Complexity and the governance of security in communal spaces: an ethnographic exploration of two university campuses

Abstract

This thesis sets out to explore how the physical security of communal spaces is governed on two university campuses. It draws upon non-participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore the authorization and provision of physical security. It looks at how security departments use a multiplicity of mentalities and techniques in a wide variety of combinations and assemblages to organize the matters pertaining to physical security.
The originality of this work lies in its representation of how attempts geared towards producing physical safety in communal spaces are ridden with indeterminacy and unpredictability. The quest for certainty that lies at the core of security practices is seriously compromised in conditions characterised by a multiplicity of interactions; as such this multiplicity is the source of indeterminacy.
The unpredictability of daily interactions alters security practices on the ground. Interactions amongst individuals can result in all sorts of human experiences – emotions, personal likes and dislikes, prejudices, norms, expectations, and so on – that interfere with the translation of intended security practices on the ground. Interactions amongst officers also enable previously unforeseen security practices to emerge and be used to govern others’ behaviour. Even then, such tactics do not always engender what is intended. The interaction between the officer and the wrongdoer can cause further indeterminacy to emerge, as the wrongdoer can react unexpectedly to the officer‘s directives. Additionally, what one officer views as a breach of physical security, another may perceive as tolerable. Some officers may not react to a situation requiring a security response, whereas others will. Simply put, the governance of physical security in communal space is an indeterminate process. In the quest for security, unpredictable processes can organise physical security in communal spaces, and in this thesis, we explore the extent to which they do so.