AUTHOR

Frédéric Ischy and Olivier Simioni (Switzerland)

ABSTRACT

Many current reflexions focus on the question of impact of information and communication technologies on our lives, and, in particular, on organisations. This starting point is interesting but it presents some problems to sociological analysis. Indeed, recent works in the field of the sociology of sciences and technology show total imbrication between human action and objects, artifacts, techniques which are integral parts of social structure (cf Bruno Latour). There are not technologies on one side and social agents ont the other side, the first determining the actions of the seconds. In fact, there is a complex, permanent interaction between both technology and social agents. In consequence, it’s necessary to take account of what one can call the representations, imaginary, utopias or ideologies as well as discourses linked to technological development to understand what technologies will do to us.

In this perspective, it is striking that the discourses accompanying the development of information and communication technologies – discourses telling us that we enter in an information society or information age – carry a vision of the society and individuals that joins the contemporary theories of management. Researches by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiappello (cf Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme) show that a new ” spirit of capitalism ” has been emerging for about thirty years. This new ” spirit ” contains ideas of network, decentralization, demassification, permanent change even if, in the model of the two authors, the development of technologies is not fully mentioned. One can thus build an ” idéal-typique ” (cf Max Weber) model which helps us to understand the shaping of organisations not only from a technical viewpoint but also with considerations regarding the history of ideas. The management topics (flexibility, permanent change, …) mentioned above are in fact the same as in information society discourses in which the presence of technologies is central.

One thus sees that two starting points are possible. One is centered on technologies, and the other on ideas, which draws us back to a caricatural opposition in the social sciences between materialism and culturalism. We don’t want to choose between the two, but we want to show the interest of examining the world of ideas and discourses : studying closely the real impact of technologies needs taking account of representations because it is certain that this impact is ambivalent and depends strongly on the application context.

As a result of an empirical research taking account of discussions with more than 60 Swiss scientists, managers or politicians as well as international official reports from organisations or governments, literature that one can qualify the ” erudite one “, and fictions, we notice a recurring model in the discourses which defend the idea of information society emergence. Admittedly, the speeches base is elementary and indicates that it exists a convergence between telecommunications and computers and that we live a time of very significant changes. However, beyond this simple basic report, one can locate a recurring model of social or business organisation which is based on the need of total mobility, flexibility and of decentralization made necessary by a process of permanent change. This model do not entirely join a market or an industrial logic but subtly combines them to give birth to a new ideological configuration making it possible to motivate the actors, to reassure them and justify the changes.

While speeches defending the idea that the information society will be beneficial for all are extremely numerous, it’s important to say that a certain number of discourses have a critical vision. This vision does not only concentrate, as one could believe it, on the question of inequalities or of control but also on a problem that seems significant to us, that of incertitude or instability.

Indeed, in a world in constant change, which requires a continual adaptation and a total flexibility, individuals can be confronted not only with economic resources problems but also with identitary and psychological problems. A whole branch of science fiction literature (the Cyberpunk trend ; cf William Gibson’s Neuromancer) is confronted with this problem. This is not a negligible element because one can think that the science fiction literature partly reveals the present fears and can thus reveal the type of resistances, legitimate or not, that can fight against changes. However, what is often shown is precisely a world in which individuals are malleable, their bodies being transformed as far to disappear in cyberspace.

Anthropology and philosophy has indeed showed how much the body is the support of identity. It is the body that put individuals in a territory, a history and in social relations. The disappearance of the body leads to a kind of exit of the world, where reality and illusion are indistinguishable. Science fiction literature plays here in the field of metaphors but more seriously it indicates us which are the fears of our contemporaries. To permanently transform the bodies is like to transform the individuals in such a way they must adapt continuously to the technological and organisational changes. Moreover, it is also to take the risk of derealisation and of major identitary disorders.

These concerns are not absurd fictional dreams and, according to us, deserve to be taken seriously. The work of Alain Ehrenberg (cf Le culte de la performance) shows that new representations of individuals appear in the world of sport, work or even vacation – flexibility, competition, performance, self fulfillment – which are linked, in very subtle ways, to this pathology of action that is depression. Thus, it’s not astonishing that the depression can be described as the disease of the beginning of present millenium in the sense it is the negative consequence of the new identities based on the obligation to act. All this shows again that it is definitely impossible to discuss the ” impacts ” of new technologies without studying the concomitant development of the imaginary revealed by sociological interviews, official reports or fiction.

