Defining Social Constructivism in Security Studies: The Normative Dilemma of Writing Security

Huysmans, Jef

doi:10.1177/03043754020270s104

Cited by 118 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 2 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…First, instead of analyzing security as an essential concept, contested as it were, the Paris School proposes treating security as a 'technique of government' (Foucault, 1994). Second, rather than investigating intention behind the use of power, this approach concentrates on its effects (Bigo & Guild, 2003;Huysmans: 2000Huysmans: , 2002. Third, instead of focusing on 'speech acts', the Paris School emphasizes practices, audiences and contexts which enable and constrain the production of specific forms of governmentality (see Balzacq, 2005;Bigo, 2000;Bonditti, 2004Bonditti, , 2005Ceyhan, 1998).…”

Section: Mapping the Field Of The Professionals Of (In)securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Collective¹

2006

Security Dialogue

277

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In the last decade, critical approaches have substantially reshaped the theoretical landscape of security studies in Europe. Yet, despite an impressive body of literature, there remains a fundamental disagreement as to what counts as critical in this context. Scholars are still arguing in terms of "schools" while there has been an increasing and sustained crossfertilization among critical approaches. Finally, the boundaries between critical and traditional approaches to security remain blurred. The aim of this paper is therefore to assess the evolution of critical views of approaches to security studies in Europe, discuss their theoretical premises, investigate their intellectual ramifications and examine how they coalesce around different issues (such as state of exception). The paper then assesses the political implications of critical approaches. This is done mainly by analysing processes by which critical approaches to security percolate through a growing number of subjects (such as development, peace research, risk/crisis management). Finally, ethical and research implications are explored. IntroductionHIS MANIFESTO IS THE RESULT of collective work. The author of this article is a network of both junior and senior researchers referred to as c.a.s.e. collective who share an interest in critically examining contemporary practices of security. The aim of this paper is to collectively assess the evolution of critical views of security studies in Europe, discuss their theoretical premises, examine how they coalesce around different issues, and investigate their present -and possibly future -intellectual ramifications. The specificity of this text thus lies in the very way it has been thought and written through a networked collective. The article is driven by two broad motivations. First, the authors share the view that, over the past two decades, important innovations in the study of 'security' have emerged among European scholars in particular (Waever 2004a). Although the genesis of these innovations involves scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, these approaches have arguably gained momentum and density in Europe, leading to the emergence of distinctive European research agenda(s) in the traditionally US-dominated field of 'security studies'. Conequently, it was hence felt that time had come to evaluate these 'European' approaches both in order to increase their exposure and to push them further in specific directions. Second, the aim of working and writing as a collective, a network of scholars who do not agree on everything yet do share a common perspective, is based on the desire to break with the competitive dynamic of individualist research agendas and to establish a network which not only facilitates dialogue but is also able to speak with a collective voice. In this sense, the article can be read as a 'manifesto'. 2 In order to understand the composition of the text, we believe it is important to briefly explain its genesis. After the COST Paris Training School, paper givers and additional PhD candid...

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Section: Mapping the Field Of The Professionals Of (In)securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Collective¹

2006

Security Dialogue

277

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…An international political sociology of security thus concentrates on the study of practices as they reflexively enable us to engage with this plurality of actors while "interacting with research objects and subjects" as it helps elucidate how they are "contributing to the formation of authoritative knowledge" (Huysmans and Nogueira 2012: 1). This methodological focus on practice is also an ethical reflection about our own practices as researchers in security studies and the possibility, or even inescapability of reifying and reproducing security even when engaging in a critical reading (Huysmans 2002). In light with this reflexive perspective, Eckl (2008: 185-186), Johnson (2013), andVrasti (2008, this volume) all discuss, in different ways, the normative aspect of conducting field research, that is of the researchers' responsibility to themselves/to the field/to people there.…”

Section: Methodsological Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology

Guillaume

Bilgin

2016

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When compared to traditional approaches to security studies, critical approaches to security studies are often presented in terms of a deepening and widening of the security studies' agenda (Krause and Williams 1997). In that version of disciplinary history, traditional security studies scholars are represented as people focusing on state-centric approaches with a more solid ontology; with a clear understanding of key concepts such as national interest, national security, and so on, and their implications on international politics, as well as a less flexible epistemology. From that standpoint, critical approaches to security studies are seen as a disruption of that existing agenda. As part of the deepening/widening meta-narrative of critical approaches to security studies, the contributions of these approaches are represented in terms of the inclusion of different scales (human security, cosmopolitan security, urban security, etc.) as well as different issue areas (borders, environment, immigration, maritime security, etc.) into security studies' agenda. Our chapter concentrates on introducing how international political sociology has helped developed the critical agenda in security studies; we move away from a deepening/ widening perspective that is common in such review chapters and instead present a review of some of the thematic contributions in an international political sociology to security studies, in the form of a discussion of such concepts as materialities, practices, relationalities, reflexivity and the micro-politics of the everyday (for a broader reflection about security, see Burgess in this volume).International political sociology seems to enjoy an organic relationship with security studies, considered in the broader sense of the concept to include approaches that focus on discourses, practices and technologies of security. Most notably, those scholars interested in the political sociology of international security seem to focus on the everyday over the exceptional, as well as on the 'everydayness' of the exceptional in their studies of what counts as security today through reflexive lenses that regularly questions the ontological and epistemological assumptions of security's concepts and theories. This preference makes an international political sociology approach particularly engaging within the context of contemporary security studies scholarship. A majority of the all-time most-cited articles published in the journal International Political Sociology have a security focus (Dillon 2007;Salter 2007; Huysmans 2008, among others), yet unlike traditional approaches to security, these publications focus on the new materialities, practices, relationalities, reflexivity and the micro-politics of security in an attempt to see the effects of 'security' on the everyday. More specifically, a common theme is on the (in)security practices of security actors in

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“…the war on drugs), environmental security, and ethnic conflicts (Huysmans 2002;Krause and Williams 2003;Posen 1993;Roe 2001). Differences in values have been a traditional source of distrust as they can cause conflicting understandings between different cultures.…”

Section: From Security Dilemma To Cooperative Security Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cooperative Security Dilemma in the Baltic Sea Region

Mölder¹

2011

Journal of Baltic Studies

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This paper examines a clash between modern and post-modern security systems, which may generate cooperative security dilemmas. Cooperative security dilemmas are not state-centric concepts as traditional security dilemmas but apply to international systems. The variations of cooperative security dilemmas are tested in the context of Baltic Sea regional security complex, particularly the integration dilemma in the Nordic countries and the identity dilemma with Russia. The security and defense postures of some regional actors tend to follow modern security understandings that may produce cooperative security dilemmas in the post-modern security environment.

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Defining Social Constructivism in Security Studies: The Normative Dilemma of Writing Security

Cited by 118 publications

References 2 publications

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology

The Cooperative Security Dilemma in the Baltic Sea Region

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