Resisting State Surveillance in the Digital Age: Precarious Coalitions, Contested Knowledge, and Diverse Opposition to Mass-Surveillance in the UK

Resisting State Surveillance in the Digital Age provides an in-depth examination of the complexity and diversity of organised opposition to increasing state surveillance powers in the UK.

Taking the introduction of the Investigatory Powers Act as a central case study and combining an analysis of publicly available commentary and campaign materials, with detailed expert interviews, this book provides a comprehensive mapping of organised opposition to state surveillance at a time of heightened debate.

It reveals the importance of looking at resistance from a multi-actor perspective, capturing the complex relationships between the actors that oppose state surveillance measures. It traces the varied arguments and knowledge that these groups bring to debates, and the-at times unlikely-coalitions that are formed as a result. The state’s mobilization in response, and the strategies designed to defy and diminish the value and knowledge of this opposition are also given much needed scrutiny.

This book will be of interest to researchers across the social and political sciences, including sociology, criminology, and socio-legal studies. It will be useful to students studying surveillance and social control or those with an interest in resistance and social movements. Policy professionals and activists may also find its various insights and recommendations useful for future work in this area.

Amy Stevens, PhD is a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield, UK. Her research interests are broadly focused on the use and development of new surveillance technologies and their governance. In particular, she focuses on the use of data and new technologies for investigating and detecting crime, understanding resistance and opposition to their use, and the human rights and social justice issues which surround them.