Reclaiming the streets: Closed circuit television, neoliberalism and the mystification of social divisions in Liverpool, UK

Abstract

The normalisation of camera surveillance on the streets of the UK raises profound questions about the strategies of contemporary urban political rule and the material and ideological re -mapping of urban space. Firstly, this paper will argue that an understanding of street camera surveillance requires a consideration of the operation of neoliberalism at the local level [in this case Liverpool on the north west coast of England] through a myriad of ‘partnership’ arrangements that have shifted the terrain of local democracy and the meanings of both the public interest and social justice. Secondly, in using case material from a paradigmatic neoliberalising city, the paper argues that surveillance cameras are part of a social control strategy that seeks to hide the consequences of neoliberalisation in creating a particular ambience and exclusivity regarding ‘public’ spaces. Thirdly, the paper critically considers whether we can understand visual surveillance as a technique for the ‘exclusion of difference’ in urban space or as a tool that suppresses the reality of social divisions.