No Privacy, No Peace? Technological Surveillance and the Spatial Struggle of Black Lives Matter Protests
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Date
2021-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between technological surveillance and the production of space. In particular, I focus on the surveillance tools and techniques deployed at Black Lives Matter protests and argue that their implementation engenders uneven outcomes concerning mobility, space, and power. To illustrate, I investigate three specific forms and formats of technological surveillance: cell-site simulators, aerial surveillance technology, and social media monitoring tools. These tools and techniques allow police forces to transcend the spatial-temporal bounds of protests, facilitating the arrests and subsequent punishment of targeted dissidents before, during, and after physical demonstrations. Moreover, I argue that their unequal use exacerbates the social precarity experienced by the participants of demonstrations as well as the racial criminalization inherent in the policing of majority Black and Brown gatherings. Through these technological mediums, law enforcement agents are able to shape the physical and ideological dimensions of Black Lives Matter protests. I rely on interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry and the on-the-ground experiences of Black Lives Matter protestors in order to support these claims. In aggregate, I refer to this geographic phenomenon as the spatial struggle of protests.
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Keywords
surveillance, race, production of space, technology, Black Lives Matter, protest