| Objectives |
URBANEYE will analyse video surveillance (Closed-Circuit Television - CCTV) in five European capitals: Berlin, Budapest, London, Oslo and Vienna. The proposed project aims to study the structure and practice of the systems and assess the social and political impacts of the rapid proliferation of this new technology of social control, in order to outline strategies for its regulation. This overall objective entails realising the following main goals:
1. First, URBANEYE will chart and analyse video observation in selected urban areas in order to show the scope, diffusion and types of various CCTV configurations. This implies
- locating and mapping places of CCTV,
- identifying users,
- classifying types of CCTV.
2. Second, the proposed project will study selected CCTV systems and analyse their practice in order to understand, reconstruct and typify the attitudes of observers and their social attributions as addressed to the observed. This includes
- identifying the intentions of users,
- analysing the technical functions of the systems,
- studying the management,
- identifying and classifying groups and styles of behaviour
- targeted by CCTV and sanctioned as a result of being targeted.
3. Third, the URBANEYE project will assess the social and political consequences of CCTV in order to enhance the decision-making processes for future CCTV-projects. This means
- examining the effects on crime,
- studying changes in behaviour,
- examining the changes in police organisation
- analysing the implications on civil rights,
- assessing the impacts for public and semi-public space.
4. Fourth, the project will study existing mechanisms and possible options of regulation in order to identify strategies of regulating CCTV which meet the demands of democratic accountability. This involves
- collecting and systematising different strategies of controlling video observation,
- developing indicators in order to devise best practices and evaluate strategies of control.
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