Overseers of the Poor: Surveillance, Resistance, and the Limits of Privacy (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

In Overseers of the Poor, John Gilliom confronts the everyday politics of surveillance by exploring the worlds and words of those who know it best-the watched. Arguing that the current public conversation about surveillance and privacy rights is rife with political and conceptual failings, Gilliom goes beyond the critics and analysts to add fresh voices, insights, and perspectives.

This powerful book lets us in on the conversations of low-income mothers from Appalachian Ohio as they talk about the welfare bureaucracy and its remarkably advanced surveillance system. In-depth interviews reveal that these women focus less on the right to privacy than on a critique of the pervasive surveillance that lays bare the personal and political conflicts with which they live. And, while they have little interest in conventional forms of politics, we see widespread patterns of everyday resistance as they subvert the surveillance regime when they feel it prevents them from being good parents. Ultimately, Overseers of the Poor demonstrates the need to reconceive not just our understanding of the surveillance-privacy debate but also the broader realms of language, participation, and the politics of rights.

Law & Politics Book Review

"In a style that is readily accessible to both scholars and university students, [Gilliom] tells us that the idea of right-bearing individuals who can effectively assert the courage of their convictions and defend their personal liberty and autonomy through law and legal action is but a myth. Rather, he provides evidence that legality--privacy rights and due process--is largely absent from the world of the poor--and perhaps other Americns."

— Richard A. Brisbin, Jr.