Video Surveillance and Public Space: Surveillance Society Vs. Security State

Since the end of the last century, the number of video surveillance cameras installed in public spaces has increasingly grown worldwide. Although the installation of video surveillance should allegedly deter crime and improve the fear of crime and the perception of insecurity, the technology collects a vast number of traces of all the members of a population, regardless of their criminal intentions. In the academic literature, two main theoretical approaches have been formed to comprehend the role of video surveillance in public spaces: surveillance society and security state. Interestingly, both of them find their roots in Foucault’s ideas. The first one, surveillance society, is based on Foucault’s perspective on disciplinary power. The latter, the security state, draws on the notions of apparatus of security and governmentality. This chapter is undertaken with the aim of providing an overview of the key features of the two approaches and their comparison. Furthermore, it discusses the possibility of applying both theories to analyze video surveillance in public spaces as it could offer a deeper understanding of a complex interplay of different logics behind an ever-increasing data collection on members of society.