Project title
Experiencing Security Technologies
Project description
How can a deeper understanding of individuals in the security labor force shape the future of security work? There are myriad examples of how, in general, descriptions of security labour in the media tend to villainize or heroize the workers, criticising them as lazy and uneducated, or, celebrating them as patriotic and brave. This NIAS Theme Group will bring their own deeply informed practices and varied viewpoints regarding the global security enterprise to our collaborative investigation.
As member of the theme group, Tessa Diphoorn is particularly interested in the experiences of the security labourers themselves. She aims to critically examine the effects of technologization and modernization on security labor by investigating how the increased use of technology impacts the demand, interest, and experiences of security workers, as well as exploring the types of relationships that emerge with the adoption of new technologies.
Selected publications
Diphoorn, T. G. (2016). Twilight Policing. Private Security and Violence in Urban South Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Diphoorn, T. G., & Grassiani, E. (Eds.) (2019). Security Blurs: The Politics of Plural Security Provision. (Routledge Studies in Anthropology). London: Routledge.
Diphoorn, T. G. (2020). The ‘pure apples’: Moral bordering within the Kenyan police. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 38(3), 490-509.