Intelligent Video Surveillance in Agadir: Info-Communicational Mediation and Social Acceptability Challenges in an Emerging Metropolis

Abstract

The integration of algorithmic video surveillance in Agadir's urban space, as part of the national strategy for the development of Smart Cities, raises fundamental questions at the intersection of information and communication sciences, urban sociology, and data ethics. This article offers an empirical and theoretical analysis of the social acceptability of intelligent video surveillance (IVS) through a quantitative survey conducted among 200 residents of the Agadir metropolitan area (February 2026). The results reveal a dual communicational paradox. On the one hand, 78.6% of respondents perceive IVS as a necessary technological advance, while 90.5% are unaware of the conditions governing the retention of and access to their data. On the other hand, while 54.8% believe that the city does not communicate sufficiently about its Smart City projects, 59.5% trust the technology itself. By analyzing these dynamics through the conceptual lenses of media framing, algorithmic governmentality, and info-communicational mediation, this study demonstrates that citizen resistance is structurally linked to an institutional communication deficit rather than technophobic opposition. Subsequently, a semantic requalification model is proposed, which operates a discursive shift from the register of "surveillance" to that of "urban service," as a strategic lever for ensuring the social sustainability of Smart City projects in emerging metropolises.