Anthropology of Security and Political Economies

Anthropology of security and political economies explores how notions of safety, threat and governance are embedded within broader economic structures and cultural practices. This field investigates the ways in which security is produced, negotiated and contested across multiple scales, from intimate domestic spaces to international borders and financial markets. Scholars draw on ethnographic methods to reveal how state and non-state actors, private security firms, community networks and individual subjects co-construct security regimes as a response to perceived risks. Political economy perspectives illuminate the intertwining of capital accumulation, regulatory frameworks and security technologies, showing how economic imperatives shape security discourses and vice versa. Emphasis is placed on the material culture of security—from architectural design and surveillance devices to aesthetic and affective dimensions of rule—as well as on the role of imaginaries, norms and subjectivities in sustaining or challenging established orders. By integrating analyses of power, inequality and resistance, anthropological research in this area enhances our understanding of global processes such as migration control, transnational trade, urban governance and environmental management, demonstrating the profound social, political and economic implications of security practices worldwide.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Anthropology of Security and Political Economies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in anthropology of security and political economies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Security regime: An assemblage of actors, practices and technologies that co-produce and maintain notions of safety and order.

Political economy: The study of how economic systems, power relations and institutions interact to shape social outcomes.

Material culture: The physical objects, infrastructures and spaces through which social and political processes are enacted.

Transnational feminism: A framework emphasising the global, intersectional and power-sensitive dimensions of gendered experiences in political struggles.

Night-time light emissions: Satellite-measured luminescence data used as a proxy for economic activity and development at the local or regional level.

References

1. Security Regimes: Transnational and Imperial Entanglements. Annual Review of Anthropology (2023).
2. Home Matters: The Material Culture of Urban Security. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2020).
3. Quantifying the Disaggregated Impact of Atrocities on Socioeconomic Activity. Global Studies Quarterly (2022).