Urban Surveillance in Mexico

In this chapter, the symbolic cultural dimension of technology and surveillance technologies in two cities and two commercial centers in central Mexico will be explored, especially the various Closed Circuit Television Systems (CCTV). This will allow the analysis of the way in which these technologies have made viable specific ways of sorting and governance of public and private spaces in the country. This document then examines the relationship established between the symbolic meanings given to these surveillance technologies in said urban spaces. Included is a series of observations and interviews of those in charge of these systems.

Why Where You Are Matters

The traceability of bodies and goods has become a central feature of surveillance systems in the twenty-first century. This heightened visibility is made possible by numerous technical means but among the most important is the global expansion of mobile telephony. By this means, for example, employers may trace the location of employees, parents of children, marketers of consumers and police of suspects. How this happens involuntarily, how it builds on the ‘mundane mobilities’ of voluntarily acknowledging the location of the caller, what its consequences are for the increased transparency of, and digital discrimination among, mobile telephone users, is discussed in the context of broad theories of surveillance today. These technologies are in constant development, that simultaneously renders them more effective as surveillance devices and they are thus of more than mere academic interest.

Ubiquitous Eco Cities

Efficient and effective urban management systems for Ubiquitous Eco Cities require having intelligent and integrated management mechanisms. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision-making system and necessary infrastructure and technologies. In Ubiquitous Eco Cities telecommunication technologies play an important role in monitoring and managing activities via wired and wireless networks. Particularly, technology convergence creates new ways in which information and telecommunication technologies are used and formed the backbone of urban management. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices and provides new opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This chapter discusses developments in telecommunication infrastructure and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities.

The Urban Communication Infrastructure

Does Wi-Fi, the Internet, the mobile phone, satellite communication, the I-Pod, flat screen television, wireless devices, Skype, Face Book, Twitter, virtual communities, laptops, Kindle, alter a sense of place and attachment? This area of exploration is absent not only in the areas of urban planning and design, but also other types of places such as schools and even the home where communication technologies are especially varied and proliferate. This chapter will propose a taxonomy of the relationship of people to places in a media rich environment suggesting a continuum ranging from place attachment through a sense of a-location. The taxonomy offers a classification system clarifying the need to examine the impact of media technologies on the people/environment relationship. This reflects not only how people’s use of space and place have changed as a result of the proliferation of laptops and I-phones, but also what this means in terms of how they connect or disconnect with their physical surroundings.

Recording and Reporting

This chapter addresses the changing nature of surveillance by way of user-generated images, especially caught-on-tape style photographs and videos captured on mobile phones. Through a discussion of examples from Turkey (as well as from around the world), this chapter discusses the emergent function of the camera phone as a tool of surveillance used to document the misconduct of other individuals or authority figures. Aligned with the complex, decentralized networks of the synoptic paradigm rather than the more static, closed model of the Panopticon, camera phones intensify the visibility of anyone, anytime, anywhere. They facilitate lateral surveillance and sousveillance practices, enabling ordinary individuals to watch social peers or those in power positions, albeit in non-systematic, non-continuous and spontaneous ways. One could assume that camera phones and these new socio-technological practices they permit are empowering the individuals. However, by engaging in sousveillance, individuals become implicit partners in surveillance society.

A Brief Cartography of Smart Cameras

This chapter carries out a brief cartography of the so-called “intelligent” video surveillance systems. These systems are programmed to accomplish real time automated detection of situations considered irregular and/or suspicious in specific environments, in order to predict and prevent undesirable events. Three aspects of the smart cameras are focused in this cartography. First, the author explores its regime of visibility and note how it prioritizes the capture of irregularities in the body’s movements in urban space. Second, the author shows how the type of monitoring and profiling of bodies and behaviors in these systems generally acts at the visible, surface and infra-individual level of human conduct. Finally, he analyzes the temporality of smart cameras, especially in its proactive dimension that intends to foresee and intervene, in real time, in future events. The analysis of these three aspects of the intelligent video surveillance identifies and highlights discourses, processes and operations that are common to the exercising of power and surveillance in contemporary societies – more specifically, those which are included in the realm of control devices.

Mobile Telephony, Public and Private Planning and Regulation

The global connectivity, experience and opportunities afforded by the expansion of modern informational mobility is particularly evident in the sustained expansion of mobile, cell and smart phones which are held to offer important social and economic benefits to individuals, businesses and governments. In practical terms, these are held to provide greater spatial mobility and connectivity, whilst potentially contributing to economic competitiveness, social emancipation, and territorial cohesion. Yet, the invisible connectivity afforded by such devices necessitates a visible physical infrastructure in rural and urban localities. This chapter discusses the technological, environmental and socio-economic implications of providing a mobile telephony infrastructure through a case study of the land use planning regulatory framework in the UK. Specific reference is made to Scotland which introduced statutory planning regulation in the public interest. This chapter explores the theoretical dimensions of the regulatory challenge of mobile telephony from a public and private perspective.

The Rising of the Ubiquitous City

In this chapter, the authors investigate how the shift to a completely urban global world intertwined by ubiquitous and mobile ICTs changes the ontological meaning of space, and how the use of these technologies challenges the social and political construction of territories and the cultural appropriation of places. The authors‘ approach to this conceptual debate will focus on what they consider to be more direct and tangible implications of this augmentation of urban life. Three types of manifestations will represent the core of the discussions presented here, both through theoretical approaches and analytical descriptions of some examples: surveillance artifacts which permeate daily life and allow a hypothetical total control of space; locative media that gives us the freedom of spatial mobility and the possibility of creating and recreating places; and the global networks of signs, values and ideologies, which break down the social and political boundaries of territories.

Mobile Devices

The chapter is concerned with the mobile technology and its interventions on the perception of the body and the space, demanding new behavioural codes and evoking other communication patterns. This technology enables users to be always connected, creating other practices of sociability and composing the urban landscape and the body space with digital contexts. So, the space occupied by mobile users is no longer physical or virtual, but hybrid. After a brief introduction about hybrid spaces, some theoretical references configure the idea that mobile technology determines specific modes of interaction, emphasising a ritual dimension. The mobile users have started to perform the same body gestures and bounded intimacies in a social context that configure a specific new bodily spatiality. Some artistic projects will be presented pointing out some aspects of significant social mobile uses, transforming users bodily states and spatial domains.

Locative Media and Playful Appropriations or How Electronic Games Help to Redefine the Meaning of Space

This chapter presents an investigation on how the ludic incorporation of locative media modifies the creation of meaning in urban spaces. In this sense, the authors try to understand how electronic games reinforce the relationship between the urban space and the digital media, allowing the creation of intelligent informational territories. The authors‘ hypothesis is based on the fact that these specific types of digital games – known as ubiquitous, pervasive games – develop new spatiality forms, producing – to the players – other types of use and appropriation of the urban space. In order to develop this discussion, they propose an analysis of some alternate reality games (ARGs) developed in Brazil.