Please note that this Programme finished in May 2009. A follow-up meeting, co-organised by IAS and SIPR will take place in December 2009.
Surveillance: "any collection and processing of personal data, whether identifiable or not, for the purposes of influencing or managing those whose data has been garnered." (David Lyon, 2001)
In streets and shopping malls, in workplaces and schools, crossing borders and on the internet, surveillance technologies increasingly impinge on our lives: CCTV camera networks, DNA databases, speed cameras, automated number plate recognition, loyalty cards, border security, electronic monitoring of offenders, RFID chips in consumer goods, even mobile phone cameras.
Some contemporary surveillance practices originate in deepening (and perhaps exaggerated) concerns about national and global security, or in desires for order and safety that have arisen as traditional ways of sustaining them have frayed and declined. Others have roots in strategies to make commercial and social life more efficient and convenient.
Negative "Orwellian" connotations may be attributed too quickly to new surveillance technologies, resulting in the premature dismissal of practices which may make our world more convivial. But fears that they will not be used properly - that they will be used repressively and divisively - are by no means unfounded; we do not yet comprehend what it means to live in a "surveillance society".
We should make ourselves better informed about the technological realities (and possibilities) of surveillance, understand their impact upon us, and engage in proper democratic debate about ways to shape and regulate their development, using the full resources of the sciences, literature and art.
The "Surveillance and Society in the 21st century" programme will bring together academics, technologists, business people, policy makers, campaigners and writers to stimulate discussion, engage with public policy, promote public understanding and awareness.
Event: Surveillance Symposium. 27th April- 1st May 2009. A week of discussions and debates on the concept and definition of surveillance, the interdisciplinary perspective on surveillance studies and methodology and a special session on Surveillance in Fiction in homage to George Orwell. Speakers include Kevin Haggerty (University of Alberta, Canada), Francisco Klauser (RCUK Fellow, University of Durham), David Wills (University of Birmingham), Kirstie Ball (Open University), Anders Albrechtslund (Aalborg University, Denmark), Michael Nagenborg (University of Tubingen, Germany), Marc Renzema (Kutztown University, USA), David Murakami Wood (Newcastle University), Richard Jones (University of Edinburgh), Charles D. Raab (University of Edinburgh), William Webster (University of Stirling) and Mike Nellis (University of Strathclyde). More information available soon.
Event: The Convention on Modern Liberty Saturday February 28th 2009, in partnership with No2ID.
Programme convener
The programme was organised by: Prof Mike Nellis, Professor of Criminal and Community Justice, University of Strathclyde, tel. +44 (0) 141 950 3227, mike.nellis@strath.ac.uk