AUTHOR

Eva Turner (UK) and Annemieke Craig (Australia)

ABSTRACT

Aims

The aim of this paper is to establish whether the future generation of computer professionals enter the computing higher education with ideas about their future profession, which is already defined as very narrow and gendered. If that is the case, the paper will elaborate on whether there is ethical responsibility of computer educators to broaden those views and how that should be done.

A large-scale research was performed to gain an insight into perceptions future computer professionals hold of the status and gender of the category of employment loosely defined under this term of “a computer professional”. An international team of researchers from Australia, England and USA and South Africa gave a large questionnaire to all first year students on Computing and Information Technology degree programs, who were enrolled on introductory programming courses at universities.

This paper outlines preliminary findings of this research, from two of the five countries – Australia and England. The paper elaborates on the results’ relevance to current state of the computing profession and outlines further steps that need to be taken to enlighten the computing educators as well as the profession itself to bring about equal opportunities within the computing industry.

Findings
Generally men and women gave similar reasons for studying a computer related degree. An interesting observation is that men seemed to have been more influenced by their family than women about their choice of university studies and only very few students received advice from a careers counsellor.

As opposed to men, women were more inclined to say that they came from word processing and package using background; they did not play games and did not show much experience in programming before entering their studies.

There appear to be recognisable patterns of gender stereotyping in the perception of the computer profession itself. While all students want to become computer professionals and associate the profession with money and status, there appear to be entrenched gendered classification of their own pre university computer experience as well as gendered perception of the profession itself. It appears that most students did not really have a firmed idea of what a computer professional does. However it is obvious that their idea of computer profession does not include administrative job categories. The computing industry represents to the students mainly production of software and hardware.

Women students believed stronger than men that technical as well as communication and management skills are important and that a computer professional needs to be a good programmer and needs a very good understanding of mathematical concepts. This belief tends to eliminated all students without “technical” or mathematical skills, but stereotypically mainly women, from wanting to enter the profession in the first place.

Though all students believed that computing is an engineering discipline, women believed also that computing is a multidisciplinary discipline. Both genders believed that most computer professionals are men and that it did not matter that the numbers of men are greater than the numbers of women. While more women than men believed that as computer professionals they are likely to have to make ethical decisions, most students indicated ambivalence to this statement.

As to students perceiving individual computing disciplines as gendered, the results in this survey appear to confirm my previous findings in students just leaving the university (Turner, 2000), that students are prepared to gender disciplines and genuinely take these perceptions with them into their working lives. These in turn influence their decision making about their own lives as well as lives of those they will potentially employ.

Conclusion

The paper will elaborate on the reasons for the need to change students perceptions and attitudes and will outline how and where in the student education these changes can take place.

REFERENCES

Camp, Tracy (1997) “The Incredibly Shrinking Pipeline” in Communications of the ACM, October, 1997,v40, no 10, pp.103-100.

Frenkel, Karen A. (1990) “Women and computing” in Communications of the ACM, November 1990, v33, n11, p.34 (13).

Grundy F. (1998),’Computer Engineering: Engineering What?’ AISB Quarterly, Issue 100, Pp.24-31

Huang, Ring, Toich, Torres, 1998 “Computers In the Classroom: What is the Effect on the Gender Gap?” GREAT, Vol.1, Issue 1, March 16, 1998.

Lemons M., Parzinger M (2001), Designing Women: A qualitative Study of the Glass Ceiling for Women in Technology. SAM Advanced Management Journal, v66, I2, p4.

Mayfield, Kendra (2000) “Why Girls Don’t Compute”, Wired Magazine, http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,35654,00.html, April 20, 2000.

