Surveillance Theory Research Articles

Hegemonic Surveillance at Work: Fabricating the cyberized, totalized and thespianized employee

Recent developments in technology have intensified the totalizing potential of surveillance within the workplace. Our paper proposes a theory of hegemonic surveillance to enhance our understanding of these processes. We argue that it is necessary to theorize surveillance as a multilevel phenomenon. Accordingly, we propose a model of hegemonic surveillance that starts from the outer socio/political level, characterized by neoliberalism. This sees workers in wholly economic terms, as units of productive capacity, rather than fully fledged human beings. It is an ideological context that underpins the growth of surveillance within the workplace. We employ Gramsci’s ideas of hegemony to theorize the normalization of surveillance that is thus produced. Surveillance is increasingly inescapable (performance is monitored and measured at all times, in all spaces) and pervasive (it encompasses all aspects of human performance, including emotions, health and lifestyle). Extending Burawoy’s ideas of consent, we argue that the performance of consent is central to the perpetuation of hegemony. Such performances, while seemingly voluntary, are becoming mandatory in ever more work contexts. At an individual level, we articulate the risk of totally surveilled employees becoming cyberized, totalized and thespianized. While acknowledging resistance, and ourselves seeking to resist technological determinism, the purpose of this paper is to theorize a dystopian future of work that could come to pass if present trends remain unchecked.

Atopic diseases and oncopathology. What do they have in common? A review

The increasing prevalence of cancer worldwide has influenced the interest of researchers to search for factors that may trigger oncogenesis in order to prevent and treat cancer. There is a burning question, can allergic diseases cause or prevent cancer? Numerous epidemiological studies have been conducted that have evaluated aspects of the relationship between allergic diseases and the occurrence of cancers of various localizations. The results of most of these studies are inconsistent, both in the nature of the course of the disease and in the variety of localizations of the occurrence of cancer. In this connection, two basic theories were suggested: the theory of immune surveillance and the theory of inflammation. This review analyzed current scientific work to estimate the incidence of neoplasms against the background of atopic diseases. The analysis of clinical studies shows inconsistent results of the association between allergic diseases and cancer. Several studies an inverse relationship between atopic diseases and cancer risk, which supports the theory of immune surveillance [brain tumor (glioma), pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and breast cancer, cancer of the mouth and throat, larynx]. At the same time, a number of studies note a positive association between atopic diseases and cancer, which confirms the theory of chronic inflammation (lung cancer and colorectal cancer combined with bronchial asthma). The lack of an unequivocal explanation testifies to the urgency of long-term prospective studies aimed at studying the risk factors of cancer in combination with atopic diseases with the subsequent development of risk scale for the purpose of patient stratification, screening, development of early detection programs and new approaches to the treatment of malignant neoplasms.

AIoT-enabled smart surveillance for personal data digitalization: Contextual personalization-privacy paradox in smart home

Artificial intelligence of things technology provides smart surveillance capability for personal data digitalization. It will invade individuals’ information, physical, and social spaces and raise contextual privacy concerns while providing personalized services, which has not been explored in previous research. We theorize three types of smart surveillance and identify three subdimensions of contextual personalization and privacy concerns. Grounded in surveillance theory and personalization-privacy paradox, we examined the different trade-offs of contextual personalization and privacy concerns underlying the three types of smart surveillance on users’ behavioral intention in smart home context. The results also indicated that transparency can lessen the trade-off effects.

Stakeholders’ attitudes towards the installations of closed-circuit television cameras in reducing school violence

