Securitization as a Method: Words, Audiences, Practices and Beyond

This panel reviews the growing body of knowledge about securitization. Securitization is a field, a concept, and an object of security analysis, accounting for the process by which an issue becomes to be treated as a matter of security concern. It helps us understand how non-security issues such as migration, health, climate, energy, protest and many others come to be viewed as threats, and thus, matters of security interest. However, as a result of growing attention, the theory has pulled in several directions. Some studies focus on speech act, others on bureaucratic routine, yet others on audience acceptance, non-human agency, or ethical obligation. Increasingly, in bureaucratic jargon, the word has been used as an expression for rendering something secure and safe. The panel seeks to shed new light on securitization not as an object of analysis, but as an analytical tool that enables us to challenge and rethink dominant narratives about what is it to be secure and safe. It addresses the faultlines running across these debates, identifies shortcomings, examines empirical applicability and considers new pathways in securitization and desecuritization.