Robertson, M; Newell, S; Swan, J; Mathiassen, L; and Bjerkness, G (2001). The issue of gender within computing: reflections from the UK and Scandinavia. Information Systems Journal. Vol. 11 Issue 2, p111

Schumacher P. & Morahan-Martin J (2001), Gender, Internet and computer attitudes and experiences, Computers in Human behaviour v17 p95-110.

Turner, E (2000), Is There Such a Thing as Gender and Ethnicity of Computing? In Journal if Information Ethics, vol.9, no.2., pp 72-81.

Turner E. and Roberts P. (2001), Teaching Ethics to IT Students in Higher Education: Provision, Perspective and Practice, in Bynum T. et al (2001), The Social and Ethical Impacts of Information and Communication Technologies, Proceedings Ethicomp 2001 Conference, Wydawnictwo Mikom, Poland

Turner E. (2001), The Case of Responsibility of the IT Industry to Promote Equality for Women in Computing, in Science and Engineering Ethics Journal, vol.7, pp 247-260

Twomey T (1995), Software Industry Structure or Chaos, in Myers C. (1995), Professional Awareness in Software Engineering, McGraw-Hill.

Von Hellens L, Nielsen S (2001), Australian Women in IT, Communications of the ACM, July, v44 i7 p46.

Young, B. (2000), Gender Differences in Student Attitudes toward Computers, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, Winter2000, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p204

Wright R. (1997), Women Computer Professionals, Progress and Resistance, The Edwin Mellen Press Ltd.

AUTHOR

Andy Bissett (UK)

ABSTRACT

Teaching ethical issues to technologists and scientists has been hampered by excessive subject specialisation. Science and technology education tends to concentrate on the facts and methods, whilst leaving the ethical aspect of their application mostly untouched. Professor Germaine Greer at a recent lecture on human ageing [2001] bemoaned the onward march of what she labelled ‘nerd science’, which she identified as the product of this emphasis – the focus on facts and technique without the possibility of taking into account the uses to which science and technology may be put. The humanities on the other hand have frequently been concerned with ethical issues, but can lack an understanding of science and technology. Both the arts and the sciences lose out as a result of this cultural gap.

It is now slightly more than forty years since the English physicist-turned-novelist C.P. Snow delivered a famous and controversial lecture at Cambridge University in which he identified this gap in the Western world between humanities and science, and delineated some of its consequences (reprinted in [Snow, 1971]). He called this disjunction between arts and sciences ‘The Two Cultures’. At the time at which this lecture appeared, approximately 3% of the population of the UK received a university education. This proportion of the population has now risen to more than 30%. The UK government has stated its intention that by the year 2005 at least 50% of the population will attend university. The consequent pressures on the education system to deliver science and technology that can compete globally and be relevant to economic activity have, if anything increased this subject specialisation over the last two decades. This is an issue, which seems to afflict most of the Western education systems.

Snow wrote a lengthy series of novels and a number of polemical articles exploring the tensions and problems of this gulf between subject specialisms. In his fictional output, Snow was concerned with the ethical aspects of science, public policy, and government; indeed one novel was devoted to the issue of scientists’ role in the development of nuclear weapons [Snow, 1954]. He evinced a Wellsian belief in the progressive rationality of science, and the liberating possibilities of modern technology. Broadly, his solution for these ethical and social problems involved a re-alignment of the education system to help bridge the gap between subject specialisms, and to meet the needs of the last third of the twentieth century. The present paper examines his work and relates it to the problem of developing education in good ethical practice for IT students in the twenty-first century.

Ironically, whilst Snow the physicist wrote very conventional novels, eschewing literary experimentation or sophistication [Karl, 1963], Western literature and visual arts have subsequently shown a burgeoning and imaginative awareness of the apparent paradoxes and mysteries inherent in modern physics and mathematics (see, for example, [McEwan, 1988], [Stoppard, 1999]). However, education in ethics for scientists and technologists may not simply benefit from a widening or interchange with the humanities. In the theoretical humanities post-modernism has problematised the notion of universally applicable ethics. Post-modernism maintains that absolute values no longer apply (if they ever did), and that any number of competing discourses must be evaluated and considered as a potential guides to moral behaviour. Prima facie, these discourses are of equal weight. This opens up questions for the computer ethicist, such as: what framework (or discourse) is implied by the concept of ‘computer ethics’; do professional codes of conduct imply a particular set of values; how do we evaluate different discourses; can a meta-framework be proposed within the specific field of computer ethics for evaluating different discourses?

