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As far as reading material:

By Rory Miller (anything by him is good and useful, but start with this)
Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected
A lot of good info on how types of violence, and how to recognize when something (especially social violence) is brewing and how to avoid or defuse it. Read further into his book list and he has lots of help on what to do when SA goes wrong and you can't avoid a fight. Rory Miller was a prison guard, got into lots of scuffles with very unfriendly people who tried to hurt him, and made it a point to study all this and really understand how violence operates. Excellent Read.

Also, not directly related to SA, but still very very good: Conflict Communication (ConCom): A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication
Miller first developed this as a seminar/lecture for teaching prison guards and cops how to communicate with unfriendly people -- but after his lectures where he had described a model for how and why prisoners communicate, the guards and the cops kept saying telling "hey, that describes my boss!" :) So he studied some more and figured out that the communication model is pretty general. Another Excellent Read.

By Gavin Becker:
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence
Gavin Becker is anti-gun, and insists that his experience shows guns are not useful for defense, but most of the experience he describes is helping people with stalkers and such, and largely seems to go with the strategy that if you pay attention to danger signals (i.e. have good SA) you can avoid getting into a situation where a gun would be needed. That's nice but not everyone can expect to be on the ball all the time, and there are too many counter-examples to think that a gun is not really useful for self-defense. But, having said all that, his explanations for paying attention to the cues you are receiving, often processed subconsciously, will help a lot.

Specific Technique:

A friend of mine, member of this forum (altho not active) developed this because while people tell you to "Be Alert. Have SA" they don't usually tell you how:

Hands Eyes Shirt Shoes Hats Tats.

Huh?

Say it fast several times. It is a mnemonic.

Hands - hands carry weapons (including fists). Does he have a weapon? Can't see hands, is she hiding a weapon?
Eyes - eyes show focus, interest, intent. Is he looking at me? Is she trying not to show she is looking at me? Is he looking around for witnesses/cops? Also gets you to look at the face: beard, eye color, etc.
Shirt - What kind of clothes is the person wearing? Appropriate for the season/situation? Colors, style? (be a good witness!)
Shoes - Again, appropriate? goes with rest of clothing? Along with Shirt and Hat, makes sure you looked the whole person over at least once
Hats - Hat, no hat? Ski mask? (uh-oh) Hair, no hair, hair color, style, (and completes end-to-end survey)
Tats - Actually "skin" but flows better with the mnemonic. Skin color? tattoos? skin covered by coat and gloves (but it's summer?), etc.

Put altogether, what does this tell you about the person?

Every time you look at someone, run this through your head like a quick checklist. Make it a point to do this for the next hundred people you see (go to the grocery store!) to train yourself to do it automatically. It is NOT the end-all of situational awareness or being alert, but it gives a practical method to start with.

The problem with being situationally aware is that most of us, us being LTC'ers, by virtue of the qualifications we have to have an LTC, we do not generally do or go places where bad things happen often enough that having our radar turned on all the time has become habit. It is easy to lapse.

But hands-eyes-shirt-shoes-hats-tats helps.