Entangled Security - accepted version.pdf (606.2 kB)
Entangled security: science, co-production, and intra-active insecurity
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 16:32 authored by Stefan ElbeStefan Elbe, Gemma Buckland-MerrettThis article advances a new account of security as an intensely relational and ontologically entangled phenomenon that does not exist prior to, nor independently of, its intra-action with other phenomena and agencies. Security's ‘entanglement’ is demonstrated through an analysis of the protracted security concerns engendered by ‘dangerous’ scientific experiments performed with lethal H5N1 flu viruses. Utilising methodological approaches recently developed in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), the article explicates the intensely ‘co-productive’ dynamics at play between security and science in those experiments, and which ultimately reveal security to be a deeply relational phenomenon continuously emerging out of its engagement with other agencies. Recovering this deeper ontological entanglement, the article argues, necessitates a different approach to the study of security that does not commence by fixing the meaning and boundaries of security in advance. Rather, such an approach needs to analyse the diverse sites, dynamics, and processes through which security and insecurity come to intra-actively materialise in international relations. It also demands a fundamental reconsideration of many of the discipline's most prominent security theories. They are not merely conceptual tools for studying security, but crucial participants in its intra-active materialisation.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
European Journal of International SecurityISSN
2057-5637Publisher
Cambridge University PressExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
4Page range
123-141Department affiliated with
- International Relations Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Centre for Global Health Policy Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-01-15First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-01-15First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-01-14Usage metrics
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