Liquid Surveillance: Developing Foucault's ideas

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

In the late-modern (or postmodern) era societies are more ‘fluid’ & their citizens, who are always on the move, are continually monitored, tracked & traced through CCTV, passwords & coded controls on building

Question 2

Bauman & Lyon

Answer 2

Argue that this liquid surveillance is flexible & mobile & is spreading into more areas of life:

1. As travellers – passport control with body scanners & biometric checks, chips in passports, checking -in by smartphone
2. As consumers – strategies such as monitoring searches & cookies, customer databases, using smartphones to scan QR (quick response) codes or when purchasing goods
3. As users of social media – by exchanging personal information such as personal profiles & allowing cookies during web searches

Question 3

Bauman & Lyon 2

Answer 3

Whereas surveillance used to be solid & more fixed, such as in prisons, Bauman argues that it is now post-panoptical, the ‘watchers’ no longer need to be present & can escape beyond reach.

Bauman & Lyon argue that the key metaphor for liquid surveillance is ‘big brother’ & that power can now move with the ‘speed of an electrical button’. They argue that as well as privacy, liquid surveillance also involves issues of justice & human rights. They point to how ‘Arabs & Muslims’ are subjected to more ‘random’ security checks at airports than other groups. They also argue that the ever-increasing use of drone surveillance can be abused by powerful groups & nations & provides no shelter for those spied upon.