Impact of Surveillance on Society - Research Proposal Example

Impact of Surveillance on Society Inserts Grade Inserts 25th March, The world has transformed from traditional society to a modern and more developed place of living. The anticipation of advancements in work practices have been made practical with the help of new technology. Many studies and researchers have proved that the modern technology will mechanically result in enforcing constructive influences on the culture of organizations. Therefore, we can say that more efficient and effective ways of working can be implemented with the help of information technology. However, it happens sometimes that the astonishing reactions caused by the changes in technology are most often outlined as the resistance by the workforce. Among such technological advances is included the surveillance technology at the workplace. The current study will focus on the impacts of the surveillance on society. The research undertakes to look into the positive and negative ways in which the surveillance system impacts the society and the business organizations. Through an elaborated literature review and survey research method, the current study concentrates on uncovering the possible impacts that the surveillance technology brings with it for the entire society. Background of the Study In the conventional society, the modernization was limited and people had to choose from those narrow options to manage them personally and professionally. The invention o0f surveillance technology has been a little older concept and this innovation has become common in almost all the sectors of occupation. The integration and sophistication of information and communication technology at the increasing level in daily lives has given rise to the emergence and introduction of newer types of technologies and surveillance technologies are one of the many such innovations. The concept of Surveillance refers to the supervising and monitoring the activities, behaviours and other various information about the people in order to direct, influence, manage or protect them (Lyon, David, 2007). It is therefore assumed that the practice of surveillance is ambiguous in nature and thus, creates positive effects sometimes, while negative impacts at others. The practice of surveillance is sometimes carried out in a rather surreptitious manner and is mostly usually considered as observing groups or individuals by government organizations. Surveillance is characterized by the activities, physical features and people in a manner that tends to encourage the social interactions in positive ways and maximize the visibility. It is implemented with a purpose to lessen the chances for crime through raising the perceptions and awareness of people regarding the fact that they can be and are being seen and monitored for their activities. Practically, the surveillance system is fostered through streetlights, low landscaping, removing places where people can easily hide, designing streets to increase the use of pedestrians and placing the high-risk targets in clear vision of lawful users. The ability of the surveillance system to prevent the occurrence of crimes is a little vague. Various researchers, in their studies, discovered and revealed a connection between the crimes incidence and the surveillance systems. For instance, enhanced visibility and improved lighting are considered to be very much useful and effective for the purpose of robbery reduction in the business organizations and various workplaces. The other studies have also examined the ways in which burglars have managed to avoid the targets which were readily observed by the pedestrians, passersby, and/or neighbors. The process and activities involved in the informal surveillance are usually aided by the practices involved in the formal surveillance. This type of surveillance is systematic, disciplined and organized. The surveillance processes, in practice, are carried out with the help of motion detector devices, CCTV, guard patrols, and various other systems of surveillance. The researchers argue that the utilization of formal surveillance practices is a very general and common idea at the public places such as high streets, shopping malls, and car parks. These systems, at such places, tend to prevent crime and provide a safer environment for the public. Research Objectives The current study is conducted with the basic objectives to understand the impact of surveillance on society. It can be further broken down in various smaller objectives which include: Determining the concept, technologies and types of surveillance Examining the significance of surveillance for the society as a whole Elaborating the positive and negative impacts of the surveillance technologies on the society. Research Questions The literature review search and attainment of the objectives will be performed through a systematic research study. For this purpose, the objectives of the study will be broken down in the form of smaller research questions. They will include: 1. What does the concept of surveillance in the social structure refer to and what are h various types and technologies of surveillance systems? 2. What is the importance of the surveillance systems for the society as a whole? 