Security and Public Vigilance in Post-9/11 America

• In Event: Preventing and Investigating Terrorism: National and Local Responses

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative data collected for my Ph.D. project, this presentation explores the “If You See Something, Say Something” public vigilance campaign which—after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—quickly became one of the hallmarks of the U.S.’s homeland security strategy. The campaign serves to reinforce the government’s message that everyone now plays a role in homeland security by reminding citizens to stay watchful and to report any unusual or suspicious objects, people and circumstances to the authorities. By acting as the “eyes and ears” of law enforcement, citizens are to assist the state in its task of identifying and capturing potential homegrown “terrorists” in order to prevent them from carrying out future attacks. The first part of this presentation examines the state-initiated public vigilance campaign as a technology of security government that directly draws on the citizens' senses and affects (fear) in order to responsibilize them. The second part then analyzes how this vigilant mode of governance is contested, challenged and subverted, for example through artistic interventions. Together the two parts shine light on the role public vigilance campaigns play within the larger framework of social control in late modern society.

Author

• Kerrin-Sina Arfsten, MPI for Foreign and International Criminal Law