PurposeWhile schools worldwide have employed closed-circuit television (CCTV) to discourage school violence, the literature shows that stakeholder attitudes toward adopting this technology are inconsistent across cultures. Generally, they are concerned with effectiveness, necessity, privacy, and operational transparency. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model for Video Surveillance (TAM-VS) theory, this study examined the attitudes of educational stakeholders, namely educators and students, toward adopting CCTV in Vietnam. This study aims to investigate which criteria Vietnamese stakeholders use to evaluate the necessity of CCTV and whether the concerns of Vietnam, a developing country, are similar to those of developed countries. MethodsThis study addressed these research questions by purposely sampling and interviewing 49 Vietnamese high school students, recent high school graduate students, teachers, and administrators. It employed semi-structured and in-depth interviews to gather content-rich data and applied thematic analysis to discover new insights from stakeholders under the modified TAM-VS framework. The study also followed the COREQ guidelines to improve the transparency and rigor of the data collection and analysis. FindingsOn an exploratory basis, most Vietnamese stakeholders believed that while CCTV cannot comprehensively prevent school violence, its effectiveness overshadows privacy concerns. Regarding operational transparency concerns, participants suggested that better communication, consent collection, and the right to amend school policies related to CCTV are important. From the participants’ perspective, the three criteria for evaluating the necessity of CCTV were (1) its effectiveness in controlling school violence, (2) serving other purposes to enhance overall schooling performance, and (3) insufficient existing methods. ConclusionsThis study provides context-rich insights into the perceptions of the necessity, effectiveness, privacy, and operational transparency concerns of CCTV across different stakeholders in the education and developing country context. On the practical contribution, the research identifies strategies that school administrators can employ to promote CCTV acceptance in Vietnamese high schools.

Convict Surveillance and Reform in Theory and Practice

Thanks to Michel Foucault, Jeremy Bentham's panopticon has become the iconic modern prison. But Foucault and most of his readers neglect the fact that a significant proportion of Bentham's panoptical writings were concerned with critically contrasting his ideal prison with the reality of penal transportation to New South Wales. Among his many criticisms, Bentham focussed particular attention on the problem of convict reform, arguing that surveillance was necessary to ensure genuine reformation, and that such surveillance was impossible in the open prison of New South Wales. This connection between reformation and surveillance was a pervasive feature of Bentham's thought, reflected in his ideas for a centralised information state as well as his wider corpus on criminal justice. In this paper, I historicise Bentham's theory of reformative surveillance, and argue that Bentham, writing from London, misunderstood the importance of surveillance to the penal colony. At least in theory, convicts in New South Wales were subject to extensive systems of surveillance, and the failure of these systems in practice point to the limitations of Bentham's own, largely hypothetical, plans.

Supervision Function of the Regional House of Representatives Against the Handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research aims to look at the supervision carried out by the Malang City DPRD in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Malang City Government. DPRD supervision is carried out to ensure the implementation of the policies and plans that have been set, and the objectives of handling COVID-19 can be achieved effectively and efficiently. The use of surveillance theory became particularly appropriate in this study. This research method uses qualitative descriptive methods. The data sources obtained are primary data and secondary data. Primary data is obtained from interview results, while secondary data is obtained from literature studies, laws, and other important documents. This research concluded that supervision by the DPRD is needed to control the performance of local governments in handling COVID-19, especially when the handling of COVID-19 is not yet maximal. The views and recommendations of the DPRD are needed to be in harmony with the expectations of people who want the pandemic problem to be quickly resolved.

Introduction toVisual Arts ResearchSpecial Issue, Body Cam: The Visual Regimes of Policing

Introduction to<i>Visual Arts Research</i>Special Issue, Body Cam: The Visual Regimes of Policing

Decentralising Data Collection and Centralising Information in the People’s Republic of China: Decentralise, Manage, and Service Reforms

Xi Jinping’s ascent to power as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was accompanied by changes in national governance strategies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that have progressively incorporated the use of big data. Shortly after, in May 2015, the Chinese State Council released a set of policy reforms under the abbreviation fang guan fu 放管服 (decentralise, manage, and service). These reforms promoted big data led (1) market regulation, (2) supervision and management systems, and (3) service provision processes. By applying a case study analytical approach, this paper explores how advancements in big data contributed to these reforms aimed at centralising information in China. Combining the joint knowledge of surveillance and China studies scholarship, this paper offers evidence of big data surveillance streamlining China’s fragmented intergovernmental policy system. We build on David Murakami Wood’s 2017 outline of a political theory of surveillance and argue that decentralisation of data collection points and centralisation of both bureaucratic and public access to information are key components of the Party-state’s regulatory governance strategy incorporating the use of big data and comprehensive surveillance. Our findings have implications for future analyses of the relationship between political organisations and surveillance within other nation-state contexts, particularly in situations where Chinese technologies and systems are being adopted and adapted.

