Behind Closed Doors? Sousveillance, Social Media Advocacy, Mothering and Mandated CPS Visits

The Behind Close Door Project is a qualitative study exploring sousveillance and social media advocacy in mandatory social welfare services in Canada, the U.S.A and the U.K.. Two mothers’ use of sousveillance within mandated child protective services are analyzed as case studies through a constructivist grounded theory approach. Mandatory child welfare interventions are framed as state-sanctioned surveillance, enforcing “totalizing discourses” such as the concept of the Standard North American Family (SNAF) . These case studies demonstrate the capacity of sousveillance to challenge traditional power relations within mandatory child protective services, thus creating the potential for systemic change to occur.