Everyday security threats: Perceptions, experiences, and consequences - Hardcover

Stevens, Daniel; Vaughan-Williams, Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719096065 ISBN 13: 9780719096068

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2016

Synopsis

This book explores citizens' perceptions and experiences of security threats in contemporary Britain, based on twenty focus groups and a large sample survey conducted between April and September 2012. The data is used to investigate the extent to which a diverse public shares government framings of the most pressing security threats, to assess the origins of perceptions of security threats, to investigate what makes some people feel more threatened than others, to examine the effects of threats on other areas of politics and to evaluate the effectiveness of government messages about security threats. We demonstrate widespread heterogeneity in perceptions of issues as security threats and in their origins, with implications for the extent to which shared understandings of threats are an attainable goal. While this study focuses on the British case, it seeks to make broader theoretical and methodological contributions to Political Science, International Relations, Political Psychology, and Security Studies.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Stevens is Professor of Politics at the University of Exeter

Nick Vaughan-Williams is Professor of International Security at the University of Warwick

From the Back Cover

Everyday security threats draws on ideas from international security studies and political psychology to explore citizens' perceptions and experiences of security threats in contemporary Britain.

Using data from twenty focus groups across six British cities and a large sample survey conducted between April and September 2012, Daniel Stevens and Nick Vaughan-Williams investigate the extent to which a diverse public accepts the government's framing of security threats. They trace the origins of the perceptions of specific threats ranging from terrorism to environmental degradation, asking what it is that makes some people feel more frightened by these issues than others. They also examine the influence of threats on other areas of politics such as the stereotyping of minorities and the prioritising of public spending on border control. Finally, they evaluate the effectiveness of government efforts to change citizens' behaviour as part of the risk management cycle. What they find is that there is a widespread heterogeneity in the perception of security threats, with serious implications for the extent to which shared understandings of threats are an attainable goal.

Everyday security threats focuses on the British case, but its unusual combination of quantitative and qualitative methods makes broader theoretical and methodological contributions to scholarship in political science, international relations, political psychology, and security studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719096065
• ISBN 13: 9780719096068
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208