Diálogos entre o videoclipe publicitário e a gentrificação do queer

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the gentrification of queer concept moves from physical territoriality to digital territoriality and manifests itself epistemologically in this process. This study looks, in particular, the application of the concept gentrification of queer in online partner search mobile app, based on bibliographic research and film analysis. It takes as corpus and locus to analyze such concept an advertising film in video clip format for the communication of a mobile partner search application: Grindr. With theoretical-conceptual review of studies about the territory, media technologies, surveillance, control, sexuality and queer theory, presents a critical reflection on how the application intended for the exercise of sexuality operates a new management of the queer subject in contemporary mediatized daily life, as well as analyzes the categories and aesthetic complexities of this subject under the regime of gentrification of his territory and of himself.

Pandemic Pedagogy: Practical and Empathetic Teaching Practices

This first-person dissection of pandemic pedagogy, supported by surveillance theory, queer and feminist pedagogical theory, and radically empathetic and nonviolent teaching practices, suggests a better way forward in college and university teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Outlining anti-surveillance and anti-policing practices, as well as instructors’ roles as enforcers of the neoliberal university’s interests and instructors’ needs usurping best teaching and administrative practices, the article attempts to make sense of interconnected limitations and inequities in higher education which the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent distance and hybrid course delivery models have exposed. The article posits methods to reframe instructor/student interactions in virtual and socially distanced classrooms. In a radical departure from the violent surveillance university model, including an acknowledgement of processes instructors can realistically resist, the article suggests a non-hierarchical and informal ongoing review of teaching practices, a practiced and intentional refusal to engage with neoliberal systems of student control, and an active acknowledgement and decentering of instructors’ feelings when making pedagogical decisions. An accompanying handout, originally presented at the 2020 unConference hosted by the Race, Space, Place Initiative at Virginia Commonwealth University, presents the information in an easy-to-read and dynamic format.

The Resonate Prison: Earwitnessing the Panacoustic Affect

Panacoustic surveillance can be low-intensity and mundane, but when taken to its extreme, it is coordinated with physical violence to create an atmosphere of hallucinatory fear. Our entry point into this problem is through a case study of the Saydnaya torture prison in Syria, a terrifying and opaque architecture of power. This short paper draws from the earwitness art and human rights activism of Lawrence Abu Hamdan concerning Saydnaya in collaboration with Amnesty International: from our analysis of the prison, we extrapolate lessons of panacoustic technologies more broadly, which are not necessarily or immediately violent but nonetheless disempower subjects by constraining their behaviors and rendering walls indefensibly porous. In developing a nascent theory of panacoustic surveillance, this paper makes two distinct contributions to surveillance studies. First, it puts sound and surveillance studies scholars into dialogue to echo Hamdam’s argument that walls do not represent an absolute barrier but a corporeal medium by which power and knowledge can permeate and reflect as vibration. Second, our discussion articulates a politics of transparency and accountability that helps rethink notions of actuarial surveillance as not only a form of top-down statistical and biopolitical monitoring and governance but also as a means of developing panacoustic audits that seek to hold governments and other human rights abusers to account.

Theory of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast Position Verification Using Time Difference of Arrival

Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is an emerging means of aeronautical surveillance. Because ADS-B is susceptible to false aircraft information, position verification is essential. This article proposes a theoretical performance model for ADS-B position verification using the time difference of arrival (TDOA). The model was derived by considering the effects of receiver-aircraft geometry, TDOA accuracy and outliers, latency, self-localization accuracy, and detection threshold. The model was verified through a numerical simulation, flight experiment, and spoofing experiment.

