Digital policies for urban safety

Coordination

Florent Castagnino and Myrtille Picaud

Presentation

Based on five surveys of the design and (non-)use of smart systems for urban security, this issue aims to de-specialize the analysis of what we have called urban policies for digital security. Rather than homogenizing discourses on surveillance or techno-determinism, the idea here is to reintegrate the study of such software into a broader analysis of actual uses, specific urban spaces, forms of local public action, and relations between social groups. The issue focuses primarily on the analysis of work practices at the interface between groups (both professional and lay) that do not all have the same margins of autonomy: public authorities, police forces, private security guards, residents, and so on. The introduction to the issue sets out the research programme, after which the articles examine contexts as diverse as security in urban centres and medium-sized towns, algorithmic video surveillance, supermarkets, and airports. We see that these systems are often at the heart of professional and social struggles, and of the maintenance or reduction of autonomy at work. In an issue that gives pride of place to in-depth empirical inquiry, one of the articles looks at the use of requests for access to public documents as a survey method. Their contribution to documenting the implementation of these systems are discussed, also shedding light on the limits of ‘transparency’ policies concerning digital services. This issue thus contributes to reinstating the centrality of sociology and general political science in order to analyse subjects often perceived as exceptional, such as security and artificial intelligence.

Editorial Board

Valérie BEAUDOUIN [valerie.beaudoin@ehess.fr]

Patrice FLICHY [patrice.flichy@u-pem.fr]

Editorial secretary: Aurélie BUR [aurelie.bur@enpc.fr]

Editorial committee: Jean-Samuel Beuscart, Dominique Cardon, Éric Dagiral, Fabienne Greffet, Christian Licoppe, Inna Lyubareva, Sylvie Octobre, Sylvain Parasie, Franck Rebillard, Olivier Voirol

Cover copyright: Broken old abandoned surveillance cameras. Rust eaten damaged CCTV Security cams, par Andrea, Adobe.Stock.com.