Abstract

In a post-Cold War world of political unease and economic crisis, processes of securitisation are transforming nation-states, their citizens and non-citizens in profound ways.

The book shows how contemporary Europe is now home to a vast security industry which uses biometric identification systems, CCTV and quasi-military techniques to police migrants and disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This is the first collection of anthropological studies of security with a particular but not exclusive emphasis on Europe.

The Anthropology of Security draws together studies on the lived experiences of security and policing from the perspective of those most affected in their everyday lives. The anthropological perspectives in this volume stretch from the frontlines of policing and counter-terrorism to border control.
'This book will come as a revelation to scholars from Security Studies and Anthropology'
Ursula Rao, Professor of Anthropology, University of Leipzig
'This innovative volume destabilises dominant security discourses to create a vital space for nuanced inquiry into power relationships, social inequalities, and ideology'
Torin Monahan, author of Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity
'This powerful volume sounds the call for a critical anthropological consideration of security as a fundamental analytic of the contemporary'
Daniel Goldstein, Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey