Secure Spaces: Media, Consumption and Social Surveillance

As people strive to become more flexible, connected and mobile through the use of new media, they also become subject to various forms of surveillance. While new media enable geographically extended experiences and deepened senses of social community, security and control, they also tie the individual to abstract systems that enable tracking and monitoring of e g consumption habits, mobility and private interests. These new media are also a central force within the accelerating consumer culture. Against this background the aim of the project is to map out and provide a deeper understanding of how people today handle various media forms in order to strengthen their sense of security and control, and to clarify how these patterns and experiences are related to overarching structures in contemporary society. The project goes on for 2½ years, beginning in spring 2009. The analyses consist of a combination of survey and qualitative interviews. The aim of the survey is to generate a statistically representative picture of which attitudes to media, security and social surveillance (in private as well as public spaces) are present in different social groups. The qualitative study gathers interviews with people in different social contexts and focus upon e g how the ambivalence between freedom/security and control/insecurity is negotiated in everyday life.

Financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2009-2011

Projekt Participants

Project leader
Karlstad University: André Jansson, Professor  

Co-investigator
Karlstad University: Miyase Christensen, Associate Professor