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Recent discussions on big data surveillance and artificial intelligence in governance have opened up an opportunity to think about the role of technology in the production of the knowledge states use to govern. The contributions in this volume examine the socio-technical assemblages that underpin the surveillance carried out by criminal justice institutions - particularly the digital tools that form the engine room of modern state bureaucracies.
Drawing on ethnographic research in contexts from across the globe, the contributions to this volume engage with technology's promises of transformation, scrutinise established ways of thinking that becomeembedded through technologies, critically consider the dynamics that shape the political economy driving the expansion of security technologies, and examine how those at the margins navigate experiences of surveillance.
The book is intended for an interdisciplinary academic audience interested in ethnographic approaches to the study of surveillance technologies in policing and justice. Concrete case studies provide students, practitioners, and activists from a broad range of backgrounds with nuanced entry points to the debate.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.
List of contents
States of surveillance: ethnographic perspectives on technology in policing
Part 1. Navigating surveillance: contending with promises of transformations
1. Shaping surveillance futures: Palestinian responses to Israeli surveillance technologies
2. Encountering ethnographic gestures: reflections on the banality of cybersecurity and STS ecologies of practice
3. "The server is always down!": digitalised complaints systems to monitor public service (mis)conduct in Kenya
4. Surveillance with a human face: imaginaries, debates, and resistance to facial recognition implementation among CCTV workers in Argentina
Part 2. Shaping epistemology: problematizing knowledge production in law enforcement
5. Algorithmic chains of translation: predictive policing and the need for team-based ethnography
6. Mapping and the construction of criminal spaces in Delhi
7. Infrastructure shortcuts: the private cloud infrastructure of data-driven policing and its political consequences
8. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Counterterrorism: The "Realities" of Security Practitioners and Technologists
About the author
Maya Avis is a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
Daniel Marciniak is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull.
Maria Sapignoli is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Milan.
Summary
Drawing on ethnographic research in contexts from across the globe, the contributions to this volume engage with technology’s promises of transformation, considering the dynamics that shape the political economy driving the expansion of security technologies, and examine how those at the margins navigate experiences of surveillance.
