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If you have nothing to hide…

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Security cameras are defended as tools to protect us, but they also erode privacy and help secure the interests of the state and private industry. Many sociologists explore surveillance, the state, and privacy rights.

Research by UVic Sociologists

Dr. Sean Hier

Hier, Sean P. (2010). Panoptic Dreams: Streetscape Video Surveillance in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg, ed. (2009). Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Walby, Kevin and Sean P. Hier. (2013). Business Improvement Associations and Public Area Video Surveillance in Canadian Cities Urban Studies 50, 10, 2012-2017.

Greenberg, Josh and Sean P. Hier. (2009). CCTV Surveillance and the Poverty of Media Discourse. Canadian Journal of Communication 34, 3: 461-86.

Dr. Midori Ogasawara

Ogasawara, Midori. (2017). Surveillance at the roots of everyday interactions: Japan’s Conspiracy Bill and its totalitarian effects. Surveillance & Society 15: 477-485.

Ogasawara, Midori. (2019). The Daily Us (vs. Them) from Online to Offline: Japan’s Media Manipulation and Cultural Transcoding of Collective Memories. Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia 18(2): 49-67.

Visit Dr. Ogasawara’s monthly column, Data Surveillance and Me.

News

Foucault – Surveillance and Crime Control

Surveillance

Sociology Courses at UVic

If you would like to explore social theory, surveillance and human rights in more depth, the Department offers a number of courses you might be interested in:

SOCI100A – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Social Life
SOCI100B – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society
SOCI202 – Constructing Social Problems
SOCI204 – Self, Identity and Society
SOCI206 – Crime and Deviance
SOCI215 – Class and Social Inequality
SOCI220 – Media and Contemporary Society
SOCI235 – Racialization and Ethnicity
SOCI307 – Moral Panics
SOCI309 – Contemporary Social Theorizing
SOCI313 – Sociology of Law
SOCI316 – Social Movements
SOCI318 – Social Change
SOCI431 – Issues in Social Theorizing
SOCI434 – Issues in Deviance, Crime and Law
SOCI436 – Issues in Sociology and Social Justice