In this special issue, we reflect on the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) crisis and the containment measures put in place by formal authorities, combining both theoretically and empirically three different fields of study: crisis management, surveillance studies, and digital ethics. At the same time, our approach seeks to go beyond dystopian narratives that do not consider important sociocultural dimensions, such as choices made during app development and implementation to mitigate potential negative impacts on privacy. The context-specific perspective outlined here offers insights into the interests of many different actors involved in the technology theatre, for instance, the corporate interest in sociotechnical frameworks (both apps rely on the Google/Apple exposure notifications application programming interface). While it is still too early to gauge the implications of surveillance-related initiatives in the fight against COVID-19, the “technology theatre” put in place worldwide has already shown that very little can be done to prevent the deployment of technologies, even if their effectiveness is yet to be determined. It aims to offer a critical, sociotechnical perspective on tracing apps to understand how social, technical, and institutional dimensions form the ingredients for increasing surveillance. His paper focuses on two examples of the introduction and use of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in The Netherlands (CoronaMelder) and Belgium (Coronalert). Their aim is to present the heterogeneity of the European historical surveillance past in the hope that this might shed light on current trends.Įssential reading for criminologists, sociologists and political scientists alike, this book provides some much-needed historical context on a highly topical issue. The contributors and editors of the volume look into the question of how central government came to intrude on citizens’ private lives from two perspectives: identification card systems and surveillance in post-authoritarian societies.
The main focus of the volume is on how surveillance has shaped the relationship between the citizen and the State. Focusing on a range of countries in Europe and beyond, this book demonstrates how government penetration into private citizens' lives was developing years before the ‘war on terrorism.’ It also aims to answer the question of whether central government actually has penetrated ever deeper into the lives of private citizens in various countries inside and outside of Europe, and whether citizens are protected against it, or have fought back. This book attempts to find some answers to these questions by examining how governments have increased their use of surveillance technology. Does the development of new technology cause an increase in the level of surveillance used by central government? Is the growth in surveillance merely a reaction to terrorism, or a solution to crime control? Are there more structural roots for the increase in surveillance?
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