Security means something different to each of us, so why shouldn’t we all research it? A new guide from Rethinking Security and Coventry University explains how anyone can design and implement their own citizen social science project to research security in their own context. Zsófia Hacsek explains why and how.
How does the UK public define its own security?
How the British people understand their own security is a question that ought to be central to security policy analysis. Yet public opinion polling on security issues almost always seeks to gauge reaction to and validation of a small range of established security threats and responses. New research by Rethinking Security and Coventry University sought to let people define their own security and how it relates to the UK state and society. The responses were startling.
Fair Deal Security: Centring people and planet in Lib Dem strategy
Rethinking Security presented its case for a Human Security Strategy at the Lib Dems conference in Bournemouth in September. Richard Reeve here advances five evidenced arguments that should inform Lib Dem policy before the next general election.
Reframing Security: Reflections on assessing local security concerns
We are constantly being told about threats to our national security but what is it that makes ordinary people in the UK feel most insecure? Judith Eversley reports on the findings of her local group’s efforts to gauge perceptions of human security in Bath and North East Somerset.
Where are you in the story of security?
Rethinking Security’s Alternative Security Review project is committed to understanding what security means to people across the UK and using it to change the national narrative on security policy. Zsófia Hacsek explains how our research partners at Coventry University have used a review of theoretical approaches to security to devise a practical and inclusive methodology for hearing from all kinds of people, and how you can get involved in our research over the rest of this year.
Searching for humane alternatives to the ‘whole society’ approach to security
In the first of a series of blog posts reflecting on our Alternative Security Review, Joanna Frew highlights some of the common themes in the first three of Rethinking Security’s roundtable discussions with civil society on human security issues.
Open Society, Closed Conversations: External Consultation and the Integrated Review
This briefing paper from Rethinking Security and UNA-UK compares the external consultation processes of the recent Integrated Review with previous UK security reviews. It aims to inform better practice and contribute to Rethinking Security’s Alternative Security Review project.