Book Review: D. Lyon (ed.) Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond Devon: Willan Publishing, 2006. £47.50 ISBN-10: 184392191X; ISBN-13: 978—1843921912
| Author | Tim John |
| Published date | 01 February 2009 |
| Date | 01 February 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895809102351 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
111
D. Lyon (ed.)
Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond
Devon: Willan Publishing, 2006. £47.50 ISBN-10: 184392191X; ISBN-
13: 978–1843921912
• Reviewed by Tim John, University of Glamorgan, UK
Lyon’s edited collection Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond
is a timely and focused addition to the burgeoning literature in surveillance
studies. The authors of the volume’s various chapters provide valuable
insights into surveillance in their respective fields, emphasizing the cross-
disciplinary challenges this particular subject area presents.
As the title suggests, a sustained theme throughout the book is a recog-
nition of the limitations of the panopticon as a means of theorizing and
explaining surveillance and surveillance technologies. While not wholly dis-
missed, the continued utility of the panoptic framework is increasingly to
be seen as residual and historic rather than central and future oriented. As
Lyon observes, the implications of not identifying an alternative paradigm
would be significant: ‘Without careful theorizing, the growth of contempo-
rary surveillance will be seen only in relatively shallow and superficial ways
in media accounts and policy reports that depend only on descriptive and
statistical data’ (p. 18).
The contributors to the book provide amply diverse perspectives to
demonstrate the depth and breadth of surveillance, serving to illustrate why
‘careful theorizing’ is of such significance. Examples include: Los’s identifi-
cation of parallels between the data double product of surveillance and ‘the
file’ of the totalitarian state; Elmer and Opel’s observations about the role
of surveillance in informing non-evidence based pre-emptive domestic and
overseas policies; and, Koskela’s discourse on the webcam’s ability to create
an ‘in-betweenness’ of physical and virtual space and to challenge tradi-
tional notions such as subject and object in surveillance.
These, and the other contributions, are placed within appropriately
delineated sections: post-panoptic surveillance theory; space and time in
surveillance theory; subjects and contexts of surveillance; and, security,
power, agency and resistance. As an edited collection, a sustained promo-
tion of an alternative paradigm to the panopticon does not emerge.
However, by demonstrating the multiplicity of forms of surveillance, by the-
orizing the influences on its rise, governance and impacts, the book makes
Criminology & Criminal Justice
© The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and Permissions:
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/JournalsPermissions.nav
www.sagepublications.com
ISSN 1748–8958; Vol: 9(1): 111–116
DOI: 10.1177/1748895809102351
BOOK REVIEWS
To continue reading
Request your trial