'The gaze without eyes': video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space

This article discusses how ever-increasing video-surveillance is changing t he nature of urban space. The article evaluates whether surveillance can be seen as a means of making space safer and 'more available'. The main focus is on surveillance in publicly accessible spaces, such as shopping malls, city streets and places for public transport. The article explains how spac e under surveillance is formed, and how it is related to power structures a nd human emotions. Space is conceptualized from various viewpoints. Three c oncepts of space are postulated: space as a container, power-space and emot ional space. The purpose is not to construct a meta-theory of space; rather , the concepts are used as 'tools' for exploring the issue of surveillance. It is argued that video-surveillance changes the ways in which power is ex ercised, modifies emotional experiences in urban space and affects the ways in which 'reality' is conceptualized and understood. Surveillance contribu tes to the production of urban space.