Community, Political Culture and the Surveillance of Public Places コミュニティー、政治文化と 公共の場の監視 Street-Level Imaging in Comparative Perspective ストリート・レベルイメージの比 較 Presentation to the International Society of Criminology, Kobe, Japan August 5, 2011

What is Political Culture? “The sum of the fundamental values, sentiments and knowledge that give form and substance to political processes” (Lucian Pye) “Political culture is the pattern of individual attitudes and orientations toward politics among the members of a political system. It is the subjective realm which gives meaning to political actions” (Gabriel Almond) – Cognitive aspects – Affective aspects – Evaluative Aspects

Social Capital (Robert Putnam) Refers to “a culture of trust and cooperation which makes collective action possible and effective…it is the ability of a community to develop the “I” into the “we.” A political culture with a fund of social capital enables a community to build political institutions capable of solving collective problems.” Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000)

Political Culture and Personal Privacy Alan Westin “Privacy and Freedom” UK: Deferential Democratic balance Germany: Authoritarian Democratic balance US: Egalitarian democratic balance Barrington Moore “Privacy: Studies in Social and Cultural History” Empirical survey data on ‘trust’ in organizations Harris-Westin surveys Zureik et al. Surveillance, Privacy and the Globalization of Personal Information (2010)

Level of Trust in Government and Corporations (Ipsos- Reid 2006)

Comparative attitudes to community surveillance

A possible theoretical relationship More “subject” or “deferential political culture Higher levels of trust in government Higher levels of trust in institutions to protect personal information Higher levels of surveillance

An example: identity cards

Problems with Prior Studies  Many cultural generalizations based on anecdote: e.g. “The Englishman’s home is his castle”  Lack of equivalence in survey data  Abstract notions of trust often divorced from specific practices  Breakdowns by other demographic variables often not possible  Much of our survey data does not address the private sector

The Case of Community Street-View Technology コミュニティー・ストリートビュー テクノロ ジーとは  Common set of practices and a common time-frame  Related to an attribute of privacy that is historically sensitive – the home Question: Can we generalize about variable national responses to street view technology and thereby draw insights into political culture and community? ストリートビューテクノロジーに対する様々な国の対応を比 較し、政治文化の違いとの関係性について一定の憶測を測れ るか ?

Current Products and Services Google Street View Microsoft Streetside Mapjack EveryScape

Google’s Response

Function creep…

Alternative Responses  A popular and valuable tool that outweighs any and all privacy considerations because no privacy in public spaces  A need to balance the social value against a limited interest in privacy in public spaces through blurring and opt-out mechanisms  The moral equivalent of “staring” constantly and anonymously requiring resistance – the “asymmetry of the gaze”  The “googlization of everything”

Street view, community and political culture  A story of cultural variation being overwhelmed by a technological imperative  BUT:  The cultural interpretation of identification  The cultural interpretation of public and private space  The cultural expression of privacy advocacy

THANK YOU VERY MUCH どうもありがとうございました