These problems are not merely at the theoretical level; earlier empirical work, based on the ideas of the psychologist Carol Gilligan, has shown that different ethical evaluations (discourses) do indeed hold in practice [Bissett & Shipton, 1999].

This paper concludes that one helpful way forward may be a reconsideration of work that was contemporaneous with Snow’s later writings. Thomas Kuhn [1962] opened up the possibility of viewing science as a social process as well as a technical process. Kuhn’s reinstatement to science of its dimension as a social and historical practice can be extended to readily capture the ethical dimension. An especial advantage to be gained here is that scientific education and understanding is itself enriched by restoring the social dimension. The synergy in this more holistic treatment is too good to miss. Both scientific education per se and education as to the ethical dimension of science may benefit.

AUTHOR

Heidi King, Jon Garibaldi and Simon Rogerson (UK)

ABSTRACT

Introduction

This paper discusses the status of intelligent computer systems in medicine. A definition of intelligent systems will be given, and an explanation of how these systems differ from other software. The relationship between a clinician and an intelligent system will then be examined, in order to decide whether an intelligent system should be regarded as a partner or a tool. The question of whether intelligent systems provide better care for patients than clinicians will be analysed. Finally, an ethical analysis will be made of whether clinicians should be required to take advice from intelligent systems that could provide better care than they themselves.

Background

Few intelligent systems are actually used routinely in medicine (King et al, 2001). The Vienna General Hospital has within it a group of researchers working in the field of intelligent systems. This research group has produced six fully functional expert systems that are routinely used within the hospital. Previous has shown that this is the most prolific research group world wide in implementing intelligent systems into routine use in a medical environment. This research is concerned with understanding the issues faced by a range of clinicians associated with the Vienna General Hospital with respect to the usage of intelligent computer systems in medicine within their fields of expertise.

Defining Intelligent Systems

Intelligent systems are based upon Artificial Intelligence (AI). A widely accepted definition of AI is one given by Marvin Minsky in 1968: “Artificial intelligence is the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”. An ‘ordinary’ computer will follow a set of instructions in a specified order to complete a task. Intelligent systems often have learning capabilities and use computing power to attempt to model human thought processes.

Intelligent systems have been created for many and varied uses. They may be programmed to detect the onset of adverse conditions and alert medical personnel to changes in the patient’s state, for example the “Sentinel” anaesthesia monitor (Jones et al, 2001) provides automated decision support for anaesthesia monitoring. Another use may be to advise on medical practice, e.g. the ICONS system suggests an antibiotic therapy regimen satisfying medical and economic conditions using a process of finding similar cases that have been previously documented and modifying them to meet the requirements of the current patient (Heindl et al, 1997).

It will be necessary, for the purposes of this paper, to specify the characteristics of a ‘typical’ intelligent system. These characteristics can then be examined in order to consider whether this ‘typical’ intelligent system could be considered as a partner or a tool. Future research will examine specific instances of intelligent systems to see how they compare with this ‘typical’ model, and whether these specific examples should be considered as partners or tools. The research concludes by considering whether intelligent systems are different to other types of systems and whether this means they should be treated differently.

Clinician-System relationship

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definitions of a tool include “something (as an instrument or apparatus) used in performing an operation or necessary in the practice of a vocation or profession”. A partnership between two partners is understood to mean a relationship “usually involving close cooperation between parties having specified and joint rights and responsibilities”. The relationship between a clinician and a specified ‘typical’ intelligent system will be examined, in order to decide whether that system should be regarded as a partner, a tool, or a hybrid of the two.

Some studies have shown intelligent systems to provide better care than clinicians for patients (e.g. Hamilton et al, 1996; Narus et al, 1995; Scott, 1999). Johnson & Mulvey (1995) argued that computer decision systems give assistance in coping with complexity, enabling decision making to be more informed. The field of knowledge in medicine is enormous and so support may be essential for clinicians to do their jobs effectively.

