Security Unbound: Insecurities, Suspicion and Democracy
- prof. Jef Huysmans, Open University (UK)
The relation between security and democracy is a defining contemporary political question in Europe. As skepticism about the raft of security measures adopted throughout a decade and a half of proclaimed security emergencies grows, security practice is increasingly framed as a practice that defines and inscribes insecurities, and not just as a response to a threatening environment.
We are familiar with emergency policies in the name of national security challenging parliamentary processes, the space for political dissent, and fundamental rights. Yet, security practice and technology pervade society heavily in very mundane ways without raising national security crises, in particular through surveillance technology and the management of risks and uncertainties in many areas of life. In the European context, very public discussions are unfolding about the enrolment of EU Member State security services in the mass surveillance schemes of the US National Security Agency, and on security measures adopted through the Union itself, such as the Data Retention Directive or the European Passenger Name Record initiative.
These security practices create societies in which suspicion becomes a default way of relating and governing relations, ranging from neighbourhood relations over financial transactions to cross border mobility
What are the implications for democratic politics of the increasingly prominent role of security practices? How does the diffusion of suspicion impact on our understanding and practice of democracy and the state? In what way can we think the implications of these developments for the politics of European integration and the democratic deficit in the European Union?
Lecture organised by ACCESS EUROPE's Europe and the World theme
Discussants: prof. Beatrice De Graaf (Universiteit Utrecht), dr. Rivke Jaffe, (UvA)
Chair: prof. Marieke de Goede (UvA)
Venue
Roeterseiland, Room REC-B2.07
Please register here