in “Critical Security Methods: New Frameworks for Analysis“, edited by Claudia Aradau, Jef Huysmans, Andrew McNeal and Nadine Voelckner. London: Routledge ,, 2014
Our main claim is that, rather than distance, what should define security scholarship is a well-n... more Our main claim is that, rather than distance, what should define security scholarship is a well-negotiated proximity to practice. A return to practice stresses the need for seeking proximity to the world of practitioners and their activities, and more carefully listening and talking to those whose lives are at stake. Security from such a perspective is best understood by a focus on the practices constituting security, and the variety of diff used and mundane actions and objects – some of them of a profoundly oppressive character – by which security practice is performed. Security studies then are a project of proximity and close engagement with the flow and the infrastructures of the everyday and the mundane, and those discriminated by security practices.
We draw on contemporary practice theorists and pragmatist thinkers to investigate in more detail the move towards a critical security methodology driven by proximity. We discuss the importance of recognizing and strengthening the multifaceted networks in which research is embedded, the practical value of academic knowledge and how our understanding of theory and methodology transforms from such a perspective. We then proceed to outline how participant observation provides a repository of terms and modes of engagement for negotiating proximity in such a way (section three). Drawing on examples of participant observation on security we explore core dimensions of negotiating proximity.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers
of security to gain legitimacy for their actions. I would
like to draw attention to the danger represented by such
groups, a danger that goes directly to the heart of the
state’s monopoly of violence.
Book Chapters
We draw on contemporary practice theorists and pragmatist thinkers to investigate in more detail the move towards a critical security methodology driven by proximity. We discuss the importance of recognizing and strengthening the multifaceted networks in which research is embedded, the practical value of academic knowledge and how our understanding of theory and methodology transforms from such a perspective. We then proceed to outline how participant observation provides a repository of terms and modes of engagement for negotiating proximity in such a way (section three). Drawing on examples of participant observation on security we explore core dimensions of negotiating proximity.
of security to gain legitimacy for their actions. I would
like to draw attention to the danger represented by such
groups, a danger that goes directly to the heart of the
state’s monopoly of violence.
We draw on contemporary practice theorists and pragmatist thinkers to investigate in more detail the move towards a critical security methodology driven by proximity. We discuss the importance of recognizing and strengthening the multifaceted networks in which research is embedded, the practical value of academic knowledge and how our understanding of theory and methodology transforms from such a perspective. We then proceed to outline how participant observation provides a repository of terms and modes of engagement for negotiating proximity in such a way (section three). Drawing on examples of participant observation on security we explore core dimensions of negotiating proximity.