From thought control to traffic control: CCTV politics of expansion and resistance in post-Olympics Greece

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that while in most late modern societies there is a neoliberal hegemony to expand police Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance for crime control and antiterrorism, in Greece there is serious controversy and resistance against the post-Olympic use of more than 1,200 Olympic CCTV cameras. Drawing on the interesting politics of CCTV expansion and resistance, the chapter traces the reasons why, in the Greek context, this very expensive Olympic surveillance “dowry” has been opposed, even for traffic control. It critically attributes Greek citizens’ fear and mistrust primarily to their past police-state experience of authoritarian, thought-control surveillance.

Citation

Samatas, M. (2008), "From thought control to traffic control: CCTV politics of expansion and resistance in post-Olympics Greece", Deflem, M. and Ulmer, J.T. (Ed.) Surveillance and Governance: Crime Control and Beyond (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 345-369. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1521-6136(07)00216-3