible but ignored signs left by humans daily, while others are totally imbricated in the face from/in which they transpire.
We typologize them in three varieties, from their multidimensional configuration, offering case studies of emanation, imbrication, and cancellation. First, between art and forensic tendencies, Dewey-Hagborg uses hair, cigarettes, and chewing gum off the streets to program and build 3D faces through the DNA found in them. Secondly, we examine the artistic work of Jorit who engraves on his face the sign that symbolizes belonging to a tribe he is working with. Name-face isomorphism emerges in the third case: Janez Janša carries out a performative sociopolitical program to test, destabilize, and reorganize cultural complexity.
All offer a syncretic situation analyzable by means of the semiotic approach and bioanthropological resources. The divergent weights of similar elements make us reflect on the relationship between the innermost meanings of our faces and their tracks in a sort of anticlockwise movement but also on the convergence between macro-cultural and techno-political orientations with intimate and located magnitude.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
In the digital era, there is an increasing number of areas where the footprints we leave behind (voluntarily or not) become relevant for the use (legitimate or not) that can be made of them, creating new broad scenarios of analysis in different fields of interest. These developments have affected a wide range of scientific fields, and social sciences have also been called upon to face major challenges from an epistemological, theoretical and methodological standpoint. In this regard, the use of research tools, such as social network analysis and sentiment analysis , poses many questions to the researcher regarding their robustness, also in comparison to traditional research methods and techniques, i.e. the two-step flow communication model . This paper will propose a theoretical and methodological comparison between the Katz-Lazarsdeldian tradition of the notion of personal influence and the one of influencer logic that is central in digital methods . Starting from this evaluation, the question is whether what is happening in the field of the analysis of the big data provided by the spread of the digital footprint is capable of adding some new element to what has already been highlighted by the “two-step communication theory”, or whether it simply represents its explication.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
The right to be forgotten (RTBF) is meant to provide individuals with an actual representation of their personal identity by obtaining the erasure of their past “digital traces” left online. In 2014, the CJEU’s leading case Google Spain accorded the data subject the right to obtain the de-referencing of personal information related to past events from search engines. Consequently, the RTBF has been included in the title of Article 17 GDPR as a synonym of the right to erasure, without however being explicitly explained or regulated. Alongside this process, the ECtHR has constantly highlighted the need for fair balancing between the right to respect for private life and the right to freedom of expression, often denying the applicants the right to obtain removal or anonymization of news reports published in the past because of their permanent public interest. By stressing that Internet archives constitute an important source for education and historical research, it admitted, though, that the obligations of search engines may differ from those of the original publishers of the information. This reasoning, however, does not seem to have influenced a recent decision of the Italian Corte di Cassazione , commented in the final part of this chapter.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Starting from the commonly used meaning of a “human” footprint, connected to the traces that every action, product or process leaves in the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, the paper explores new perspectives for a changing social theory considering the principles of sustainability. This theoretical hypothesis stands on the necessity of a revision of the sociological principles to observe and analyse the contemporary phenomena connected to economic, political and social transformations due to environmental problems. The focus is on human action and its new role in the changing social space, time and relations. The application of these revised notions to a concrete process, such as the assessment of policies and social participation in Italian National Parks, according to the “positive thinking” model, will add some evidence about the radical transformation of cognitive paths and social dynamics.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
The expanding use of algorithms in society has called for the emergence of “critical algorithm studies” across several fields, ranging from media studies to geography and from sociology to the humanities. In the past 5 years, a consistent literature on the subject has developed. Inspired by these studies, we explored the ways digital traces may be employed for auditing algorithms and find evidence about algorithmic functioning. We focus on the analysis of digital traces through search engines and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). We present four cases of how digital traces may be used for auditing algorithms and testing their quality in terms of data, model, and outcomes. The first example is taken from Noble’s (2018) book Algorithms of Oppression . The other three examples are very recent, two of them related to COVID-19 pandemic and about the most controversial type of algorithms: image recognition. Search as research and the analysis of digital traces and footprints within quasi-experimental research designs are useful methods for testing the quality of data, the codes, and the outcomes of algorithms.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
