Unpacking State Surveillance: Histories, Theories, and Global Contexts

The  field  of  surveillance  studies  has  grown  dramatically  over  the  past  two  or  three  decades.  Located  primarily  in  sociology  in  its  early  days,  surveillance has moved to the centre of debate in a variety of disciplines, not  least  in  our  own  areas  of  criminology  and  communication  studies.  This surge in interest is often seen as a reflection of the rise of surveil-lance  itself,  a  belief  that  now,  unlike  in  previous  periods,  we  live  in  a  “surveillance  society”  (Marx,  1985,  2002).  In  part  this  novelty  is  asso-ciated  with  the  rise  of  electronic  and  digital  surveillance,  producing  a  sense that we are all, and always, being watched. At the same time, new approaches  in  the  field  stress  that  while  we  are  all  being  watched,  this  homogenizing  perspective  risks  downplaying  the  extent  to  which  sur-veillance is also highly differentiated (Gürses, Kundnani, & Van Hobo-ken,  2016),  leading  a  number  of  scholars  to  focus  on  the  dynamics  of  race (Browne, 2015; Fiske, 1998), sexuality, gender, and gender expres-sion (Beauchamp, 2009; Dubrofsky & Magnet, 2015; van der Meulen & Heynen, 2016), and embodiment and disability (Saltes, 2013). In addi-tion,  and  reflecting  the  perspective  that  surveillance  practices  are  part  of  “a  complex,  multi-scalar,  interconnected  world”  (Murakami  Wood,  2009,  p.  190),  there  has  been  increasing  attention  to  how  surveillance  practices function in different global locations (see, for example, Dono-van,  Frowd,  &  Martin,  2016;  Firmino,  Bruno,  &  Arteaga  Botello,  2012;  Svenonius & Björklund, 2018). What remains an open question, though, is how and to what extent this ubiquitous surveillance is radically new.