Sousveillance as a Tool in US Civic Polity

Abstract

In this section of the collection, the intrusion that surveillance or sousveillance performs on the body and the self are explored. This chapter explores the potential of sousveillance, or the recording of an activity by a participant in the activity, to facilitate the notion of the American democracy. Given that sousveillance is a relatively modern form of surveillance, this chapter unveils the historical background of sousveillance, noting its connections to surveillance and classic discussions of power and political theory. Next, this chapter discusses how the intersection of technology, art, and politics, residing in a nexus between public and private, reveals how surveillance permeates contemporary culture. I contend that a conceptualization of what an engaged citizen looks like in the twenty-first century requires a good grasp of sousveillance and its attendant meanings. Sousveillance is inculcated in modern citizenship, as previous chapters have discussed, and so its prevalence is has consequences for communities, policy makers, artists, writers and academics more than ever before. This form of monitoring has body-specific and social reactions which deeply affect the performance of personhood in the twenty-first century.