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Video-Surveillance and the Production of Space in Urban Nightlife Districts

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Responsible Innovation 1

Abstract

This chapter is based on a research project that examines if and how technologically mediated forms of surveillance and policing improve the safety and wellbeing of nightlife consumers whilst at the same time also contributing to processes of socio-spatial exclusion of particular groups. By interrogating the triad of surveillance and policing, wellbeing and exclusion in nightlife districts in Dutch city centers we found that the effects of video-surveillance on the production of space are complex and ambiguous. Storylines used by local policy-makers with regard to CCTV differ considerably between cities and tend to overestimate the benefits of CCTV surveillance. Moreover, consumers’ awareness and knowledge of CCTV tends to be limited and only a few experiences a real sense of enhanced safety and wellbeing because of the presence of technology alone. At the same time, the effects of surveillance and policing on the exclusion of certain groups from nightlife districts are not equivocally supported by our initial findings either.

Contribution on the basis of the research project: ‘Surveillance in Urban Nightscapes: The Socio-Spatial Effects of Video-Surveillance in Urban Nightlife Districts’

Grant 313-99-140; Responsible Innovation Programme; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Dutch word ‘stadsmarinier’ has been invented by a Dutch psychologist, Diekstra, who argued that when policing unsafe areas the City Council should deploy the best people who should be given authority, power and financial support. He made the comparison with the military which also sends its best people to the front.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Geography and Planning, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Irina van Aalst & Ilse van Liempt

  2. Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Tim Schwanen

Authors
  1. Irina van Aalst
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  2. Tim Schwanen
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  3. Ilse van Liempt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irina van Aalst .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Jeroen van den Hoven

  2. Delft University of Technology, Delft, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Neelke Doorn

  3. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Tsjalling Swierstra

  4. Tilburg Law School, University of Tilburg, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Bert-Jaap Koops

  5. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Henny Romijn

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van Aalst, I., Schwanen, T., van Liempt, I. (2014). Video-Surveillance and the Production of Space in Urban Nightlife Districts. In: van den Hoven, J., Doorn, N., Swierstra, T., Koops, BJ., Romijn, H. (eds) Responsible Innovation 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8956-1_18

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