Abstract
The concept of societal security as developed by the Copenhagen school has three underlying weaknesses: a tendency to reify societies as independent social agents, a use of too vague a definition of ‘identity’, and a failure to demonstrate sufficiently that social security matters to individuals. This article shows that applying social identity theory to the societal security concept helps remedy these weaknesses and closes the theoretical gaps that the Copenhagen school has left open. It enables us to treat ‘society’ as an independent variable without reifying it as an independent agent. It also suggests a much sharper definition of identity, and a rationale for the Copenhagen school's claim that individuals have a psychological need to achieve societal security by protecting their group boundaries. Social identity theory thus supports the societal security concept in its central assumptions while giving it stronger theoretical foundations and greater analytical clout.
Highlights
The concept of societal security first came to prominence in Barry Buzan’s classic People, States and Fear.[1]
The Copenhagen school has failed to engage with social psychology, as have almost all other approaches in International Relations (IR). It is against this backdrop that the section peers over the disciplinary fence in order to glean from contemporary social psychology what is most relevant to the societal security concept
How should one explain such findings and the underlying propensity for ‘groupness’ they suggest? Social identity theory focuses on two main factors: our tendency to divide the world into categories and our quest to maximise self-esteem
Summary
Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article. Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Theiler, T. Nutzungsbedingungen: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY Lizenz (Namensnennung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/deed.de. Diese Version ist zitierbar unter / This version is citable under: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-67843-1.
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