Un-siloing securitization: an intersectional intervention

Abstract

This research reflects on how securitization works as a structure of power, or as a vehicle through which extant power structures (nationalism, race, gender, class, (dis)ability) are operationalised. I attend to the relationships between three thematic areas of securitization: immigration, health, and violence against women. I examine where securitization theory secures the state while calcifying the boundaries of who belongs to the state, ignoring or actively banishing marginalised and contested identities that do not form part of the audience that co-constitutes security and are obscured within the society for which security is made. The power structures guiding securitization narratives produce a racist, gendered, and classed interpretation of society in which violence against ‘outsiders’ or those who are only partially inside is endemic. This research remodels securitization theory as a tool through which researchers can expose the continuum of lived realities of violence and insecurity that are exacerbated by securitizing processes.