Public relations: Theorizing the contestation of security technology

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Monsees
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Security Technology ◽  
Vital Part ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

This article contributes to the emerging literature on publics within critical security studies. Its particular focus is on contestation in the context of diffuse security technology. Contemporary security practices are characterized by diffusion and dispersion. As a result, contestation of security technology is also dispersed and diffuse and requires an account of publics that is sensitive to this aspect. The article conceptualizes ‘multiple publics’ as a mode of fundamental contestation of established political institutions. In order to do so, it discusses previous approaches to sociotechnical controversies and material participation. As a result of this discussion, it becomes apparent that we need a concept of publics that does not reduce political contestation to a pre-existing set of institutions. I develop a notion of publicness that emphasizes the way in which publics are embedded in societal struggles. This is achieved by reading John Dewey as a theorist to whom contestation is a vital part of democracy. It becomes possible to understand contestation against diffuse security practices – such as surveillance – as forms of emerging publics, even though they might not feed back into governmental decisionmaking.

7. Critical Security Studies:

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mutimer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Framework ◽  
The Way

This chapter provides a partial history of the label ‘Critical Security Studies’ and the way it has developed and fragmented since the early 1990s. It considers the primary claims of the major divisions that have emerged within the literatures to which the label has been applied: constructivism, critical theory, and poststructuralism. It looks at the 1994 conference held at York University in Toronto entitled Strategies in Conflict: Critical Approaches to Security Studies, which spawned a book called Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (1997b), and Security: A New Framework for Analysis (1998), which was published to serve as a relatively comprehensive statement of ‘securitization studies’, or the Copenhagen School. The chapter argues that Critical Security Studies needs to foster an ‘ethos of critique’ in either the study or refusal of security. Finally, it examines Ken Booth’s views on poststructuralism as part of a broad Critical Security Studies.

Security Practices and the Production of Center–Periphery Figurations in Statebuilding

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 190-206
Author(s):  
Thorsten Bonacker
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Internal Colonialism ◽  
Specific Population ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Center Periphery

In this article, I examine the role security plays in creating a socioterritorial order in statebuilding policies. I argue that security contributes to the creation of center–periphery asymmetries, for example, through the portrayal of the center as threatened by a dangerous periphery or the periphery as disloyal and untrustworthy. In particular, I explore how security practices work in two distinct center–periphery figurations: in internal colonization, where a specific population, located within a dominant power, is subordinated; and in international intervention, where a society is internationally ruled. The article incorporates the literature on internal colonialism and international intervention from a critical security studies perspective to show how security functions as a mode of governing by creating specific center–periphery figurations in statebuilding. The overall aim is to provide a new theoretical perspective by intertwining critical security and postcolonial studies and to stimulate empirical research on the function of security as a principle of socioterritorial ordering.

Resilience and (in)security: Practices, subjects, temporalities

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myriam Dunn Cavelty ◽  
Mareile Kaufmann ◽  
Kristian Søby Kristensen
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Security Practices

Diverse, sometimes even contradictory concepts and practices of resilience have proliferated into a wide range of security policies. In introducing this special issue, we problematize and critically discuss how these forms of resilience change environments, create subjects, link temporalities, and redefine relations of security and insecurity. We show the increased attention – scholarly as well as political – given to resilience in recent times and provide a review of the state of critical security studies literature on resilience. We argue that to advance this discussion, resilience needs to be conceptualized and investigated in plural terms. We use temporalities and subjectivities as key analytical aspects to investigate the plural instantiations of resilience in actual political practice. These two issues – subjectivity and temporality – form the overall context for the special issue and are core themes for all the articles collected here.

scholarly journals Hacking Humans? Social Engineering and the Construction of the “Deficient User” in Cybersecurity Discourses

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392199284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Klimburg-Witjes ◽  
Alexander Wentland
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

