Democracy, Society and the Governance of Security

Extract

Democracy, Society and the Governance of Security, Jennifer Wood and Benoît Dupont, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 291.

This edited volume engages the question of security from a critical perspective, with an emphasis on sociology and criminology. The various chapters and overall argument, however, should be of considerable interest to political scientists, especially those seeking a broader understanding of international and domestic security. Specifically, contributors suggest that security is no longer a state-centric concept and is now a by-product of a wide range of public and private interests, including governments, corporations and community-based organizations. The collection includes a diverse range of chapters examining transnational commercial security providers (Johnston), inter-agency anti-terrorist networks (Manning), external stakeholders and police organizations (Dupont), linkages between health and security (Burris), and “enclosed” security areas, such as gated communities and privately owned shopping centres (Crawford). As a unifying theme, the editors question the relevance of democratic values in this “pluralized field of delivery.” The goal is to examine these issues by “integrating explanatory and normative theory” (1).