Video-surveillance and the production of space in urban nightlife districts

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.