Prying Eyes: A Dramaturgical Approach to Professional Surveillance

Abstract

This study examines how professionals engage with the increased surveillance of their daily work. We develop an understanding of professional surveillance at the micro-level of interaction by drawing on dramaturgical literature. Based on qualitative interviews and observational data of healthcare professionals using a new technology to communicate simultaneously with each other and individual patients, we analyse how professionals use different elements of the theatre (e.g., stages and scripts) to enact surveillance. The significance of our contribution lies especially in the dramaturgical reconceptualization of surveillance as enacted, making it an integral part of displaying one’s professionalism.