Security Dispositifs and Urban E-Planning: Government Performances Articulated to Surveillance Cameras in Rio de Janeiro

The main objective of this article is to make a psychosocial analysis of forms of government in their relations with video surveillance, especially regarding the effects produced in terms of subjectivity, a dimension of the use of technologies in city governance that urban e-planning ought not to ignore. This will contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding contemporary video surveillance in its current practices in Rio de Janeiro, and also help researchers to understand how existing policies that regulate this phenomenon are appropriated by people who live in this city. The presence of surveillance cameras as an element of everyday life in urban centers has dramatically increased in recent years. As important actants in the practice of government, these security dispositifs are articulating heterogeneous elements and “performing” very specific realities. However, particularly in Brazil, studies on video surveillance are still limited. Therefore, it is worth investigating which government performances in Brazil have been produced from the relationships established by surveillance cameras, and how those practices and knowledges are produced as effects of these same relationships. Likewise, by understanding that each subject responds differently to such actants, the authors intend to bring out the different versions that compose, specifically, this techno-scientific controversy and its resonances in the daily lives of common citizens. This article follows ideas proposed by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), especially the contributions of the sociologist Bruno Latour. As a research strategy, the authors proposed the creation of a cartography of the controversies about a particular urban video surveillance “collective” to be opened soon in the city of Rio de Janeiro - the ISCC (Integrated Security Command Center). Through mapping its associations, the authors look to increase the visibility of these issues of security dispositifs today and of the forms of government as they are performed and experienced at the scene in focus.