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Privacy, CCTV, and School Surveillance in the Shadow of Imagined Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Lotem Perry-Hazan  and
Michael Birnhack
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Abstract

How do managers make decisions that affect human rights of other people? The article examines one such case: the decision-making process of Israeli school principals in installing Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) systems in schools. One unexpected source that principals relied on was that of imagined law: they wrongly assumed that there was a law that guided them in the matter. The deployment of CCTV systems in Israeli schools is relatively new and takes place at an accelerated pace. School principals are the ones that make the decision about introducing such systems into their schools. The study traced and explored this process. Based on semi-structured interviews, the findings portray a picture of partial isomorphism among schools. We frame the findings within institutional theory, which differentiates between exogenous and endogenous sources of decision-making. Most school principals relied on endogenous sources that were shaped by practical considerations and their own perceptions as to security, privacy, and education. Yet, the interviews indicate an additional and surprising source of organizational decision-making: imagined law. Some of the principals assumed the existence of specific legal rules. The principals did not search for professional guidance, and did not consult others. Instead, they filled the imagined law with endogenous sources, namely, their own perceptions.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 415 - 449
Copyright
© 2016 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

We thank Oren Golan, Daphna Hacker, Tami Kricheli-Katz, Menachem Mautner, Avihu Shoshana, Neta Ziv, and the editors and anonymous reviewers of the Law & Society Review for helpful comments. We also thank our research assistants, Uri Ansenberg, Tal Spitzer, and Hallel Yeter for able assistance, the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research at the Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University and the Israeli Science Foundation (Grant 448/15) for financial support, and the very busy interviewees, for devoting us their time.

Lotem Perry-Hazan and Michael Birnhack contributed equally to this work.

References

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