Surveillance theory meets participatory theory

Chapter 2 explores the conceptual connections and disjunctions between surveillance and participation. It examines approaches to participation evident in surveillance studies, and the core components and concepts of traditional participatory theory. The chapter explains how participation as a concept can be used to interrogate surveillance practices and the ways in which they evolve. Participation in this sense involves citizens as stakeholders and includes an evaluation of the ways in which they are able to participate and the outcomes of this participation. Participation is seen as a core component of a modern democracy and occurs in a variety of ways. Traditional participatory approaches stress different participatory mechanisms, different ways of engaging citizens and how these democratic practices are shaped by vested societal and organisational interests. The state, civil society and citizens actively co-produce the participatory sphere in a pre-existing set of institutional conditions which enable and constrain opportunities for action. This necessarily informs the way democracy relates to the emergence of modern surveillance practices.