unintentionally evidence the limitations in their epistemology, by often
fluctuating between viewing society as real entities and mental representations; ‘never speaks, it is only there to be spoken for.’ 47 Another criticism of societal
security is that it rests on a weak definition of group identity, whilst also asserting
that people seek to defend it without showing any insight into the psychological
literature that is better equipped at defining the concept.
After evaluating the three different areas of critiques, the last section
will now strengthen the concept of securitisation by applying the analytical
framework to alternative theoretical approaches. The first criticism exposed the
weaknesses of a discursive approach that only focused on the ‘moment of
intervention’ as it untheorized the key role of the audience. If we take discourse
to mean ‘an interrelated set of texts, and the practices of their production,
dissemination, and reception, which brings an object into being’ then seen
through a post-structuralist conceptualisation through discourse analysis, it
strengthens the discursive methodology be recognising the role of the audience in the securitisation process. 48 If we take Neumann’s premise that ‘because
discourse maintains a degree of regularity in social relations, it produces
preconditions for action,’ then considering a crucial part of the whole
securitisation process without doubt happens in the ‘the debates, discourses
and deliberations’ then we can understand how the audience actively
contributes to the framing of the issue as their discourses are interconnected with discourses from the securitising actor. 49 50 For example, within the US in the
47 Wæver et al., Identity, Migration, p. 188. 48 Ian Parker, Discourse Dynamics: Critical Analysis For Social And Individual Psychology (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 3. 49 IB Neumann, "Discourse Analysis", in Qualitative Methods In International Relations: A Pluralist Guide (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), p. 62. 50 Leif C Jensen, "Seduced And Surrounded By Security: A Post-Structuralist Take On Norwegian High North Securitizing Discourses", Cooperation And Conflict , 48.1 (2012), 12 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836712461482>.
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