Today, social engineering techniques are the most common way of committing cybercrimes through the intrusion and infection of computer systems. Cybersecurity experts use the term “social engineering” to highlight the “human factor” in digitized systems, as social engineering attacks aim at manipulating people to reveal sensitive information. In this paper, we explore how discursive framings of individual versus collective security by cybersecurity experts redefine roles and responsibilities at the digitalized workplace. We will first show how the rhetorical figure of the deficient user is constructed vis-à-vis notions of (in)security in social engineering discourses. Second, we will investigate the normative tensions that these practices create. To do so, we link work in science and technology studies on the politics of deficit construction to recent work in critical security studies on securitization and resilience. Empirically, our analysis builds on a multi-sited conference ethnography during three cybersecurity conferences as well as an extensive document analysis. Our findings suggest a redistribution of institutional responsibility to the individual user through three distinct social engineering story lines—“the oblivious employee,” “speaking code and social,” and “fixing human flaws.” Finally, we propose to open up the discourse on social engineering and its inscribed politics of deficit construction and securitization and advocate for companies and policy makers to establish and foster a culture of collective cyber in/security and corporate responsibility.

scholarly journals Surveillance under dispute: Conceptualising narrative legitimation politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Christopher Smith Ochoa ◽  
Frank Gadinger ◽  
Taylan Yildiz
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
The Us ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Pragmatic Sociology ◽  
Normative Consensus

Abstract Current debates about surveillance demonstrate the complexity of political controversies whose uncertainty and moral ambiguities render normative consensus difficult to achieve. The question of how to study political controversies remains a challenge for IR scholars. Critical security studies scholars have begun to examine political controversies around surveillance by exploring changing security practices in the everyday. Yet, (de)legitimation practices have hitherto not been the focus of analysis. Following recent practice-oriented research, we develop a conceptual framework based on the notion of ‘narrative legitimation politics’. We first introduce the concept of ‘tests’ from Boltanski's pragmatic sociology to categorise the discursive context and different moral reference points (truth, reality, existence). Second, we combine pragmatic sociology with narrative analysis to enable the study of dominant justificatory practices. Third, we develop the framework through a practice-oriented exploration of the Snowden controversy with a focus on the US and Germany. We identify distinct justificatory practices in each test format linked to narrative devices (for example, plots, roles, metaphors) whose fluid, contested dynamics have the potential to effect change. The framework is particularly relevant for IR scholars interested in legitimacy issues, the normativity of practices, and the power of narratives.

scholarly journals Unfolding the Past, Proving the Present: Social Media Evidence in Terrorism Finance Court Cases

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 382-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasniem Anwar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Media Objects ◽  
Evidence Collection ◽  
Terrorism Trials ◽  
Made In

Abstract During terrorism trials, social media activities such as tweeting, Facebook posts, and WhatsApp conversations have become an essential part of the evidence presented. Amidst the complexity of prosecuting crimes with limited possibilities for criminal investigations and evidence collection, social media interactions can provide valuable information to reconstruct events that occurred there-and-then, to prosecute in the here-and-now. This paper follows social media objects as evidentiary objects in different court judgments to research how security practices and knowledge interact with legal practices in the court room. I build on the notion of the folding object as described by Bruno Latour and Amade M'charek to research the practices and arguments of the judges through which they unfold some of the histories, interpretations, and politics inside the object as reliable evidence. This concept allows for an in-depth examination of how histories are entangled in the presentation of an evidentiary object and how these references to histories are made (in)visible during legal discussions on security and terrorism. The paper therefore contributes to the field of critical security studies by focusing on how security practices are mediated in the everyday legal settings of domestic court rooms.

scholarly journals Security in transition(s): The low-level security politics of electric vehicle range anxiety

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 547-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Kester
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicle ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Consumer Goods ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Range Anxiety ◽  
Novel Algorithm

