In this topical reader Sean Hier and Josh Greenberg bring together extracts from some of the most influential readings on surveillance studies. The reader examines thoughts about self-surveillance, scrutiny of specific parts of society, sophisticated data gathering techniques and the ubiquity of CCTV. While surveillance is an intrinsic feature of human social relationships, it is only in the past few years that information and data-gathering techniques have emerged as a sustained multi-disciplinary topic of investigation and theorization.

Surveillance studies, now a rapidly growing area of academic study, has begun documenting the changing character and consequences of surveillance techniques throughout the world. The readings presented in this book represent one more step towards developing a coherent statement on surveillance studies.

The readings are organised into distinct sections:

• Surveillance, the nation-state and social control
• Computers, simulations and assemblages
• Surveillance in everyday life
• Surveillance, politics and social inequality
• Surveillance and public opinion
• Ethics, privacy and resistance

Essays by: Charles Barker, Colin Bennett, William Bogard, Roy Coleman, Christopher Dandeker, Richard Eriscson, Michel Foucault, Oscar H. Gandy, Anthony Giddens, John Gilliom, Stephen Graham, Kevin Haggerty, Susan Hansen, Sean P. Hier, David Lyon, Gary Marx, Dawn Moore, Mike Nellis, Charles Raab, Alasdair Roberts, James Rule, Graham Sewell, Mimi Sheller, John Torpey, John Urry, Kevin Walby, David Wood.