Employer Control of Employee Behaviour Through Social Media

When once individuals could ‘clock off’ for the day and retreat into private spaces, these private activities are increasingly prone to being recorded, tagged and shared and brought to the attention of an individual’s employer. The unavoidable necessity for people to engage with each other online has blurred the boundaries between work life and private life and has meant that, increasingly, employers seek to control what employees do and say online, which requires individuals to carefully modify their behaviour in once private domains. As individuals become inured to the realities of being tracked and mined, the resigned cynicism of the situation is creating a culture where freedom to ‘be yourself’ is undermined. This paper will explore examples of individuals who have faced consequences at work for their online behaviour in what once would have been thought of as their private domain. Using surveillance theory, it will seek to ask whether such a gap in the legal and regulatory sphere is at risk of submerging the individual into a docile workforce which is never ‘off the clock’.

Scale-Prediction/Inhibition Design Using Machine-Learning Techniques and Probabilistic Approach

Summary This paper presents a data-driven methodology to predict calcium carbonate (CaCO3)-scale formation and design its inhibition program in petroleum wells. The proposed methodology integrates and adds to the existing principles of production surveillance, chemistry, machine learning (ML), and probability theory in a comprehensive decision workflow to achieve its purpose. The proposed model was applied on a large and representative field sample to verify its results. The method starts by collecting data such as ionic composition, pH, sample-collection/inspection dates, and scale-formation event. Then, collected data are classified or grouped according to production conditions. Calculation of chemical-scale indices is then made using techniques such as water-saturation level, Langelier saturation index (LSI), Ryznar saturation index (RSI), and Puckorius scaling index (PSI). The ML part of the method starts by dividing the data into training and test sets (80 and 20%, respectively). Classification models such as support-vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), gradient boosting, gradient-boosting classifier, and decision-tree classifier are all applied on collected data. Prediction results are then classified into a confusion matrix to be used as inputs for the probabilistic inhibition-design model. Finally, a functional-network (FN) tool is used to predict the formation of scale. The scale-inhibition program design uses a probabilistic model that quantifies the uncertainty associated with each ML method. The scale-prediction capability compared with actual inspection is presented into probability equations that are used in the cost model. The expected financial impact associated with applying any of the ML methods is obtained from defining costs for scale removal and scale inhibition. These costs are factored into the probability equations in a manner that presents incurred costs and saved or avoided expenses expected from field application of any given ML model. The forecasted cost model is built on a base-case method (i.e., current situation) to be used as a benchmark and foundation for the new scale-inhibition program. As will be presented in the paper, the results of applying the preceding techniques resulted in a scale-prediction accuracy of 95% and realized threefold cost-savings figures compared with existing programs.

Retraction: Integrity verification of ADS-B navigation data source (J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1570 012081)

This article has been retracted by IOP Publishing following a request by the authors that brought to the journal’s attention that this article contains overlap with another work by different authors without citation [1]. IOP Publishing has investigated in line with COPE guidelines and agree that this work should be retracted. The authors agree to this retraction. [1] Quishi Wang, 2019, Research of ITP Surveillance Theory Based on ADS-B IN, Master’s dissertation. Civil Aviation Flight University of China Retraction published: 23 November 2022

Student evaluations of teaching: emerging surveillance and resistance

ABSTRACT Despite previous research claiming surveillance emerges from student evaluations of teaching (SET), there is an absence of research using surveillance theory to determine whether it emerges, the nature of the surveillance should it emerge, and how academics resist its effects. Through an analysis of four university business schools, a top-down vertical surveillance imbued with disciplinary procedures is identified, involving a few managers scrutinising many academics through the observations of many students. A bottom-up vertical surveillance is also identified, involving many academics scrutinising a few managers through the observations of many students. The similarities and differences between mystery shopping and the surveillance emerging from SET are also explored to highlight the crucial role students play in the surveillance. A further contribution is made through an analysis of how academics engage in resistance activities designed to disrupt the flow of performance information between observer and observed.

