“Societal Security”: Concepts and Approaches

Abstract

The article analyses the main concepts and approaches to societal security. Two approaches to the understanding of societal security are taken as a basis: the first one is presented by the Copenhagen School studies, the second one – by Swedish and Norwegian academic communities. It is noted that with the emer­gence of new threats in the early 21st century there is a need to develop new ap­proaches to ensuring societal security, in particular, risk control strategy, securiti­sation, ‘domain of insecurity’ as a specific social context. The article defines the difficulties in identifying threats to the societal security of modern socie­ty due to multiple identities, immigration problems, disharmony of interests of the state and society in the sphere of security, doubt in traditional ideas of se­curity as an absolute good. A new understanding of societal security aimed
at ensuring the sustainability of society and the ability to respond to challenges in conditions of uncertainty is analyzed. The identification of the concepts of so­ciety’s security and its ability to function positioned a new approach of conside­ring societal security solely as a form of discursive practice. This approach pro­posed an ‘all-hazards’ strategy to ‘prepare for the inevitable’, targeting risks and identifying societal vulnerabilities. The author concludes that modern societal security is a hybrid form of security, where there is a close relationship between security and insecurity. There is no single understanding of societal security to­day, all approaches depend on the specific socio-cultural situation, so the prob­lem of interconnection of different levels and objects of security requires further research.