'Brilliantly thought-provoking' MARK GALEOTTI, author of Homo Criminalis
'Propulsive and urgent … a panoramic exploration of our world' MARTHA SPURRIER
What would you give up to feel safe?
The security industry has captured our politics and our private lives. From rogue states to Ring doorbells, someone is always keeping a watchful eye – and we’re paying a heavy price. Anthropologist Ruben Andersson shows how Big Security rose to power, generating unprecedented profits while failing to protect us. In this page-turning dispatch from security’s frontlines – across the divides separating political right and left and global rich and poor – he pursues police chiefs in Swedish suburbs, shelters with migrants in Mexico, bunkers down with peacekeepers in Mali and mingles with arms dealers in Paris.
Everywhere, he finds that our shared obsession with security is an act of retreat: high walls, constant surveillance and punitive policies offer the illusion of control while fuelling paranoia and precarity. Every tracking app installed, border fortified, or emergency law passed makes us more fearful and less free. Our age of security is a dystopian response to political failure – but it’s not too late to replace runaway security with a humanist vision where fear no longer controls us.
Privacy, freedom, democratic control – we have already given up so much in the name of safety. But once we see how security has trapped us, we can start to break free.
'Courageous and beautifully written' TOBY GREEN
About the Author :
Ruben Andersson is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and the holder of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship on global security. His previous books include Illegality, Inc., winner of a BBC award, No Go World and (with David Keen) Wreckonomics. He has written for the Guardian, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, and El País.
Review :
‘We are safer now than ever, in the main. So why do we feel so insecure? A brilliantly thought-provoking study not just of our shrinking tolerance for risk, but also how cynical politicians and a massive global industry encourage us to trap ourselves in cages of our own making’
Mark Galeotti, author of Homo Criminalis
'A courageous and beautifully written book that takes us to the heart of the brave new world of surveillance capitalism. Age of Security forces us to acknowledge the high price of the quest for a 'risk-free' world: it confronts the transformation of human values in the digital era, and shows how deeply we are all involved in this crisis'
Professor Toby Green, author of A Fistful of Shells
‘Propulsive and urgent, Age of Security is a panoramic exploration of our world with a vital demand that we change it for the better’
Martha Spurrier
‘Provides a unique perspective … the strength of the book lies in its focus on everyday life, describing from below this race for security which destroys everyone, including those who have perpetuated it. This is a must-read book that can convince a large audience to join a crucial debate’
Professor Didier Bigo
‘Manages to combine engaging writing with scholarly rigour to tell a novel story about our age of security. Andersson explores the psychology of our perverse desire for a security that never works, while explaining how it serves as a displacement of politics and the state in a global arena’
Professor Faisal Devji
