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Everyday Security Threats: Perceptions, Experiences, and Consequences

Online ISBN:
9781526120953
Print ISBN:
9780719096068
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Book

Everyday Security Threats: Perceptions, Experiences, and Consequences

Daniel Stevens,
Daniel Stevens
University of Exeter
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Nick Vaughan-Williams
Nick Vaughan-Williams
University of Warwick
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Published online:
18 May 2017
Published in print:
20 December 2016
Online ISBN:
9781526120953
Print ISBN:
9780719096068
Publisher:
Manchester University Press

Abstract

This book explores citizens’ perceptions and experiences of security threats in contemporary Britain, drawing on perspectives from International Security Studies and Political Psychology. The empirical chapters are based on twenty focus groups across six British cities and a large sample survey conducted between April and September 2012. These data are used to investigate the extent to which diverse publics share government framings of certain issues as the most pressing security threats, to assess the origins of perceptions of specific security threats ranging from terrorism to environmental degradation, to investigate what makes some people feel more threatened by these issues than others, to examine the effects of threats on other areas of politics such as harbouring stereotypes of minorities or prioritising public spending on border control over health, and to evaluate the effectiveness of government messages about security threats and attempts to change citizens’ behaviour as part of the risk management cycle. The book demonstrates widespread heterogeneity in perceptions of issues as security threats and in their origins, with implications for the extent to which shared understandings of threats are an attainable goal. The concluding chapter summarises the findings and discusses their implications for government and public opinion in the future. While this study focuses on the British case, its combination of quantitative and qualitative methods seeks to make broader theoretical and methodological contributions to scholarship produced in Political Science, International Relations, Political Psychology, and Security Studies.

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