(In)Security and Democracy

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

In the lineage of European political thought, fear has long been seen as the original justification of state power. Against this backdrop, (In)Security and Democracy sets out to explore a fundamental question: how can democratic societies remain open, deliberative, and pluralist when the politics of fear increasingly dominate public discourse? To understand how this challenge manifests, the project proposes a multi-disciplinary investigation into the ways security is constructed, institutionalized, and operationalized, while also placing these dynamics in conversation with broader European and global developments. The research draws on international relations theory, political philosophy, critical legal studies, and sociology, engaging with the growing literature on securitization that sees security as something invoked strategically in political contexts. To carry out this work, the project sets four main objectives. First, it will map the institutional landscape of security governance in Finland, identifying how different actors and agencies are connected through flows of funding, personnel, expertise, and discursive authority. This includes investigating how the term security is mobilized within these spaces, what forms it takes, and how it affects the distribution of power and knowledge. Second, the project will analyse the redistributive effects of security rhetoric, how it channels resources toward particular agendas. In doing so, the project will pay close attention to the consequences for academic freedom and the narrowing of intellectual inquiry. Third, the project seeks to assess the strategies through which security discourse is managed, regulated, or contested, particularly through mechanisms of transparency and access to information. In this context, the project will engage in practical collaborations with journalists and civil society actors to investigate barriers to public access and promote the democratization of information.