Surveillance Society
Full course description
In this lecture series, we explore questions related to surveillance society and investigate whether and how a digital society is always a surveillance society. You study the main theories of surveillance, the main forms of surveillance (sous-, co-veillance and self-surveillance) and learn to evaluate surveillance phenomena and narratives, linking it to values such as privacy and transparency. The course runs over the entire year, and analyses through lectures and workshops surveillance in the different domains touched upon in other first year courses: society, politics, ethics, culture. In the second part you will also learn about surveillance in the global and non-Western contexts, as well as about concrete case studies, such as facial recognition or surveillance in health.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
- identify the main concepts of and approaches to surveillance;
- analyse and evaluate surveillance practices through values such as privacy and transparency;
- identify and evaluate dominant narratives that frame and justify surveillance practices;
- analyse and evaluate the consequences of technological developments for surveillance and related notions such as sousveillance, co-veillance, and self-surveillance;
- understand examples of surveillance practices in their relevant political, legal and cultural contexts.
Prerequisites
none/not applicable
Recommended reading
- Lyon, D. (2018). The Culture of Surveillance: Watching as a Way of Life. Polity Press.
- M.B. Archer