In this chapter, we focus on how virtual communities (VCs) leave “traces” or “unintentional information” and study how they can affect VCs and their features. In doing so, we use qualitative data from a doctoral research project developed between Italy and Belgium. Firstly, in this introduction, we briefly describe how “traces” are considered. Secondly, we unpack the concepts “VC” and “sense of community.” Thirdly, we explore the context in which VCs take place Theoretically. Fourthly, we explain the methodology used and the case selection procedure. Then, we describe our results, and finally, the chapter ends with a discussion and a conclusion. We consider the notion “traces” in Bloch’s terms (1992: 51) and use the interpretation given by Ricoeur; traces are “documents in archives (which) for the most part come from witnesses in spite of themselves” (2009: 171); “The trace is thus the higher concept under whose aegis Bloch places testimony. It constitutes the operator par excellence of ‘indirect’ knowledge” (170). Information disseminated by social media users, considered as unconscious “tracks,” can be used by others in different ways than the original intent, thus acquiring a different meaning. In this chapter, our first research question polls for the features of information that are left unintentionally by the users of virtual communities (RQ1). Our second research question focuses on the role that such unintentional information has in virtual communities (RQ2) or, in other words, on how users of VCs appropriate and apply these traces in different ways than originally intended.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
Since the end of the last century, the number of video surveillance cameras installed in public spaces has increasingly grown worldwide. Although the installation of video surveillance should allegedly deter crime and improve the fear of crime and the perception of insecurity, the technology collects a vast number of traces of all the members of a population, regardless of their criminal intentions. In the academic literature, two main theoretical approaches have been formed to comprehend the role of video surveillance in public spaces: surveillance society and security state. Interestingly, both of them find their roots in Foucault’s ideas. The first one, surveillance society, is based on Foucault’s perspective on disciplinary power. The latter, security state, draws on the notions of apparatus of security and governmentality. This chapter is undertaken with the aim of an overview of the key features of the two approaches and their comparison. Furthermore, it discusses the possibility of applying both theories to analyze video surveillance in public spaces as it could offer a deeper understanding of a complex interplay of different logics behind an ever- increasing data collection on members of society.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
This chapter continues the recent debate on the epistemological dimension of traces and tracing. Following our own preliminary work and in confrontation with an explicitly non-Western epistemology—namely, the case of “First Australians”—the chapter proposes the perspective of interpretive tracing. It calls for the systematic reflection of practices and underlying epistemologies of traces as objects of interpretation in a cross-cultural, i.e., cosmopolitan, perspective. It is a perspective that is sensitive to the tacit assumptions of objectivity and linear inferencing that underlie many Western approaches. Further, it is an open perspective that is sensitive to various embedded notions of time and temporality (not just time as a linear approach to the world) in particular. Furthermore, this perspective we advocate can eventually show that trace and tracing entail different social, cultural, and societal notions of social binding.
... On the one hand, situational crime prevention measures and increasing surveillance practices threaten social and political dynamism and civil disobedience, which are considered deviations from norms. On the other hand, the presence of, for instance, physical vehicle barriers and video surveillance can encourage more pedestrians to be present in the streets and more people to use public spaces (Simpson, Jensen, & Anders, 2017). ...
This open access book focuses on a particular but significant topic in the social sciences: the concepts of “footprint” and “trace”. It associates these concepts with hotly debated topics such as surveillance capitalism and knowledge society. The editors and authors discuss the concept footprints and traces as unintended by-products of other (differently focused and oriented) actions that remain empirically imprinted in virtual and real spaces. The volume therefore opens new scenarios for social theory and applied social research in asking what the stakes, risks and potential of this approach are. It systematically raises and addresses these questions within a consistent framework, bringing together a heterogeneous group of international social scientists. Given the multifaceted objectives involved in exploring footprints and traces, the volume discusses heuristic aspects and ethical dimensions, scientific analyses and political considerations, empirical perspectives and theoretical foundations. At the same time, it brings together perspectives from cultural analysis and social theory, communication and Internet studies, big-data informed research and computational social science.
This innovative volume is of interest to a broad interdisciplinary readership: sociologists, communication researchers, Internet scholars, anthropologists, cognitive and behavioral scientists, historians, and epistemologists, among others.
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