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Results for vigitantism

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Author: Mireanu, Manuel

Title: Vigilantism and Security: State, violence and politics in Italy and Hungary

Summary: This thesis explores the relationship between the state and vigilante groups in two situations from Italy and Hungary. It asks the question of the possibility of successful security articulations that emerge from actors endowed with lower levels of social capital. Vigilantism is one such possible security practice. The practices of the vigilante groups that I look at cannot be fully captured if we focus on either state-centred security, or on socially dispersed security practices. Their practices are performed by agents with lower levels of securitising capital than state elites, but with sufficient legitimacy and capabilities to enact security successfully. These practices are not dispersed through 'society', but they are concentrated in groups and patrols with explicit programs, hierarchies and purposes. I argue that vigilante groups can practice security autonomously from the state - even if they have the state's 'blessing'. I argue that vigilantism is an instance of everyday security. Vigilantism illustrates practices of security with clear goals of providing services to a target audience. Vigilantism fulfils a security demand. Vigilante groups have clearly-defined goals, which are influenced by a guiding ideology. Such programmatic security acts do not sit well with the established literature on everyday security, which diverges from a decisionistic model, and posits the non-intentionality of security practices. I diverge from this position and argue that vigilantism shows how security can be at the same time non-elitist and intentional. This thesis uses participatory methods to achieve as much proximity as possible to the actants of vigilante security practices. Analysing situations enables me to have a better negotiation of the interplay between local and daily routines and practices on the one hand, and global discourses and narratives on the other hand. For these reasons, I use the concept of security-scape, to delineate situations of security in which my analysis moves constantly between the particular and the general. The two security-scapes I focus on in this thesis are the Milan Central train station and the Hungarian village of Gyongyospata. Through these two instances of vigilantism in Europe, I illustrate non-state and intentional acts of security. Both the City Angels and the far-right patrols of Gyongyospata perform acts of security in the absence of state capacities. Both situations illustrate an ambiguous relationship with the state, in the sense that their relative autonomy coincides with a reinforcement of state practices and discourses. And both are situations of programmatic and intentional security, where the decision to act is based on the clear articulated intention to respond to a security demand.

Details: Budapest: Central European University, 2014. 268p.

Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed April 8, 2017 at: http://pds.ceu.edu/sites/pds.ceu.hu/files/attachment/basicpage/478/mireanumanuelir.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: Europe

URL: http://pds.ceu.edu/sites/pds.ceu.hu/files/attachment/basicpage/478/mireanumanuelir.pdf

Shelf Number: 144760

Keywords:
Far-right Groups
Security
Vigilante Groups
Vigitantism