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Difficulties in Revitalizing Public Space By CCTV

Street Prostitution Surveillance in the Swiss City of Olten

University of Durham, UK, f.r.klauser{at}durham.ac.uk

This article critically assesses the adequacy of CCTV as an instrument to revitalize urban areas suffering from concentrated social disadvantage. Empirically, it focuses on the video-surveillance of street prostitution in the Swiss city of Olten. This CCTV system was installed at the beginning of 2001 and focuses on an urban `hot spot' used by different types of marginalized social groups. In the Olten case-study, video-surveillance is examined as it is understood and perceived both by the population at large and by daily users of the monitored area. In investigating whether surveillance cameras render monitored areas accessible to people erstwhile excluded from that space because of their negative subjective perception of risks, this article puts particular emphasis on the phenomenon of `distanciation' caused by CCTV. By showing that CCTV is forgotten very quickly and felt to be somehow unreal against the background of everyday social activities in monitored areas, this approach also stresses that CCTV is very limited as an instrument to revitalize public places of fear.

Key Words: CCTV • city • distanciation • public space • social control

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European Urban and Regional Studies, Vol. 14, No. 4, 337-348 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0969776407081166


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Klauser, F. R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?