Objectives

The project seeks to draw upon philosophical and sociological perspectives in exploring the relationship between liberty and security and the challenges to this relationship posed by contemporary forms of terrorism. It will develop appropriate theoretical and conceptual tools (this will be done also in consultation with work package 5 who would also be devising similar tools) for a state of the art investigation into the modern European State and its location in a context that is increasingly characterized by transnational security concerns and globalized response mechanisms. The literature used will focus on theories of state, sovereignty, governmentality, and political subjectivity. This state of the art research spans historical sociology, philosophy, political theory, and international relations. This theoretical and conceptual orientation will, in turn, be informed by empirical research into the institutions, networks of interaction, and ideational forms implicated in security policies, as well as their ramifications for civil liberties, practices of inclusion and exclusion and their expression in multicultural societies. The empirical aspect of the project will concentrate on the United Kingdom, but seeks to draw upon strong resources in the partner institutions that will enable a comparative analysis of the dynamics highlighted above.

By the end of this work package, the project will have provided a set of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological tools for the analysis of global, regional, state, and local practices of security and their particular instantiation in the liberal European state. The project will also have provided an analysis of the institutional manifestation of security practices and their implications for liberty and political subjectivity. The empirical aspect of the project will have provided a basis from which the project and other researchers may conduct a comparative analysis of the relationship between liberty and security in the European context.

Description of work/methodology

An interdisciplinary investigation into the relationship between liberty and security. In particular, this aspect of the project will explore the complex interplay between state/state sovereignty/political subjectivity on the one hand and emergent forms of governmental practice relating to security/freedom on the other. The aim throughout is to provide the theoretical and conceptual tools necessary for a problematization and conceptualization of the state, sovereignty, and political subjectivity in a context characterized by global response mechanisms on matters relating to security, risk, and fear. This aspect of the project will draw upon and develop state of the art research in philosophy, political theory, and sociology concerned with international relations, the state, sovereignty, governmentality, and political subjectivity, contributing substantively to European-wide research in this area. This aspect of the project will involve the two principal researchers, Dr. Vivienne Jabri at the University of Kent and professor Rob Walker at the University of Keele. There will be collaboration with other colleagues involved in ELISE, the aim throughout being the exchange of ideas and the dissemination of research on the theoretical and conceptual tools that underpin the project. The workshop settings described in the overall project will provide the forum for such exchanges and will include other academics involved in cutting edge research in this area. In light of our aim to expand the knowledge base within the European Research community, these discussions will include our postgraduate students.

The work package will address the question of how the above theoretical and conceptual tools relate to policy and the formulation of response mechanisms relating to contemporary challenges in the area of security and its relation to civil liberties in the European state. This aspect of the project will conduct extensive research, through interviews with the agents (located in international, regional, and local institutions) involved in policy and surveys of legislative and juridical processes underpinning the structuration of security practices. The research will be conducted by 2 research assistants, located at Kent and Keele, under the supervision of Dr. Jabri and Professor Walker respectively. Collaboration with other work package teams in the project will be a major feature of this aspect of the project and will provide the basis for a comparative analysis of the dynamics of security and liberty outlined above.

Both the theoretical and empirical aspects of this project will be set in the context of the aftermath of September 11th, 2001 and the subsequent « war against terrorism ». The theoretical, conceptual, and empirical aspects of the project will seek to uncover the history of this present context, its uncertainties and fragmentations, and its implications for governmental practices that aspire to be global in reach. This aspect of the project will be historical and hermeneutic in orientation. It will hence concentrate on institutional practices and the programmatic of rationalities that have historically produced institutional and discursive continuities drawn upon in the formation of situated practices around security, risk and fear. The project will hence provide the methodological tools necessary for such historical research, concentrating as it does on the complexity of uncovering the relationship between institutionalized practices and situated conduct. Principal researchers together with research assistants.

The methodological emphasis throughout is on a theoretical and conceptual exploration coupled with a historical and hermeneutic perspective. This approach serves to address four primary groups of questions. Each of them speaks to the overarching problem of how to identify, theoretically and conceptually, the location of legitimate political processes in a context that is identified by a discourse of emergency that seeks to limit the space of the political and yet is situated in a global public sphere that seeks to expand this space. These are the precise questions :

What conceptual tools are appropriate for the analysis of claims about the increasingly problematic relationship between liberty and security in the modern state, especially in relation to transnational security concerns and their impact on fundamental freedoms ? This research, conducted as described above, will make a substantial contribution to the knowledge base of the European Research area, in scientific and technical development in the field of political and social studies.

If the modern state is associated with the monopolization of the legitimate use of force within a particular territory, how are we to understand claims to legitimacy within a globalized context of militarized response mechanisms ? The theoretical, conceptual and empirical research as described above will provide the tools necessary for an investigation of legitimization practices and their relationship to government within the European liberal state. Again the tools of investigation are crucial to developing the European knowledge base, specifically in combining state of the art theoretical work with institutional and policy analysis.

If the security and legitimacy of the modern state has enabled the constitution of a realm of civil liberties, how do contemporary curtailments of civil liberties, associated with certain security-related policies challenge our understanding of the limits to the liberal state, especially as these limits are constituted in time and space ? This work package will contribute to and benefit from the comparative analysis of these dynamics enabled by the project as a whole and the expertise available specifically in relation to human rights legislation. Concentrating on the United Kingdom, the work package will provide substantial empirical research on the dynamics of security and liberty in a liberal and multicultural context.

If the legitimacy of the modern state, and the forms of liberty and security it has enabled, has been constituted through systematic structures and practices of inclusion and exclusion, friends and enemies, how do we now evaluate the reproduction of these structures and practices in contemporary forms of xenophobia and discrimination ? Furthermore, how do we engage with challenges to these structures and practices expressed in multicultural societies and emerging forms of global organization ? These are substantive questions that are addressed in the empirical aspect of the project. This research will not only conduct legislative and institutional research, but will seek to uncover (through structured interviews with policy-makers and officials ; for example, at the Home Office) the relationship between practices of government, the agents involved and the implications of such practices for civil liberties and modes of exclusion (the latter part will benefit from the participation of policy-makers and officials in the workshops, as well as additional structured interviews with legislators, civil rights organizations, and representatives from minority groups). This approach will be of value to the methodological as well as substantive content of the research project and will contribute to the scientific and knowledge field within the European arena.

The aim throughout the project will be to engage with diverse philosophical, sociological, legal, and historical perspectives necessary for any study that seeks to problematize modern politics and the limits of the modern state. The aim is to develop the theoretical and conceptual tools necessary for the conduct of empirical and textual research within the EU context. Policy-makers, parliamentarians, and representatives of social movements will be invited to participate in our deliberations, in the workshops, and in our substantive research. Working papers will be made available to these end-users and their feedback will be incorporated in the research. .