3. How do people consider the surveillance systems as bearing positive and negative impacts on them? Literature Review The surveillance practices are carried out in society and its business and other institutions as well. In older times, the production of surveillance practices and the workers’ resistance has been debated with the deterministic tone which would consider the organizations and workplaces as a place of struggling and conflicts where the dominance of information technology is likely to impose the integrated ways of behavior (Sewell & Wilkinson, 1992; Webster & Robins, 1993; Thompson & Ackroyd, 1995). In the past studies, both, aspects of surveillance and workplace situations have been viewed as more complicated and varied co-construction of socio-technical practices (Ball and Wilson, 2000). The power of technology to alter the meanings and concepts of personal and privacy at workplace, and the new power relationships through computerization has already been discussed by Zuboff (1988) in the studies. The surveillance concept has been emphasized in the recent studies with the help of the surveillance technology entering the sphere of residence of the individual citizens. It is described by Percival and Hanson (2006) as the “creeping surveillance”. The term pertains to the fact that through the technology it is easier to keep track of the individuals in terms of their security in the name of monitoring efficiency and productivity. It specially concerns the context in which, for instance, the telecare solutions are meant to gather the data of clients regarding their lifestyle under their health or social care. The data obtained from such ways are likely to be utilized in ways which might be unethical, and which may include the marketing purposes in order to advertise and sell various technological aids to the susceptible customers. The studies and researches of Lyon (2002) are also concerned with the daily reinforcements of the surveillance technology with social divisions. The major purposes of the surveillance technology in business organization and other social institutions are to monitor the everyday routines of the citizens and by recording them into the different information systems, the individuals can be traced, analyzed or checked anytime and anywhere. The daily behaviors of the individuals leave behind least varied traces in the systems which are surveillance capable. These systems “situate us and help to organize and order our social lives” in ways that are accepted or taken for granted, and which feed back or reinforce normalized ways of behaviour (Lyon, 2002, p. 242). According to Hier (2003), the practices of surveillance practices refer to the social control processes, they are interpreted as the embedded, and the dialect practices which are able to assist the democratization of surveillance hierarchies. However, they exaggerate and increase the social monitoring of relatively broader population founded on a cultural shift of the extent to which the meanings and interpretations of the surveillance are accepted into the modern society. The surveillance technologies are not concerned with the strong actors in the social structures, the surveillance rather materializes from the risk groups which are intentionally and socially constructed, and are also monitored and kept track of, for instance, as welfare services clients. It is usually said that when there is an invasion of privacy, there are actually some more particular interests, which are violated and come under the umbrella of privacy. It is also further recognized that the specific values, interests and issues are the keystone of privacy in various different contexts under the cultural traditions. This is why the researchers mention that, even when the privacy has been officially pronounced as the basic rights, there is lesser of an agreement regarding the values which are originally being monitored and safeguarded. Some people perceive that the fundamental of privacy is, most probably, limited to the extent of secrecy only. The concept of secrecy maintains that the certain information needs to be withheld from non-disclosures and others. However, there are many other people who carry their opinions that there exists no privacy in ‘secrecy’ and mention that the individuals do not apparently seem ‘interested in disclosing the detailed information about themselves, but they maintain selective disclosure. The influential account of Westin suggests that “privacy is the claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others” (Westin, 1967). There have been various criticism and favors for the subject of surveillance under discussion. There are many supporters who believe that the surveillance systems have been designed to benefit the society in many ways. According to them, these systems are the weapons or tools which are able to protect the society from criminals and terrorists. While, there are many other supporters of technology who believe that there is no solution which might be implemented for its and that the people must get to used to with having least or no privacy in their lives. Some of the critics of technology of surveillance system mention that, besides performing the key function of the identification and capturing of criminals, the technology of surveillance also works for the creation of a feeling that everyone is being watched all the times. In this manner, it makes the people aware and enables them to self-police themselves for their acts. Thus, we can easily understand and interpret that the technology of surveillance not only monitors the people itself, but also makes them aware and account for their acts themselves. However, the general public assumes that such a technology is more likely to become an intrusion to their privacy and violate their secrecies of life. It makes them feel that they are being watched and some people might take it as a security measure while others feel it a way to invade their privacy. In this modern world, nothing goes unseen by the eye of technology and the people living and working in