Surveillance Technologies and States of Security

The first chapter, “Surveillance Technologies and States of Security,” sets the stage for the remainder of the book by describing surveillance studies and the lack of research on state surveillance outside the Global North. Following a description of the security situation in Mexico, the chapter reviews the mixed methods used in the study and the book’s main arguments, which are twofold. Surveillance technologies in Mexico represent an effort to remake the state by providing authorities both a hold on the materiality of society and a way to integrate the numerous state bureaucracies administering it. However, these programs meet with resistance at different points, which forces administrators to improvise solutions to their implementation and leaves their impact on the state uncertain. The chapter then outlines the contributions of the work to surveillance studies, state formation, social theory, and Latin American Studies before finishing with an overview of the next five chapters.