Entangled security

Science, co-production, and intra-active insecurity

Bibliographic Data

ID13020501
AuthorsStefan Elbe (0000-0002-5567-5262, University of Sussex, corresponding author), Gemma Buckland‐Merrett (University of Sussex)
Year2019
Volume4
Issue2
Pages123-141
Publication date2019-05-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of International Security (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2057-5637 • E-ISSN: 2057-5645
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/eis.2019.4
OpenAlexW2912018139
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited65

This article advances a new account of security as an intensely relational and ontologically entangled phenomenon that does not exist prior to, nor independently of, its intra-action with other phenomena and agencies. Security's ‘entanglement’ is demonstrated through an analysis of the protracted security concerns engendered by ‘dangerous’ scientific experiments performed with lethal H5N1 flu viruses. Utilising methodological approaches recently developed in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), the article explicates the intensely ‘co-productive’ dynamics at play between security and science in those experiments, and which ultimately reveal security to be a deeply relational phenomenon continuously emerging out of its engagement with other agencies. Recovering this deeper ontological entanglement, the article argues, necessitates a different approach to the study of security that does not commence by fixing the meaning and boundaries of security in advance. Rather, such an approach needs to analyse the diverse sites, dynamics, and processes through which security and insecurity come to intra-actively materialise in international relations. It also demands a fundamental reconsideration of many of the discipline's most prominent security theories. They are not merely conceptual tools for studying security, but crucial participants in its intra-active materialisation

Action (physics · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Meaning (existential · Phenomenon · Quantum entanglement · Security studies · Social science · Sociology · Bacillus and Francisella bacterial research · Global Security and Public Health · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access