Clinicians have a duty to treat and care for their patients to the best of their abilities (the principle of beneficence). The General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK considers that one of the duties of a doctor registered with the GMC is to “work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients’ interests”. If an intelligent system is to be considered as a partner, and if that intelligent system is able to provide the best possible care for patients, it can be argued that clinicians have a duty to use these systems whenever possible. At present there is no mention made to intelligent, or other, computer systems within the GMC’s standards of practice. This is an example of Moor’s policy vacuum (Moor, 1985) whereby advances in technology provide users with new capabilities without ethical policies having been formulated to guide those users in their conduct.

REFERENCES

Hamilton, P. W., Anderson, N. H., Diamond, J., Bartels, P. H., Gregg, J. B., Thompson, D. & Millar, R. J. (1996) An interactive decision support system for breast fine needle aspiration cytology. Analytical and Quantitative Cytology and Histology 18,3:185-190

Heindl, B., Schmidt, R., Schmid, G., Haller, M., Pfaller, P., Gierl, L. & Pollwein, B. (1997) A case-based consiliarius for therapy recommendation (ICONS): computer-based advice for calculated antibiotic therapy in intensive care medicine. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine 52,2:117-127

Johnson, D. G. & Mulvey, J. M. (1995) Accountability and Computer Decision Systems. Communications of the ACM 38, 12: 58-64

Jones, R. W., Harrison, M. J. & Lowe, A. (2001) Computerised anaesthesia monitoring using fuzzy trend templates. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine 21,1-3:247-251

King, H., Garibaldi, J. & Rogerson, S. (2001) Towards the identification of intelligent systems currently in routine use in medicine and dentistry. Proceedings of the Eusflat Conference 5-7 September, 2001

Moor, J. (1985), What is computer ethics? Metaphilosophy 16,4: 266-279

Narus, S. P., Kuck, K. & Westenskow, D. R., (1995) Intelligent monitor for an anesthesia breathing circuit. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care;96-100

Scott, J. A. (1999) Using artificial neural network analysis of global ventilation-perfusion scan morphometry as a diagnostic tool. American Journal of Roentgenology 173,4:943-948

AUTHOR

Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos, Jenny Persson and Carl Åborg (Sweden)

ABSTRACT

Any successful construction, implementation and use of information technology systems require many different things. Satisfaction of economical and technological aspects used to (and still are) in focus, but today other aspects such as organizational structure and dynamics, work environment, work task, user competence, even ethical issues, take a bigger part in the way a system functions. In this paper we focus on ethical competence and discuss how this can be achieved and maintained in a highly changing work environment dominated by the use of IT-tools. Ethical competence is an important emerging factor determining the optimal use of information technology systems.

In order to be able to use a system satisfactorily a certain kind and amount of knowledge is necessary. Knowledge is always connected to the solution of a concrete problem. It guides action, and effective action is adaptive knowledge. In this sense knowledge that does not fit in to a concrete situation is in fact not any knowledge for this situation. A user or a group of users lacking necessary knowledge are in a state of cognitive disequilibrium.

Organizations exist in order to coordinate knowledge and competence. A successful orchestration of knowledge means effective action. If a knowledge gap is observed, organizations try to fill it. One way to accomplish this is to inform, educate and train people. However, it is necessary for this process to succeed, to be able to anticipate future problems in real situations, which demand concrete knowledge. Any demand for future knowledge has then to be compared to the existing knowledge and expertise in the organization. In principle this is what is needed for the construction of introductory courses and other means of assistance for users such as ethical codes.

However, given the high pace of technological change as well as the number and interdependence of factors influencing the optimal use of a system, it is very difficult to anticipate future problems and to identify the corresponding knowledge necessary to solve them. This is certainly true regarding ethical knowledge. It is extremely difficult to know in advance what is right and what is wrong, and therefore it is difficult to supply adaptive and functional answers. Every knowledge transmission and cognitive support method, such as ethical codes, which are constructed in advance and before the problem they target has emerged, may not be sufficient. Such methods include knowledge for handling already known problems, or when there is a clear and concrete picture of a future moral problem.

