Security after emancipation? Critical Theory, violence and resistance

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Within the current configuration of Critical Security Studies (CSS) the concept of ‘emancipation’ is upheld as the keystone of a commitment to transformative change in world politics, but comparatively little is said on the status of violence and resistance within that commitment. As a means of highlighting this relative silence, this article examines the nature of the connection between CSS and the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. In particular it disinters the reflections of Herbert Marcuse on the connections between emancipatory change, violence and resistance as a means of interrogating and challenging the definition of ‘security as emancipation’. Doing so, it is argued, points towards some of the potential limitations of equating security and emancipation, and provides a provocation of contemporary CSS from within its own cited intellectual and normative foundations.
Translated title of the contributionSecurity after Emancipation? Critical Theory, Violence and Resistance
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1113-1135
Number of pages22
JournalReview of International Studies
Volume37
Issue number03
Early online date26 Aug 2010
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2011

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