Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life

Lyon (sociology, Queen’s U., Kingston, Ontario, Canada) examines the constant computer-based scrutiny of ordinary daily life for citizens and consumers as they participate in contemporary societies. He uses an analytical, political, and ethical framework to explore emerging trends in surveillance, with emphasis on some basic ambiguities of surveillance, which may be traced to religious sources in western cultures. He also discusses Jeremy Bentham’s panoptic proposals and the split that resulted from Bentham’s “control” and “care” motifs, his privileging of accurate vision, and his obsession with classification. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)