Informal security nodes and force capital

Abstract

Nodal governance theory continues to have a significant impact upon contemporary understandings of the governance of security. Scholars such as Clifford Shearing and Benoit Dupont have used this theory to explain how various state and private sector security organisations interact and form networks of protection. However, security producing entities from the informal sector remain largely undefined. The purpose of this article is to address this theoretical gap and explore how informal security nodes (ISNs) operate in areas, and amongst populations, that are inadequately serviced by other, more formal security structures. Further developing the Bourdieuian metaphor of capital, this article will also introduce the concept of force capital and seek to explain its utility with regard to the operation of security nodes. Finally, a case study of ISN interaction in the South African informal settlement of Zandspruit will be presented and discussed with relevance to these novel theoretical developments.

Keywords:

• informal security nodes
• nodal governance
• force capital
• vigilantism
• private security

Notes

1. A number of scholars (Abrahamsen and Williams 2007a, p. 243, Wakefield 2010) have highlighted the difficulty of clearly determining whether various contemporary policing bodies are either state or private entities. Establishing a clear distinction between the two becomes problematic when considering the proliferation of private sponsorship of state policing, the commercialisation of state policing services, and the growing operational dependence between state and private security contractors.

2. Physical space has been the arena in which security nodes of all kinds have traditionally exerted their influence (Brodeur 2010). However, the development of the internet and the creation of ‘virtual space’ has created new opportunities for security nodes, as well as for individuals and organisations seeking to transgress laws and regulations. The development of online security and the intersection between new technologies and nodal governance theory presents intriguing opportunities for future research.

3. Statistics from Iraq were compiled from data provided by the independent NGO Iraq Body Count. Statistics include all killings involved with one or more perpetrators from January 2006 to December 2010. Since the waning of the anti-coalition insurrection and associated violence in 2008, casualties associated with the Mexican drug war casualties have rapidly outpaced those in Iraq.

4. The attacks on foreigners that took place in Zandspruit in 2008 were part of a wave of similar xenophobic incidents occurring in informal settlements and townships across South Africa. In all, at least 62 people were killed and some 100,000 displaced over several weeks of nationwide rioting (Kapp 2008).