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Human security benchmarks : governing human wellbeing at a distance
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Homolar, Alexandra (2015) Human security benchmarks : governing human wellbeing at a distance. Review of International Studies, 41 (05). pp. 843-863. doi:10.1017/S0260210515000352 ISSN 0260-2105.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000352
Abstract
When the United Nations Development Programme formally introduced the concept of human security in 1994, it was widely celebrated as a long-overdue humanist alternative to orthodox models of security. Today, human security is a buzzword for describing the complex challenges that individuals and communities face in achieving safety and wellbeing in an insecure world. This article directs attention away from the emancipatory and empowering qualities commonly ascribed to human security to explore, instead, the specific role of benchmarking within the wider human security agenda. The main focus here is on the ways in which human life has been operationalised, measured, and classified to create indicators that permit judgements about individual security and insecurity. The article argues that although a single global human security benchmark has yet to be established, the main indices used as performance metrics of human insecurity have produced a narrow understanding of what it means to live a ‘secure’ life and have reinforced the state as the main focal point of international security governance.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | J Political Science > JC Political theory | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Human security | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Review of International Studies | ||||||
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||
ISSN: | 0260-2105 | ||||||
Official Date: | December 2015 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 41 | ||||||
Number: | 05 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 21 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 843-863 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1017/S0260210515000352 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 June 2016 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 June 2016 | ||||||
Funder: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) | ||||||
Grant number: | ES/K008684/1 (ESRC) |
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