Emotional space and public perceptions of CCTV surveillance

Abstract

Given drastic socio-political changes and rapid technological advancement, surveillance innovations have been flourishing in response to growing awareness of risks, evoking diverse perceptions and emotions. Conceptualizing “emotional space”, Koskela (2000) argues that video surveillance can be intrinsically contradictory, i.e. evoking positive and negative feelings simultaneously, and such contradiction is meaningful rather than irrational. She then summarizes that emotional space is 1) meaningfully ambivalent; 2) social; and 3) shapes one’s interpretation of space. However, there is a lack of empirical studies in this subject area. Against this backdrop, this study aims to provide empirical evidence with public perceptions of closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance in Hong Kong to “fill up” this “emotional space”. Through semi-structured interviews with eight interviewees recruited through convenience sampling, this research study finds diverse and generally ambivalent emotions and perceptions of CCTV surveillance in Yau Tsim Mong (YTM) District. In addition to Koskela’s (2000) explanation on the feeling of having control over the situation in evoking emotions, this research study further makes sense of the ambivalence with the notions of risk and uncertainties in postmodernity and argues that emotional space is ambivalent because emotions and perceptions are contextually dependent and socially constructed in our current risk-laden society. Regarding the impact, such emotions and perceptions have affected one’s interpretation of space, but only led to little behavioral responses.