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51 | automne 2003
Facettes de l'(in)sécurité

Facets of (in)security
Edited by Didier Bigo and Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet
couverture n°51
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Credits: Valérie Chesnay
176 p. -17,50€
ISBN 2-7475-5377-9

Does "saying" security proceed from a partial and sometimes arbitrary image and knowledge of the difference between what is and is not violence ? In very much the same way, to say insecurity as opposed to security, presupposes a theory of proportionality in which insecurity diminishes as security increases. But is this really this case ? Isn't the virtual sphere of insecurity a mere wrapper for processes of securitization and doesn't it expand when securitization is attempted ? What is our relation to the unknown, to the uncertain and to the future ? (In)securitization, as a process of extrapolating dangers and fears of what could be and is not, becomes a central feature of contemporary societies. It often leads to a loss of perspective and to attempts to achieve "re-assurance" through simplifying myths constructed from partial knowledge and institutional or collective anticipations of an exceptional violence. These anticipations neglect ordinary forms of violence that are no longer considered as such.
The articles in this issue of Cultures & Conflitsclash but nevertheless respond to each other. They refer, although in different ways and by focusing on different empirical sites, to a theorisation of (in)securitisation as a social and political process. Thus they suggest avenues for further investigation that go beyond the limits and fragments that the authors have inscribed.

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