To represent the plurality of methods used within the Critical Studies Security community, this chapter surveys discourse analysis, corporeal analysis, ethnographic research, new materialism, and field analysis. Separating these practical methods from their ontological stakes makes critical analysis mutually intelligible and fosters a collobarative and plural discussion that shies away from doctrinaire orthodoxy. As a guide for analysis, this chapter also sets out some consensus positions about basic methods that are used in this field that critical scholars share and use in different theoretical traditions for their research design: idetifying standards of clarity, fit, and reflexivity by which critical scholarship can be judged, not on its ethical claims or its take on criticality, but rather on grounds of rigor.
Freezing is a common sign of panic, a response to accidents or events that overflow our capacity to react. Just as all civil airspace was cleared after the 9/11 attacks, the USCanada border was also frozen, causing economic slowdowns. Border policies are caught between these two panics: security failures and economic crisis. To escape this paradox, American and Canadian authorities have implemented a series of security measures to make the border 'smarter', notably the implementation of biometric identity documents and surveillance by UAV Predator drones. Psychoanalytic theory can help us explain why the Canadian and American governments have invested so much money for so little evident or measurable increase in either security or economic flows. The article uses the notion of phantastic objects to explain these (over-)reactions to risk management at the US-Canada border.
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