Videosurveillance of political demonstrations. Practice and forms of knowledge of the police and protesters

• Applicant: Dr. Peter Ullrich
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232735210

The research project ViDemo explores the practice of video surveillance by the police of political gatherings and demonstrations as well as its consequences from different perspectives: sociology of knowledge, surveillance studies, police and protest research. It investigates the forms of knowledge and interactions between police and demonstrators. More specifically, it focuses on: A) police practice, reasons for the deployment of cameras by the police and impact on police work, criminal investigations and juridical trials, B) the perception of surveillance measures by demonstrators and the impact on political participation (protest behaviour, likelihood to protest, legitimacy of protest, trust in democracy, internalisation of control), and C) interaction and feedback effects. The core question is if video surveillance is discouraging people to take up their right to protest. Several methods of collecting data (group discussions with activists and the police, ethnographic field studies, expert interviews, document analysis) are combined following the grounded theory methodology.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants