NCJ Number
244992
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 53 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2013 Pages: 977-996
Date Published
November 2013
Length
20 pages
Annotation
In this paper, the authors examine the story of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in Britain.
Abstract
Why do certain security goods become banal (while others do not)? Under what conditions does banality occur and with what effects? In this paper, the authors answer these questions by examining the story of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in Britain. The authors consider the lessons to be learned from CCTV's rapidbut puzzlingtransformation from novelty to ubiquity, and what the banal properties of CCTV tell us about the social meanings of surveillance and security. The authors begin by revisiting and reinterpreting the historical process through which camera surveillance has diffused across the British landscape, focusing on the key developments that encoded CCTV in certain dominant meanings (around its effectiveness, for example) and pulled the cultural rug out from under alternative or oppositional discourses. Drawing upon interviews with those who produce and consume CCTV, the authors tease out and discuss the family of meanings that can lead one justifiably to describe CCTV as a banal good. The authors then examine some frontiers of this process and consider whether novel forms of camera surveillance (such as domestic CCTV systems) may press up against the limits of banality in ways that risk unsettling security practices whose social value and utility have come to be taken for granted. In conclusion, the authors reflect on some wider implications of banal security and its limits. (Published Abstract)