Private security governance responses to climate-related harmscapes

• In Event: Governing the Effects of Climate Change: Local policing adaptations, impacts and implications

Abstract

This paper reflects on the proliferation of novel forms of private security governance assemblages, specifically the roles of private auspices and providers in responding to contemporary climate-related socio-material ‘harmscapes’. The authors use the lens of climatic harms and associated discursive shifts in understandings of the relationship between humans and ‘nature’ to draw attention to: climate gating adaptations; assemblages of powers and capacities being mobilised in response to emerging harmscapes; the logics and technologies underpinning these developments’ the roles of established security agents and novel security professionals; and, the use of resilience as a conceptual framing.

Authors

• Julie Berg, University of Glasgow

• Clifford Shearing, University of Cape Town