Re Imagining Security

'Soft security' - what does it mean? Cultural interaction is a key to secure coexistence - building of transnational institutions and processes and learning how to speak to each other across chasms of incomprehension. The effect of security is readable in the state of intercultural communication and dialogue. Learning to read it is vital to us all.

This book considers how the issue of security is shaped by a range of actors and agencies in the public, private and nongovernmental sectors. The book has two key themes: that governance is now no longer simply shaped by thinking within the state sphere, but also within business and community spheres; and that these developments have implications for the future of democratic values as assumptions about the traditional role of government are increasingly challenged.

This book delves into the diffuse relationship between states, citizens, and non-citizens. It explores the theoretical heritage of human security and identifies practical responses to the (re)negotiated relationships between states and citizens, responsibility and accountability. It argues that the changes to global order since the 1990s have resulted in a divergence from the understanding of the State as the arbiter within its territory, and as the guarantor of (human) security within its borders. In addition, while interventionist actions of various non-state actors to implement material guarantees of (human) security reaching both citizens and non-citizens (including refugees) have solved some immediate problems, they have not answered the question of where accountability ultimately lies.

This look offers a close look at contested communities through the lens of Rotherham, an English town struggling to survive in terms of its image, profile and identity. Recently divided, and left reeling, from the powerful impact of the Jay report on Child Sexual Exploitation, and increasingly used as a center for activism and agitation by the far right, Rotherham could be seen as an exemplar of a contested community. But what happens when a community confronts an identity that has been forced upon it? How does a community re-define itself? More than simply a book about Rotherham, this is a book about history, culture, feelings, methods and ideas that will help to articulate the lived meanings of political cultures in Britain today.

Re:Imagining Change provides resources, theory, hands-on tools, and illuminating case studies for the next generation of innovative change-makers. This unique book explores how culture, media, memes, and narrative intertwine with social change strategies, and offers practical methods to amplify progressive causes in the popular culture. Re:Imagining Change is an inspirational inside look at the trailblazing methodology developed by the Center for Story-based Strategy over fifteen years of their movement building partnerships. This practitioner’s guide is an impassioned call to innovate our strategies for confronting the escalating social and ecological crises of the twenty-first century. This new, expanded second edition includes updated examples from the frontlines of social movements and provides the reader with easy-to-use tools to change the stories they care about most.

The most controversial ecumenical church event in decades, the first Re-Imagining Conference shook the foundations of mainline Protestantism. In this anthology of ninety-five articles, reflections, letters, poetry, and artwork, participants in the conference offer a candid, inside look at what actually occurred in Minneapolis, and at the aftershocks that followed. Amid the cacophonous rumors, hearsay, and ideological clashes that continue to stalk Re-Imagining, the clear voices in this remarkable volume reveal fresh ways of understanding faith, God, and community. They speak to the church today--and to the church of tomorrow.

This book presents a radical rethinking of Border Studies. Framing the discipline beyond conventional topics of spatiality and territoriality, it presents a distinctly South Asian perspective – a post-colonial and post-partition region where most borders were drawn with political motives, ignoring the socio-cultural realities of the region and economic necessities of the people. The authors argue that while securing borders is an essential function of the state, in this interconnected world, crossing borders and border cooperation is also necessary. The book examines contemporaneous and topical themes like disputes of identity and nationhood, the impact of social media on Border Studies, trans-border cooperation, water-sharing between countries, and resolution of border problems in the age of liberalisation and globalisation. It also suggests ways of enhancing cross-border economic cooperation and connectivity, and reviews security issues from a new perspective. Well supplemented with case studies, the book will serve as an indispensable text for scholars and researchers of Border Studies, military and strategic studies, international relations, geopolitics, and South Asian studies. It will also be of great interest to think tanks and government agencies, especially those dealing with foreign relations.

This book is concerned with the ways in which the problem of security is thought about and promoted by a range of actors and agencies in the public, private and nongovernmental sectors. The authors are concerned not simply with the influence of risk-based thinking in the area of security, but seek rather to map the mentalities and practices of security found in a variety of sectors, and to understand the ways in which thinking from these sectors influence one another. Their particular concern is to understand the drivers of innovation in the governance of security, the conditions that make innovation possible and the ways in which innovation is imagined and realised by actors from a wide range of sectors. The book has two key themes: first, governance is now no longer simply shaped by thinking within the state sphere, for thinking originating within the business and community spheres now also shapes governance, and influence one another. Secondly, these developments have implications for the future of democratic values as assumptions about the traditional role of government are increasingly challenged. The first five chapters of the book explore what has happened to the governance of security, through an analysis of the drivers, conditions and processes of innovation in the context of particular empirical developments. Particular reference is made here to 'waves of change' in security within the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada. In the final chapter the authors examine the implications of 'nodal governance' for democratic values, and then suggest normative directions for deepening democracy in these new circumstances.