An Orchestration of Electronic Surveillance A CCTV Experience in Mexico

Electronic surveillance has significantly expanded in Mexico over the past 10 years. This represents a change in the form of social organization, where electronic surveillance presents two faces: care and control. On the one hand, surveillance is used to reduce risks; but on the other, for administration of the population. This article examines, in the case of an urban municipality in Mexico, how local authorities and members of society define the problem of violence and delinquency, and how this definition constitutes an orchestration of the relationship of different powers in determining the organization of electronic surveillance, and institutionalizes a certain logic of cultural and social exclusion.