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Chapter
The panopticon mall
DOI link for The panopticon mall
The panopticon mall book
The panopticon mall
DOI link for The panopticon mall
The panopticon mall book
ABSTRACT
This chapter draws upon detailed observational research conducted in the CCTV control rooms of two shopping malls in Northern City. We have referred to these two sites as City Centre Mall and Housing Estate Mall. City Centre Mall is a 285,000 square foot retail leisure complex, with well over 100 retail units and a 1,000 space multi-storey car park. Built at a cost of £65 million, the shopping mall opened in 1991 and during a six-month period in 1997 made a pre-tax profit of £128.9 million. Housing Estate Mall, on the other hand, has been trading for over 25 years and is situated in the middle of one of the most deprived housing estates in Northern City. This site consists of around 60 retail units, including one supermarket and a thriving indoor market. In an attempt to compare and contrast the two surveillance systems on these very different sites, the chapter is divided into three main parts. The first section deals with an account of how suspicion is socially constructed on the two sites. The second section looks in more detail at the nature of suspicion in the two shopping malls and at how this influences the exclusionary potential of shopping mall surveillance systems. The chapter concludes by discussing some of the social and ethical implications raised by the use of shopping mall CCTV systems for exclusionary purposes.