Title: The power elite of security research in Europe: from competitiveness and external stability to dataveillance and societal security

Authors: Médéric Martin-Mazé

Addresses: CRESPPA-LabToP, Université Paris VIII Vincennes – Saint Denis, 2 rue de la Liberté, 93200 Saint-Denis, France

Abstract: Since 2004, the European Union has spent approximately 3.5 billion Euros on security research. Yet, scholars of security have seldom been on the receiving end of these monies. The present article aims to make sense of this apparent paradox. To this end, it brings under examination the so-called high-level public-private dialogue on security that the European Commission sponsored between 2003 and 2009. Social scientists were excluded from this process at the beginning. Thus, the forum imposed the idea that security problems have technical solutions if the EU is willing to pay for them. Social scientists could then be-reincluded and enrolled under the banner of societal security. It falls to them to numb the general public into acceptance of security technologies. The paradox, then, is complete.

Keywords: security research; European Union; defence industry; surveillance; security technologies; public-private; Bourdieu.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2020.108688

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2020 Vol.6 No.1/2, pp.52 - 73

Received: 11 Mar 2019
Accepted: 02 Oct 2019
Published online: 24 Jul 2020 *