By drawing on critical security studies in the context of a sociotechnical transition, this article calls for more attention to the presence and sometimes alternative use of mostly unobserved security practices in the materialization of everyday consumer goods and services. This call is illustrated through a discussion of the phenomenon of range anxiety and the intra-action between drivers of electric vehicles (EVs), designers, and algorithms that observe, estimate and nudge the remaining range of an EV. Inspired by Foucault and Barad, the range-anxiety discussion offers four alternative security insights. First, it supports an argument to include stress as an embodied instance of insecurity. Second, it draws attention to a security apparatus that is based on a constantly expanding assemblage around range estimates. Third, it shows how this apparatus rests on a novel algorithm that has a continuous instead of a binary output and is governed by a distributed sovereignty: where the driver simultaneously is the object of measurement, subject of governance for more efficient driving and the ultimate sovereign who decides on the trip. Lastly, the discussion highlights how range estimates not only mediate the materialization of EVs and their automobility but also (re)perform epistemological or ontological forms of uncertainty.

scholarly journals Security Traps and Discourses of Radicalization: Examining Surveillance Practices Targeting Muslims in Canada

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Working Group ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Security Governance ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
The U.S

Security agencies in Canada have become increasingly anxious regarding the threat of domestic radicalization. Defined loosely as “the process of moving from moderate beliefs to extremist belief,” inter-agency security practices aim to categorize and surveil populations deemed at-risk of radicalization in Canada, particularly young Muslims. To detail surveillance efforts against domestic radicalization, this article uses the Access to Information Act (ATIA) to detail the work of Canada’s inter-agency Combating Violent Extremism Working Group (CVEWG). As a network of security governance actors across Canada, the CVEWG is comprised of almost 20 departments and agencies with broad areas of expertise (intelligence, defence, policing, border security, transportation, immigration, etc.). Contributing to critical security studies and scholarship on the sociology of surveillance, this article maps the contours and activities of the CVEWG and uses the ATIA to narrate the production and iteration of radicalization threats through Canadian security governance networks. Tracing the influence of other states – the U.S. and U.K., in particular – the article highlights how surveillance practices that target radicalization are disembedded from particular contexts and, instead, framed around abstractions of menacing Islam. By way of conclusion, it casts aspersions on the expansion of counter-terrorism resources towards combating violent extremism; raising questions about the dubious categories and motives in contemporary practices of the “war on terror.” 

scholarly journals UNASUR and the state-centric perspective of security in South America

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Sergio Caballero
Keyword(s):  
Security Studies ◽  
South American ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Regional Project ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Way

Over the last few decades we have witnessed an emerging interest in security topics and mechanisms to analyse these. In the context of globalization, new threats have appeared (not only interstate, but mainly, intra- and trans-state), as well as theoretical approaches (such as Critical Security Studies, CSS) to deal with them. Regarding the South American region it is useful to consider the constitution of the Unasur as a forum to coordinate policies with a very relevant geostrategic and security influence. In this paper, I deal with the logics that motivated the birth of the UNASUR project, in order to examine the way this regional project acts against different types of security threats and regional crises until 2016-17, when Venezuelan crises escalated. Furthermore, empirical evidences are tested with the common characteristics proposed by Peoples and Vaughan-Williams for the CSS. Some conclusions are drawn as new aspects have been incorporated to the way UNASUR addressed regional conflicts (security as a derivate concept and a broader security agenda), while an important element remained the same: a state-centric perspective.

7. Critical Security Studies: A Schismatic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 91-110
Author(s):  
David Mutimer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Framework ◽  
The Way

This chapter provides a partial history of the label ‘Critical Security Studies’ and the way it has developed and fragmented since the early 1990s. It considers the primary claims of the major divisions that have emerged within the literatures to which the label has been applied: constructivism, critical theory, and poststructuralism. It looks at the 1994 conference held at York University in Toronto entitled Strategies in Conflict: Critical Approaches to Security Studies, which spawned a book called Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (1997b), and Security: A New Framework for Analysis (1998), which was published to serve as a relatively comprehensive statement of ‘securitization studies’, or the Copenhagen School. The chapter argues that Critical Security Studies needs to foster an ‘ethos of critique’ in either the study or refusal of security. Finally, it examines Ken Booth’s views on poststructuralism as part of a broad Critical Security Studies.

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