Marta Kanashiro

Fear, Security, and the Spread of CCTV in Brazilian Cities: Legislation, Debate, and the Market

Latin America has shown itself to be a fertile ground for the proliferation of surveillance cameras, especially in retail and in small-scale private security (homes, condominiums, shopping malls, etc.). In Brazil, this proliferation has occurred for three main reasons: the absence of specific legislation regulating how these systems are used; the limited scope of the debate about the deployment of surveillance technology and the implications of its widespread use; and a growing atmosphere of urban fear that affects the way people live in and move around large and medium-sized cities. In a study carried out in Brazil and Mexico and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), various aspects of the use of surveillance technologies were mapped and described, focusing on existing legislation, related studies, research centers, current technologies and the market. In this article we present some of the results of this research as they relate to the proliferation of video surveillance in Brazil. The Brazilian market for video surveillance, which has grown steadily since the 1980s, is now booming, reflecting the growing interest this technology holds for the (property and personal) security market as well as the real estate market. Over the past 30 years, this interest centered on public areas with large numbers of people, such as parks, squares, and major commercial streets, or private spaces such as shopping malls, sports centers, and event centers. However, in recent years there has been an expansion in the security market as a result of the gentrification of large residential areas in medium-sized cities and metropolitan regions in Brazil. A consequence of these developments in the real estate market has been, indirectly, a growth in the use of CCTV systems as crime- and violence-prevention tools by small, medium-sized, and large private security companies targeting all social classes. In this study, we highlight the following aspects of video surveillance in Brazil: regulation of the use and proliferation of CCTV; involvement of the scientific community through debate and academic training; and the technologies used in electronic surveillance as a response to a growing demand by the urban security and real estate markets.

Science, Communication and Society in Brazil, the narrative of deficit

If there is a peculiarity in the way of doing science and in the way of communicating science in Brazil, it is in the use of the idea of “deficit” in political and economic discourses, as well as in the discourses of socio-technical networks. Our proposal here is not to affirm or reject the existence of this deficit, but rather to understand its workings and its construction as a way of bringing about networks of interest that make use of this idea. For us, this is not an idea which is restricted to the discourse of researchers or of journalists and scientific broadcasters; there is also an echo in the general society, and in different spheres and situations. The idea of deficit with regard to scientific knowledge is functional in Brazil, in conjunction with the idea that the country itself has a deficiency in relation to developed countries. It is as if there were two levels of deficit which join together and empower each other. There is, on the one hand, a historical national quest for progress and for cultural, economic, political and scientific development, ideally present in the countries of the first world, forming an alternating relationship which is continuously reconstructed in relation to the so-called advanced countries. On the other hand, there is a quest for scientific and technological knowledge which delineates the gap between Science and Technology’s decisive jurisdiction and scientific illiteracy. In fact, historically, through successive governments and economic plans, Brazil has recognized its “deficit” and has sought to overcome this in order to reach the ideal model of developed countries. In the continuous, dynamic, relational and situational construction of a national identity, there is the idea of the other which is advanced, modern, and developed. It is as if past and present could live side by side, the former inhabits the south while the latter lives in the north of the planet. The idea of development, which comes as an answer to social problems and a key to social justice, can be translated through the overcoming of “being behind.” “Brazil is the country of the future” is a popular saying, a phrase that serves to announce Brazil’s hopes of becoming equal to the richest or most developed countries. There are innumerous sociological discussions about the relationship between the modern and the archaic in Brazil. In these discussions, the persistence of the conflicting co-existence of tension between these two aspects, as a constitutional marker of the history of Brazil and of our imaginary about it, is worth highlighting. For some, such as the sociologist José de Souza Martins, we live in a state based on outdated political relationships, such as clientelism, the traditional domination of the basis of wealth, and oligarchism. “In Brazil, being behind is an instrument of power”, he says, and in another moment affirms that “the contemporary history of Brazil has been a history of waiting for progress”. For this sociologist, it is necessary to recognize that the Brazilian society, like that of others of colonial origin, should understand occurrences through the necessity to distinguish, in the contemporary moment, the live and active presence of fundamental structures of our past. It is of interest to us to understand the idea of deficit as a social construction which is present in the country’s scientific, economic and political discourse being disseminated by multiple networks of interest.

Mobilidade como foco das tecnologias de vigilância

Surveillance and monitoring technologies for security, recurrent in contemporary western societies, are connected to important social transformations, and to different themes studied in social sciences. Understood as power devices, surveillance cameras and new technologies such as biometrics embedded in passports, are no longer related to exemplary punishment as in foucaultian disciplinary society. They now relate to permission or denial of access, which displaces and dilutes punishment away to time and space of mobility or circulation. As part of an on going research, which has biometrics embedded in documents as one of its themes, this paper tracks some approaches that connect mobility, surveillance technologies and the movement of people worldwide with new representations and definitions of risk and uncertainty.Surveillance and monitoring technologies for security, recurrent in contemporary western societies, are connected to important social transformations, and to different themes studied in social sciences. Understood as power devices, surveillance cameras and new technologies such as biometrics embedded in passports, are no longer related to exemplary punishment as in foucaultian disciplinary society. They now relate to permission or denial of access, which displaces and dilutes punishment away to time and space of mobility or circulation. As part of an on going research, which has biometrics embedded in documents as one of its themes, this paper tracks some approaches that connect mobility, surveillance technologies and the movement of people worldwide with new representations and definitions of risk and uncertainty.

