New Book – A world of insecurity: Anthropological perspectives on human security

The concept of Human Security was introduced by the UN Development Programme in 1994, in order to expand the scope of development work and research. Human Security was defined as ‘freedom from want and freedom from fear’. This collection of articles draws on a different approach, one developed within the successful research programme ‘Constructing Human Security in a Globalizing World’ (CONSEC) based in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and includes the subjective and existentialdimensions in an area which has been dominated by quantitative and ‘objective’ measurements of well-being. This book is a sample of the research carried out in the Department, and a capstone of the CONSEC programme with which all contributors are affiliated.

Rather than as a field of inquiry, the book defines Human Security as a multidimensional and dynamic conceptual lens which allows us to link these various dimensions – superficially classified as physical and existential security – with one another in order to achieve a richer, more complex and more compelling analysis. Thus, this approach goes beyond peace-keeping operations, post-conflict reconstruction and military culture, and includes other aspects of anthropology (like religion, ethnicity, transnationalism, gender, social and political transformations, natural resource management, and development). Thus, while the conceptualization of Human Security widened and became more differentiated, researchers came across contradictory manifestations of Human Security. For instance, it is a truism that in specific circumstances, some people are willing to risk their own or others’ physical or economic security for religious or ethnic reasons. If such cultural and religious dimensions are left out of the equation, then a Human Security analysis is bound to be incomplete, theoretically barren, and politically irrelevant. Therefore the researchers taking part in the programme have explored ways of conceptualizing Human Security to include such cultural and existential dimensions as well.

The chapters can be grouped in three sections. Following the introduction, three chapters discuss the political and political economy aspects of human security (Salman, Venema, De Theije & Bal). The next four chapters (Bal & Sinha-Kerkhoff, Brouwer, Bartels et al., Droogers) focus on the human security aspects of questions of identity and belonging. The last four chapters (Den Uyl, Evers, Kooiman, Salemink) zoom in on human security questions in relation to state policies and practices.

Keywords: human security, anthropology, conflict, cohesion, identities, risk, migration, globalization, transnationalism

Table of contents

A world of insecurity: Anthropological perspectives on human security

Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ellen Bal, Oscar Salemink (eds.)

1. Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Human security and social anthropology

Part 1: The political economy of human security

2. Ton Salman: Taking Risks for Security’s Sake: Bolivians Resisting their State and its Economic Policies

3. Bernard Venema (with Ali Mguild): State formation, Imposition of a Land Market and Resilient Pathways among the Berbers of the Middle Atlas

4. Marjo de Theije and Ellen Bal: Flexible migrants: Brazilian gold miners and their quest for human security in Surinam

Part 2: Security, identity and belonging

5. Ellen Bal and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff: ‘Bharat-wasie or Surinamie’: Hindustani notions of belonging in Surinam and the Netherlands

6. Edien Bartels, Kim Knibbe, Martijn de Koning and Oscar Salemink: Cultural identity as a key dimension of human security: The Dutch case

7. Lenie Brouwer: “Without Cybersouk, I would be Dead”: Local Experiences in a Dutch Digital Community Centre

8. André Droogers: Religion, identity and security among Pomeranian Lutheran migrants in Espírito Santo, Brazil (1880 – 2005): A schema repertoire approach

Part 3: States of (in)security

9. Marion den Uyl: Changing Notions of Belonging: Migrants and natives in an Amsterdam multicultural neighbourhood

10. Sandra Evers: Tales from a Captive Audience: Dissident Narratives and the Official History of the Seychelles

11. Dick Kooiman: Harnessing Ceremonial for Political Security: An Indian princely state on the verge of extinction

12. Oscar Salemink: Ritual efficacy, spiritual security and human security: Spirit mediumship in contemporary Vietnam

(H/T Standplaats Wereld)