Entangled (In)Securities

Sketching the Scope of Geosocial Approaches for Understanding "Webs of (In)Security"1

Bibliographic Data

ID3948885
AuthorsKathrin Hörschelmann (0000-0002-1652-5026, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, corresponding author), Elisabeth Reich (University of Würzburg)
Year2017
Volume22
Issue1
Pages73-90
Publication date2017-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2016.1214821
OpenAlexW2510953493
LanguageEN
Citations received17

This paper makes the case for a broadening of conceptual vocabularies in security studies by extending the sub-discipline’s predominantly geopolitical focus to the ‘geosocial’. Based on a review of work on human security and of feminist and anthropological research on (in)security and violence, we argue that there remains a need for further conceptual development to which geosocial approaches can make a significant contribution. They move us beyond compartmentalisation towards understanding social relations as a key medium through which connections between different forms of (in)security are forged. This prompts the mapping of a wider kaleidoscope of intersecting security issues, experiences, practices, subjects and topographies that include, but are not exhaustively explained by, geopolitical and geoeconomic processes. Drawing on findings from a participatory research project conducted with marginalised young people in Leipzig (Germany) between 2014 and 2015, we argue for greater attention to four issues that are rarely thematised in security studies and which geosocial approaches bring more squarely into focus: 1) social relations as a key connective tissue through which different dimensions of (in)security are entangled and through which these entanglements are given shape; 2) social relations as sources of security and insecurity; 3) security practices as including the emotional and practical labour invested in sustaining, moulding or dealing with the breakdown of social relations; and 4) the topographic stretching and hybridisation of social relations that furnishes not just cultures of fear but can also generate greater senses of security

Citizen journalism · Computer security · Critical security studies · Epistemology · Geopolitics · Human security · Information security · International security · Network security policy · Political science · Politics · Security service · Security studies · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions

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