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‘The gaze without eyes’: video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space

Department of Geography, PO Box 4, University of Helsinki, FIN 00014, Finland

This article discusses how ever-increasing video-surveillance is changing the nature of urban space. The article evaluates whether surveillance can be seen as a means of making space safer and ‘more available’. The main focus is on surveillance in publicly accessible spaces, such as shopping malls, city streets and places for public transport. The article explains how space under surveillance is formed, and how it is related to power structures and human emotions. Space is conceptualized from various viewpoints. Three concepts of space are postulated: space as a container, power-space and emotional space. The purpose is not to construct a meta-theory of space; rather, the concepts are used as ‘tools’ for exploring the issue of surveillance. It is argued that video-surveillance changes the ways in which power is exercised, modifies emotional experiences in urban space and affects the ways in which ‘reality’ is conceptualized and understood. Surveillance contributes to the production of urban space.

Key Words: CCTV • cities • emotions • power relations • production of space • surveillance • urban planning

Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 24, No. 2, 243-265 (2000)
DOI: 10.1191/030913200668791096


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