Rethinking the Orwellian Imaginary through Contemporary Chinese Fiction

Although George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four ([1949] 2003) and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World ([1932] 2006) have long offered contrasting paradigms in surveillance theory, little attention has been paid to how race and cultural difference operate in their respective regimes. This oversight is surprising given race’s centrality in surveillance theory and practice, and it is increasingly anachronistic in light of contemporary geopolitics and the rising power of non-Western states. By contrast, the best-selling and critically acclaimed novels The Fat Years (Koonchung 2013), The Three-Body Problem (Liu 20014), and Death of a Red Heroine (Xiaolong 2000) are all set in modern China and portray issues of surveillance technology, policy, implementation, and resistance previously associated with Western powers. Yet while these later novels’ Chinese settings offer radically different scenarios than our previous touchstones of surveillance imagery, their global popularity also demonstrates their vast resonance and accessibility. Indeed, in strong reaffirmation of Orwell’s and Huxley’s ongoing value—and the value of literature to surveillance theory more generally—these recent China-set novels collapse the Orwell and Huxley dichotomy to offer surprising glimpses into the more culturally diversified twenty-first century global surveillance society.

A Submersion into Black Mirror’s Nosedive

This study is the result of a rather unique approach to the MaRBLe programme. Filed with the desire to explore the relationship between academic writings on surveillance and elements of popular culture that concern themselves with the modern dimension of surveillance, the author sought the opportunity offered by this programme to illustrate such relationship in an unedited and pedagogical way. To do so, an audio-guide companion to one of the most illustrative episodes of Black Mirror pertaining to surveillance theories, i.e. Nosedive, has been developed. This episode displays what appears to be a rather fertile ground for the illustration of surveillance theories as it unfolds in a general atmosphere where the norm is to watch, as much as being watched. This paper, in the form of a written reflective note, is thus dedicated to the emphasis of this project’s academic and societal relevance through the display of a thorough literature review on the field of surveillance theory, as well as the methodological logic behind the project.

Transforming Society for the Better?

In 2014, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China released a document that called for the construction of a nationwide Social Credit System (SCS) with the goal to encourage sincerity and punish insincerity. The system uses blacklists that citizens land on for various cases of misbehavior, ranging from failing to pay a fine to being caught Jaywalking. This research explains the design process behind the SCS and in particular why many Chinese citizens are embracing this form of surveillance. It focuses on three topics to answer this question: the historical roots underlying the system, the perceived lack of trust in Chinese society and the comparison with concepts from surveillance theories developed in the West. From the analysis, following conclusions could be drawn: Historically, the state has often acted as a promoter and enforcer of moral virtue. The SCS fits perfectly into this tradition. The most prominent reason for the positive Chinese reaction is the lack of institutions in China that promote trust between citizens and businesses. There is a severe trust deficit which the government had to find a solution for. Regarding surveillance theory, Foucault’s concept of ‘panopticism’ shows similarities with the SCS and underlines its effectiveness in changing and steering people’s behavior while Lyon’s notion of ‘social sorting’ is used to demonstrate the potential dangers of the Chinese system.

Transforming Society for the Better?

In 2014, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China released a document that called for the construction of a nationwide Social Credit System (SCS) with the goal to encourage sincerity and punish insincerity. The system uses blacklists that citizens land on for various cases of misbehavior, ranging from failing to pay a fine to being caught Jaywalking. This research explains the design process behind the SCS and in particular why many Chinese citizens are embracing this form of surveillance. It focuses on three topics to answer this question: the historical roots underlying the system, the perceived lack of trust in Chinese society and the comparison with concepts from surveillance theories developed in the West. From the analysis, following conclusions could be drawn: Historically, the state has often acted as a promoter and enforcer of moral virtue. The SCS fits perfectly into this tradition. The most prominent reason for the positive Chinese reaction is the lack of institutions in China that promote trust between citizens and businesses. There is a severe trust deficit which the government had to find a solution for. Regarding surveillance theory, Foucault’s concept of ‘panopticism’ shows similarities with the SCS and underlines its effectiveness in changing and steering people’s behavior while Lyon’s notion of ‘social sorting’ is used to demonstrate the potential dangers of the Chinese system.