From securing whiteness to securing publics? Marginalized communities and differential stakeholdership in domestic security in the UK

Abstract

This article develops some conceptual questions about publics and stakeholdership in security which were originally raised in a previous article published by this author. Themes around how racialization has factored into stakeholdership in security for British Muslims are developed here as the foundation for asking questions about publics and their differential relationality to the priorities of security manifested in public-political discourse. Principally the article asks questions about the interests of publics vulnerable to the impacts of knife crime, and also about why protecting these publics has been comparatively under-invested in contrast to Prevent and domestic counter-terror. In drawing this comparison, the article advocates for a reconceptualization of public policy to prioritize securing publics against vulnerability to extreme violence in ways which would provide more equitable stakeholdership in security.