Concepedia

‘The gaze without eyes’: video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space

Progress in Human Geography · 2000 · 303 citations · 61 references

TL;DR

Video‑surveillance increasingly alters the nature of urban space. The study examines whether surveillance makes space safer and more available, and uses concepts of container, power, and emotional space to explore how surveillance shapes spatial experience. The authors analyze surveillance in public venues—malls, streets, transport hubs—by conceptualizing space as container, power, and emotional, to examine how surveillance shapes spatial experience. Video‑surveillance alters power dynamics, reshapes emotional experiences, and contributes to the production of urban space.

Abstract

This article discusses how ever-increasing video-surveillance is changing the nature of urban space. The article evaluates whether surveillance can be seen as a means of making space safer and ‘more available’. The main focus is on surveillance in publicly accessible spaces, such as shopping malls, city streets and places for public transport. The article explains how space under surveillance is formed, and how it is related to power structures and human emotions. Space is conceptualized from various viewpoints. Three concepts of space are postulated: space as a container, power-space and emotional space. The purpose is not to construct a meta-theory of space; rather, the concepts are used as ‘tools’ for exploring the issue of surveillance. It is argued that video-surveillance changes the ways in which power is exercised, modifies emotional experiences in urban space and affects the ways in which ‘reality’ is conceptualized and understood. Surveillance contributes to the production of urban space.