Surveillance and democracy: Sympathies and antagonisms

Chapter 1 introduces the approach taken by the authors in trying to understand the relationship between surveillance and democracy in contemporary society. It explains how a “participatory lens” is used to highlight how we as individuals in society participate in surveillance practices, and how these are shaped by vested interests, stakeholders and institutions. The participatory lens is used to analyse the consequences of harms and controversies caused by surveillance practices, and in particular those practices mediated by new technologies, to assess how participatory mechanisms shape surveillance and inform democratic practice. Chapter 1 sets out the structure of the book, its origins, related research and the three core surveillance-oriented case studies examined, namely: Automatic Number Plate Recognition, credit scoring and Neighbourhood Watch. The underlying question posed by this book is whether democracy, and the participatory practices it embodies, can enact the limits of surveillance.