Mobility as focus of surveillance technology

Surveillance and monitoring technologies for security, recurrent in contemporary western societies, are connected to important social transformations, and to different themes studied in social sciences. Understood as power devices, surveillance cameras and new technologies such as biometrics embedded in passports, are no longer related to exemplary punishment as in foucaultian disciplinary society. They now relate to permission or denial of access, which displaces and dilutes punishment away to time and space of mobility or circulation. As part of an on going research, which has biometrics embedded in documents as one of its themes, this paper tracks some approaches that connect mobility, surveillance technologies and the movement of people worldwide with new representations and definitions of risk and uncertainty.Surveillance and monitoring technologies for security, recurrent in contemporary western societies, are connected to important social transformations, and to different themes studied in social sciences. Understood as power devices, surveillance cameras and new technologies such as biometrics embedded in passports, are no longer related to exemplary punishment as in foucaultian disciplinary society. They now relate to permission or denial of access, which displaces and dilutes punishment away to time and space of mobility or circulation. As part of an on going research, which has biometrics embedded in documents as one of its themes, this paper tracks some approaches that connect mobility, surveillance technologies and the movement of people worldwide with new representations and definitions of risk and uncertainty.

La mobilité en tant que point focal des technologies de vigilance

Surveillance and monitoring technologies for security, recurrent in contemporary western societies, are connected to important social transformations, and to different themes studied in social sciences. Understood as power devices, surveillance cameras and new technologies such as biometrics embedded in passports, are no longer related to exemplary punishment as in foucaultian disciplinary society. They now relate to permission or denial of access, which displaces and dilutes punishment away to time and space of mobility or circulation. As part of an on going research, which has biometrics embedded in documents as one of its themes, this paper tracks some approaches that connect mobility, surveillance technologies and the movement of people worldwide with new representations and definitions of risk and uncertainty.Surveillance and monitoring technologies for security, recurrent in contemporary western societies, are connected to important social transformations, and to different themes studied in social sciences. Understood as power devices, surveillance cameras and new technologies such as biometrics embedded in passports, are no longer related to exemplary punishment as in foucaultian disciplinary society. They now relate to permission or denial of access, which displaces and dilutes punishment away to time and space of mobility or circulation. As part of an on going research, which has biometrics embedded in documents as one of its themes, this paper tracks some approaches that connect mobility, surveillance technologies and the movement of people worldwide with new representations and definitions of risk and uncertainty.

Newspaper space for science

In recent years, courses, events and incentive prog rams for scientific journalism and the divulgation f science have proliferated in Brazil. Part of this c ontext is “Sunday is science day, history of a supplement from the post-war years”, a book publish ed this year that is based on the Master’s degree research of Bernardo Esteves, a journalist speciali zed in science. The author recovers and recounts the history of the supplement “Science for everyone”, published between the years of 1948 and 1953 by the Brazilian newspaper “A manhã” (Rio de Janeiro), and relates this initiative with a period of transition that wa s experienced in the country. In the realm of scien tif c research and the teaching of science, Brazil was ex periencing the institutionalization of science, and i the area of journalism, the country was transitioni ng from a period of artisan journalism to industria l journalism. Divided into two parts, the book brings out these t ransformations in the first fifty pages, presenting what the author has called an “historic panorama of the setting in which the supplement was launched”. The one hundred and ten pages that follow have been reserved for the essential part of the research – the evaluation of “Science for everyone.” In addition to the supplement’s numbers, the resear ch was based on statements made by the editorial team and its collaborators, and on archives of Rio de Janeiro teaching and research institutions. The author highlights that, in spite of divulgation exp riences that came before or were parallel to “Scie nce for everyone”, the supplement was a groundbreaker i n terms of the space (twelve pages) and the duratio n (five years) that it offered to the country’s appro ach to science. The pioneer spirit of the publicati on is also highlighted by Fernando de Sousa Reis, one of the supplement’s former editors who wrote the book’s preface. With regard to data, the book is quite detailed, br inging measures and evaluations of the structure of the publication, responding to the initial research questions posed about the supplement in a precise manner, and equating the data and Brazil’s history of science, of the communication of science, and of journalism in a succinct but interesting way. There is a certain taste of nostalgia that lingers with the reader in the first pages that are found i n the preface and, further on into the book, in the descr iption of the supplement’s sections and activities hat were modified throughout its five years of existenc . It is interesting to note that, in addition to t hese various sections, there were yet other activities s pon ored by the publication that sought to stimulat e the reader, such as excursions and seedling collecting in the Botanical Gardens and in the Tijuca Forest, educational movie showings, and contests which dist ributed books and trips for those who were able to answer scientific questions correctly. But the book’s importance for a reflection on the p r sent day ends up distancing any sense of nostalgi a. After all, more than just simply valuing past exper iences, what is important is the understanding and analysis of how these experiences happened or what they meant. This includes relating them to the present day. On the inner leaf of the book, Carla A meida, a researcher from the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz – Rio de Janeiro), emphasizes t h “space” which science should occupy in the press “in times of discoveries and technologies of impact which are ever greater on nature and on man”. 1