Latent optics: the capture of peripheral surveillance through Public Space CCTV

This article examines the dynamics of surveillance as a form of peripheral vision – a diffuse, indirect mode of observation increasingly embedded in hyperconnected urban environments. Focusing on the widespread deployment of CCTV, it explores how contemporary surveillance operates less through overt control and more through an unobtrusive, continuous presence. Such conditions give rise to what is conceptualised here as soft dependence, a socio-technical state in which individuals become habituated to being watched, contributing to the normalisation of surveillance in everyday public life. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in Scotland with local authorities, law enforcement, CCTV operators and community members, the study investigates how public acceptance of surveillance is shaped not only by perceived safety benefits, but also by the subtle, often unnoticed, nature of peripheral observation. Central to the analysis is the concept of latent optics, which theorises how surveillance mediates spatial experience, influences social behaviour and reconfigures public trust, precisely by avoiding direct visibility. By engaging reflexively with both empirical data and conceptual frameworks, this article contributes to critical debates in surveillance studies, urban sociology and cultural criminology. It advocates a more ethically attuned and critically informed approach to surveillance governance in increasingly monitored societies.