Paper Type
Complete
Paper Number
PACIS2026-1697
Description
ShotSpotter is promoted as a life-saving policing tool, yet little is known about how such systems are legitimised when exported from the Global North into postcolonial cities marked by structural inequality and institutional mistrust. This study conducts a Habermasian critical discourse analysis of parliamentary, municipal, media, civil-society, and community sources on ShotSpotter’s deployment in Cape Town. We identify four discursive strategies – definite-article nominalisation, bare numerical authority, agentless vendor passives, and sensory or conflict metaphors – through which officials and vendors construct technical authority while obscuring commercial agency, unaudited performance, and community exclusion. A structured U.S.–South Africa comparison shows that the same vendor lexicon travels across contexts but acquires different democratic weight when counter-institutions are weaker or absent. The study advances postcolonial IS theory by showing that epistemic dependency is reproduced discursively, not only artefactually, and offers design and governance principles for postcolonial surveillance.
Recommended Citation
Oosterwyk, Grant and Ciriello, Raffaele, "Postcolonial Transfer of Dragnet Surveillance: A Habermasian Critical Discourse Analysis of ShotSpotter in Cape Town" (2026). PACIS 2026 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2026/iot_smartcity/iot_smartcity/6
Postcolonial Transfer of Dragnet Surveillance: A Habermasian Critical Discourse Analysis of ShotSpotter in Cape Town
ShotSpotter is promoted as a life-saving policing tool, yet little is known about how such systems are legitimised when exported from the Global North into postcolonial cities marked by structural inequality and institutional mistrust. This study conducts a Habermasian critical discourse analysis of parliamentary, municipal, media, civil-society, and community sources on ShotSpotter’s deployment in Cape Town. We identify four discursive strategies – definite-article nominalisation, bare numerical authority, agentless vendor passives, and sensory or conflict metaphors – through which officials and vendors construct technical authority while obscuring commercial agency, unaudited performance, and community exclusion. A structured U.S.–South Africa comparison shows that the same vendor lexicon travels across contexts but acquires different democratic weight when counter-institutions are weaker or absent. The study advances postcolonial IS theory by showing that epistemic dependency is reproduced discursively, not only artefactually, and offers design and governance principles for postcolonial surveillance.
Comments
10-IoT