Critiquing surveillance studies: elements of a sociology of surveillance

Surveillance issues (access controls, customer profiling, personal data digitalization, etc.) have become the target of strong criticism, either to denounce their harmful effects or call for them to be reinforced. Surveillance studies is now an international cross-disciplinary field dealing with surveillance issues. Surveillance is a fundamental characteristic of contemporary societies and the more intensive use of technology in surveillance could be seen as dangerous per se. Starting from the history of how the field has developed, this article tackles the validity of these previous assumptions and their impact on surveillance study outcomes. In order to overcome some biases, we propose to consider surveillance both as normal social activity and as an effect of rationalization practices.