the contemporary world believe this fact. Therefore, some of the people in the present society take the surveillance technology as a negative factor in their lives. Research Method This study will utilize the quantitative method of research. The application of a quantitative research method to study the impact of surveillance is adequate and effective in various ways. The method focuses on surveying the people living in the society regarding their perceptions for the surveillance system. It will inquire them for their views regarding the prevalence of surveillance systems, their significance for the society, and their pros and cons as perceived by the common people. Thus, the quantitative study applied in this research will undertake to observe the general population for the impacts considered by them for surveillance technology in common use these days. The quantitative research method is one of the most used methods of undertaking the research in order to conduct an exploratory study. The concept of quantitative research pertains to the logical empirical investigation of social occurrence through the mathematical, statistical, or computational procedures (Given, Lisa M., 2008). The fundamental goal of this type of research involves employing and developing the statistical and mathematical models, hypothesis and/or theories relating to the occurrence of the phenomenon. The measurement process in this method focuses on the quantitative research due to the fact that it offers the basic link between mathematical expression and empirical observation regarding the quantitative relationships. The quantitative study undertaken here will be assisted by the survey methodology. A survey is one of the research methodologies, which reaches the results of the study by taking a small sample of the individuals from the entire population in order to produce the statistical inferences regarding the population. The methodology attempts upon the identification of the designing, collecting, processing, and analyzing the surveys in association to the quality and cost of the survey estimates (Groves, Fowler, Couper, 2009). The data in the survey methodology is collected through telephone, mails, online surveys, and a mixture of all these. Ethical Issues The formalized code of ethics utilized by the researcher develops the trustworthiness and increases the authenticity of the study. There are three ethical concepts that will assist this study: (i) participants are provided full and true knowledge of the research being conducted, (ii) participants are not forced to respond, (iii) the confidentiality of the respondents involved in the interviews is respected and maintained. Similarly, the process of data collection during the research is also driven by the ethical guidelines. Contributions from the Study This study would assist the researchers in conducting future studies regarding the surveillance technologies. It would also provide them with the additional knowledge which they might want to use in order to illustrate their researches. Moreover, the current research will provide a guiding path and open new horizons to the IT experts to give them a complete knowledge of the people’s views regarding such technology. This factor might assist them further in their future researches. Gantt Chart The following Gantt chart will detail the working on the current research study: REFERENCES Ball, K. and Wilson, D.C., 2000, “Power, control and computer-based performance monitoring: repertoires, resistance and subjectivities”, Organization Studies, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 539-65. Hier, S.P., 2003, “Probing the surveillant assemblage: on the dialectics of surveillance practices as processes of social control”, Surveillance & Society, Vol. 1 No. 13, pp. 399-411. Lyon, D. 2002, “Everyday surveillance: personal data and social classifications”, Information, Communication and Society, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 242-57. Lyon, David, 2007, Surveillance Studies: An Overview, Cambridge: Polity Press. Percival, J. and Hanson, J., 2006, “Big brother or brave new world? Telecare and its implications for older people’s independence and social inclusion”, Critical Social Policy, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 888-909. Sewell, G. and Wilkinson, B., 1992, “Someone to watch over me’: surveillance, discipline and the just-in-time labour process”, Sociology, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 271-89. Thompson, P. and Ackroyd, S., 1995, “All quiet on the workplace front? A critique of recent trends in British industrial sociology”, Sociology, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 615-33. Webster, F. and Robins, K., 1993, “I’ll be watching you’: comment on Sewell and Wilkinson”, Sociology, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 243-52. Westin, A., 1967, Privacy and Freedom. New York: Atheneum. Zuboff, S., 1988, In the Age of the Smart Machine, Basic Books, New York, NY. Appendices This questionnaire relates to a research study being conducted for the academic purpose. It shall ask you few questions regarding the impact of surveillance on society. Please answer the following questions. It will take just 20 minutes of your time. The answers provided here will be kept confidential. Part A Mark the relevant boxes below: Name: Age: 25 to 30 years 31 to 35 years 35 to 40 years 41+ years Part B This section will ask the participants questions regarding the surveillance technology and its impacts upon society. It will investigate from them about the possible negative and positive influences which the general public might face through technology. Read More