The surveillance of public gatherings is a crucial issue in everyday life, as surveillance measures in public as well as in private spaces have increased in recent years. Find out how our Greek Living Lab is capturing the experience of the multiple stakeholders involved in public gatherings and contributing to the GATHERINGS outputs.
In the Greek Living Lab, led by KEMEA with the support of the Hellenic Police, several interviews across different events have been conducted in order to gather human opinions on surveillance and security. The events included larger and smaller-scale sporting events, fairs, and exhibitions. Researchers used participatory observation in all events to gain deeper insights into current surveillance practices. The interviews included participants of various ages and races, and the collected data will be added to responses from the other living labs for future statistical analysis.
In addition, focus groups will be organised in order to map the effects of surveillance regimes of public gatherings. The Greek Living Lab primarily consists of the city of Athens since a diverse sample of citizens can be more easily studied and will encompass a variety of actors and stakeholders involved in the organisation, security, surveillance, and participation of an event. These Labs will offer invaluable insights into the practical needs, challenges, experiences, requirements, and issues identified by key stakeholders across various events, as well as the perceived experiences and vulnerabilities of specific user groups within public spaces.
The groups dynamic offered by the Lab setting also enables interaction, discussion, and joint analysis, as well as reflection, evaluation, and the development of recommendations. A skilled facilitator can encourage these group interactions to capture this data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of what is being studied. The aforementioned focus groups will focus on the following topics:
- Perspectives from representatives of local LEA, public administration and business community;
- Citizens as users of public space and participants of public gatherings and events;
- Gendered and cultured aspects of the securitisation and surveillance of public spaces, gatherings and events on vulnerable populations.
The process of these Living Labs will allow us to present and analyse how surveillance practices align with, or diverge, from the societal values of the different groups. Within each Lab, a more comprehensive understanding will be achieved of the perspectives each stakeholder group has regarding surveillance in public gatherings. Also, the insights that will arise will help identify concerns about the real role of surveillance in public gatherings.
