Security as a field of force: the case of Switzerland in the mid-2010s

Author(s) : Stephan Davidshofer, Amal Tawfik, Jonas Hagmann

Source : https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803924007.00014

Abstract:

“European security morphed into a transnational field or practice in recent years. Alas, the ways it did so remains difficult to measure, and with this the domain’s contours and inner structuring remain difficult to apprehend. How can a field approach help scholars to achieve a better grasp and understanding of the security domain? This chapter draws on a research that focused on the internationalization of the Swiss security field. It first details the empirical changes that this field witnessed in the mid-2010s. Then, it gives readers practical ideas of how such analysis may be operationalized as a research strategy. In doing so, the chapter offers a ‘methodological roadmap’ to the advancement of field analysis in the security domain. It shows how different sets of statistical analysis – social network and multiple correspondence analyses in particular – are useful tools with which to construct, differentiate and interpret state action in the security domain.”