Does the development of new technology cause an increase in the level of surveillance used by central government? Is the growth in surveillance merely a reaction to terrorism, or a solution to crime control? Are there more structural roots for the increase in surveillance? This book attempts to find some answers to these questions by examining how governments have increased their use of surveillance technology. Focusing on a range of countries in Europe and beyond, this book demonstrates how government penetration into private citizens' lives was developing years before the ‘war on terrorism.’ It also aims to answer the question of whether central government actually has penetrated ever deeper into the lives of private citizens in various countries inside and outside of Europe, and whether citizens are protected against it, or have fought back. The main focus of the volume is on how surveillance has shaped the relationship between the citizen and the State. The contributors and editors of the volume look into the question of how central government came to intrude on citizens’ private lives from two perspectives: identification card systems and surveillance in post-authoritarian societies. Their aim is to present the heterogeneity of the European historical surveillance past in the hope that this might shed light on current trends. Essential reading for criminologists, sociologists and political scientists alike, this book provides some much-needed historical context on a highly topical issue.
Author(s): Kees Boersma, Rosamunde van Brakel, Chiara Fonio, Pieter Wagenaar
Series: Routledge studies in crime and society
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 259
Tags: State Surveillance, Europe
Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 4
Title Page......Page 6
Copyright Page......Page 7
About COST......Page 8
Table of Contents......Page 10
List of figures......Page 12
List of tables......Page 13
Notes on contributors......Page 14
1 Introduction: histories of state surveillance in Europe and beyond......Page 22
Part I Theory and perspectives......Page 36
2 Further thoughts on The Information State in England . . . since 1500......Page 38
3 Situating surveillance: history, technology, culture......Page 53
Part II Big Brother surveillance in the twentieth century in different countries......Page 68
4 A brief history of the anticommunist surveillance in Greece and its lasting impact......Page 70
5 Aspiring to modernization: historical evolution and current trends of state surveillance in Portugal......Page 86
6 Controversial legacies in post-Fascist Italy......Page 100
7 Surveillance, lustration and the open society: Poland and Eastern Europe......Page 116
8 Brazilian universities under surveillance: information control during the military dictatorship, 1964 to 1985......Page 139
Part III ID-Cards as a surveillance method to govern societies......Page 154
9 Spain's documento nacional de identidad: an e-ID for the twenty-first century with a controversial past......Page 156
10 Policy windows for surveillance: the phased introduction of the identification card in the Netherlands since the early twentieth century......Page 171
11 The emergence of the identity card in Belgium and its colonies......Page 191
12 Available, necessary or unwanted: national registration, surveillance, conscription and governance in wartime Canada, 1914 to 1947......Page 207
13 From surveillance-by-design to privacy-by-design: evolving identity policy in the United Kingdom......Page 226
Afterword: conceptual matters - the ordering of surveillance......Page 241
Index......Page 249