Then how is adaptive ethical knowledge achieved? The person or the organization, which needs this knowledge, has of course to find the right method to create the ethical knowledge needed. The person needs a psychological skill and the organization needs suitable routines and processes, that is, ethical competence. Individual skills are by definition applicable to an infinite number of problems of the same kind, in this case moral problems. Organizations use to find the knowledge needed in certain problem situations by reorganizing themselves spontaneously. The great advantage with informal cognitive support, above and beyond its applicability, is that knowledge transmitted in this way aims the target easily, and therefore it is accepted and applied successfully.

Ethical competence is defined here as a psychological and organizational process which means (a) high ethical awareness, the ability to anticipate moral problems in real life and to perceive them in time, (b) the skill to analyse and solve them in an optimal way, (c) the individual capability and the organizational readiness to discuss and handle moral problems at group and organization level, and together with significant others formulate ethical guidelines, (d) the power to argue convincingly for preferred actions or decisions made, and (e) the confidence on own ability to cope with moral problems and the emotional strength to implement controversial decisions.

In the present paper we will present an investigation of measures taken before and during the implementation process of a new information technology system at a large government organization. The organization’s size and the diversity of measures taken or simply not be taken allow us to compare some very important factors. The focus of the study is mainly on the effect of individual skill training and learning on the acquisition of ethical competence. Furthermore the focus is on organizational change promoting informal processes in handling ethical issues. Some other important parameters that are studied are the correlations of ethical competence to work environment and to the efficiency and effectiveness of the information technology system.

AUTHOR

Lynsey Dubbeld (Netherlands)

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION
Privacy protections – in particular since the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the concomitant data protection legislation – have been aimed at regulating the relations between individuals and organisations: new legislative safeguards for the individual’s control over information possessed by large organisations have been considered necessary in view of the increasing power of organisations and businesses over citizens. The growing influence of organisations on individuals’ lives is not only evident in the massive processing of personal data in the commercial sector, but also – as this paper will argue – in private companies’ use of Closed-Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) to observe large portions of the population. In exploring this issue, the author will introduce examples taken from her field study on a centralised system of CCTV in train stations in the Netherlands.

THE SHAPING OF SURVEILLANCE: MATERIAL AND DISCURISVE INTERVENTIONS
With the widespread perception of ICTs enabling the extension of organisations’ control and influence over individuals, the potential invasions of citizens’ and consumers’ privacy appear to have increased considerably (cf. Johnson, 2001). In the case of camera surveillance in the public and semi-public domains, business enterprises – in particular as a result of public financing opportunities and through the formation of public-private partnerships – possess ample capacities to construct asymmetries of power.

Material definitions of surveillance
Firstly, either by producing and installing camera equipment, or through implementing, owning, and financing CCTV schemes, business enterprises increasingly define the preconditions for camera-enabled surveillance in public areas.

Discursive shaping of surveillance

Secondly, the execution of targeted surveillance is discursively shaped through the organisational contexts in which categories of ‘suspicious’ (or in any other way undesirable or ‘other’) persons are identified and defined. These categories – which are strongly reminiscent of the typologies dominating discourses of crime prevention and which are also discernible in, for instance, contemporary criminal justice systems – are developed by private sector management closely collaborating with other ‘primary definers’ (such as police, local government, and security companies) and are subsequently translated into instructions for monitoring personnel observing and interpreting the camera images (cf. Coleman & Sim, 2000; Norris & Armstrong, 1999).

SHOOTING BACK: THE BOUNDARIES OF ORGANISATIONAL POWER
Although the organisational setting is thus of crucial importance for the actual application of camera systems and observation methods, and the private sector appears to decisively influence, or even determine, the surveillance capacities of CCTV (with the subsequent effects on the privacy protections of those using the public domain), the surveilled population does not stand entirely powerless towards the corporately organised surveillance (cf. Haggerty & Ericson, 2000).

