Call for contributions to an Ad Hoc session at the International
Sociological Association World Congress, Durban, South Africa, July
2006, on: Security, Surveillance and Social Sorting. Please send offers
to David Lyon, Sociology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
K7L 3N6 ([log in to unmask]). The description follows:
Security requirements have been raised to a high level of priority in
nation-states around the world, following the attacks of 9/11. The
resulting increase in the routine surveillance of citizens, and
especially of travelers, raises questions of sociological interest
regarding the intensified means of technology-dependent governance
common to many countries. How effective are these new surveillance
measures in procuring security? By what means are risks assessed and
threats prioritized? What are the effects on civil liberties of
techniques that rely on discriminatory categories? The quality of social
existence in a globalizing world is affected directly by the automated
identification and social sorting systems that are proliferating,
especially at borders, but also within the routines of everyday life.
This Ad Hoc session will examine these processes with a view to
fostering further international comparative understanding of
contemporary surveillance.
Two sessions:
1. Profiling processes at borders and airports
2. Security and surveillance in everyday life
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