Whose Security?
The participatory approach to development may have finally found its expression in the field of conflict and security. A group of scholars, donors and practitioners met at the Institute of Development Studies last week to discuss a framework for peace-building that moves beyond the predominant state-centred model, where security is a collaborative project, involving and benefitting all parts of society.
The workshop, held on 28-29 May 2009, was entitled Reconsidering Human Security: Does it Work for the Insecure?, and sought to revitalise a concept – human security – that briefly flourished in the early 90s, before becoming mired in definitional debates.
'There is a deep tension that appears between the dominant conception of state security and this idea of human security, from the point of view of people who are most insecure,' said Robin Luckham, a Research Associate at the Institute of Development Studies. 'We need to rethink security from below.'
A wide gap has opened between the erstwhile vision of a prosperous and secure post-Cold War world and the present realities of violent conflict and chronic poverty experienced by much of the world’s population. National security today has become a common pretext for trampling on human rights and democratic governance.
What kind of security would hold at its core the interests of individuals and communities, and not solely the protection of the state? And when the very institutions tasked with making people secure are often the ones people distrust the most, can a more democratic approach to security restore legitimacy?
A fresh dialogue is needed, participants agreed, that brings new perspectives, grounded in experience, to the security debates. The Institute of Development Studies has long argued for this approach - for the importance of looking at issues from the perspective of those who are directly affected – in international development, perhaps most famously in Robert Chambers' work 'Whose Reality Counts?' In this sense, the Human Security paradigm might be described as asking, 'whose security counts?'
One in a series of seminars funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the workshop coincided with the publication of two IDS Bulletins devoted to related issues: Transforming Security and Development in an Unequal World (March 2009) and Violence, Social Action and Research (May 2009).
In contribution to an intellectual foundation for rethinking security, the first Bulletin seeks to provide innovative yet rigorous empirical analysis of the sources of insecurity in a world divided by profound inequality and ongoing conflict. To identify spaces existing for change to empower and protect those most at risk, contributors to this Bulletin re-think security from the point of view of the most vulnerable, excluded and insecure.
The latter publication features research from the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability – a global research consortium based at the IDS – on participatory approaches to understanding violence, including the use of visual tools such as video. Contributors found that research itself can help break the silence. By employing techniques such as participatory video, public theatre and other action research methods, the group safely enabled dialogue and cooperation in communities once fractured by violence in countries such as Nigeria, Brazil and Jamaica.
'I teach a lot of students who want to research in settings of violence and conflict,' said Mary Kaldor of the London School of Economics. '... [The Bulletin] will be a very valuable research to them on how to do so, and the responsibilities and challenges they will face.
Related Resources
Transforming Security and Development in an Unequal World, edited by Robin Luckham with Niagale Bagayoko, Lucia Dammert, Claudio Fuentes and Michael Solis, IDS Bulletin, Vol. 40 (2): 2009.
Violence, Social Action and Research, edited by Jenny Pearce and Rosemary McGee, IDS Bulletin, Vol. 40 (3): 2009.