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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

sousveillance en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /suːˈveɪləns/
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Coined by Canadian wearable computing researcher and professor Steve Mann, from surveillance and French sous (“under”) (as opposed to sur (“over”) as in surveillance).

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The recording of an activity from the perspective of participant in the activity.
    • No, you’re not always “the product” on social media; sometimes you’re the raw material. Or the employee. Welcome to “sousveillance capitalism.” […] But you see the flow of capital here: viral sousveillance proliferating in an attention economy that benefits large tech firms, further exploited by traditional advertisers as “relatable” content. 2022 March 27, Katherine Alejandra Cross, “Why Is the Internet So Exhausting? Blame Your Crowdsourced Bosses”, in WIRED, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2022:
  2. (uncountable) Countersurveillance, inverse surveillance.
    • This paper describes using wearable computing devices to perform "sousveillance" (inverse surveillance) as a counter to organizational surveillance. 2002 September 14, Steve Mann, Jason Nolan, Barry Wellman, “Sousveillance: Inventing and Using Wearable Computing Devices for Data Collection in Surveillance Environments.”, in Surveillance & Society, volume 1, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN, Anstract, pages 331–355:
    • This study uses a critical thematic analysis to explore the comments left by those who viewed these acts of ‘inverse surveillance’, or sousveillance. Results indicate that YouTube provided a space in which alternative views on the Stokes Croft riot were seen and heard but the views of many commentators still appeared to be influenced by the news media. 2015 May 14, Paul Reilly, “Every little helps? YouTube, sousveillance and the ‘anti-Tesco’ riot in Stokes Croft”, in New Media & Society, volume 17, number 5, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 755–771:
    • Article XIV. Sousveillance laws should be enacted to ensure that all members of peaceful communities feel safe, to achieve governmental transparency, and to provide counter-balances to any surveillance state. 2018 August 21, Bruce Sterling, quoting Zoltan Istvan, “The Transhumanist Bill of Rights version 2.0”, in WIRED, →ISSN, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2019:
  3. (uncountable) Veillance by the masses, of the dominant entities.

Relateds

McVeillance · surveillance · veillance

Translations (3)

it subveglianza (recording) · fr sousveillance (recording) · fi kansalaisvalvonta (recording)