Monitoring CCTV

Firstly, increasingly, laws regulating the application of camera surveillance and legislative safeguards for the protection of individuals’ privacy exist, ranging from data protection legislation to laws prohibiting the use of covert surveillance. Individuals as well as civil rights organisations can challenge and fight the legitimacy and presence of camera systems on the basis of these laws – and in fact, sometimes successfully do so (as is shown by actions taken by organisations like ACLU, BCCLA, and Privacy International).

Watching out

Secondly, in spite of the rules of behaviour laid down by the management in official regulations, the operators actually monitoring the cameras – and acting upon the incidents thus observed – in practice possess considerable latitude in observing particular persons and groups. And although the categories of ‘suspects’ defined by the company frequently recur in the rules of operation used by camera personnel – with black people, drug users, and the homeless being particularly targeted (cf. Norris & Armstrong, 1999) – there appear to be many exceptions to these general principles as well (women, people wearing uniforms, exhibitionists), whereas the targeted populations are often being observed only briefly, with no subsequent deployment being called in. As a result of this (and the technical limitations of camera technology and the peripherals of CCTV systems), the observed are not subjected to a continuous, intense panoptic gaze structured by corporate goals, but rather become one of the many points of passage in a refractory network of supervision.

Looking back

Thirdly, individuals can take affirmative actions to fight against the privacy intrusive and classificatory tendencies inherent in visual surveillance, not only by appealing to the law, but also by mobilising the media in order to critically examine surveillance systems and intervene in the hegemonic discourse in which classifications are being defined and CCTV is being (either literally or symbolically) sold. What’s more, ‘the flattening effects of the official capital-intensive video gaze in urban spaces’, as David Lyon has put it (Lyon, 2001: 62) can be challenged: through reversing the gaze, and scrutinizing the observers by privately-owned domestic camera systems (Haggerty & Ericson, 2000); by making fun of the camera’s presence by using it as a instrument of personal amusement (Norris & Armstrong, 1999), as exhibitionists or groups like the Surveillance Camera Players do; or simply through destruction or sabotage of CCTV systems.

CONCLUSION

As Pris Regan has shown in her study of US privacy policies and legislation (Regan, 1995), primary definers from the private industry involved in the production of new technologies can considerably influence the development of safeguards for citizen’s privacy. This paper focuses on the role of commercial enterprises in the practical operation of such technologies, showing that through the material and discursive framing of CCTV, business organisations mediate the interactions between observers and the observed, with asymmetries of power and hierarchies of agency being continually negotiated, disputed and challenged – an analysis which could prove to be useful not only for advocacy groups aiming objecting to surveillance activities, but also for new understandings of concepts like surveillance, power and privacy (cf. Lyon, 2001).

REFERENCES

Coleman, Roy and Sim, Joe (2000) ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone: CCTV Surveillance, Order and Neo-Liberal Rule in Liverpool City Centre’ in: British Journal of Sociology 51 (4), 623-639.

Davies, Simon G. (1998) ‘CCTV: A New Battleground for Privacy’ in: Norris, Clive et al. (eds.) Surveillance, Closed Circuit Television and Social Control Ashgate. Aldershot, 243-254.

Haggerty, Kevin D. and Ericson, Richard V. (2000) ‘The Surveillant Assemblage’ in: British Journal of Sociology 51 (4), 605-622.

Johnson, Deborah G. (2001) Computer Ethics Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River (N. J.) (1985).

Lyon, David (1994) The Electronic Eye. The Rise of Surveillance Society Polity Press. Cambridge.

Lyon, David (2001) Surveillance Society. Monitoring Everyday Life Open University Press. Buckingham (PA.).

Marx, Gary (1996) ‘Electric Eye in the Sky: Some Reflections on the New Surveillance and Popular Culture’ in: David Lyon and Elia Zureik (eds), Computers, Surveillance and Privacy University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis/London, 193-233.

Norris, Clive and Armstrong, Gary (1998) ‘Introduction: Power and Vision’ in: Norris, Clive et al. (eds.) Surveillance, Closed Circuit Television and Social Control Ashgate. Aldershot, 3-18.

Norris, Clive and Armstrong, Gary (1999) The Maximum Surveillance Society. The Rise of CCTV Berg. Oxford/New York.

Regan, Priscilla M. (1995) Legislating Privacy. Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill/London.