Difficulties in Revitalising Public Space by Video-Surveillance

Drawing upon the study of street prostitution surveillance in Olten, the paper discusses the implications of CCTV in terms of urban regeneration. CCTV is investigated as it is lived and perceived by the population at large and by daily users of monitored areas. The article emphasises the ‘distanciation’ of social control caused by CCTV, by showing that CCTV is forgotten quickly and felt to be somehow unreal against the background of everyday social activities. The possibilities of CCTV to revitalize public places of fear are thus very limited.