Security/Capital
A General Theory of Pacification
What is security, and what is its relationship to capitalism? George S. Rigakos' powerful sociological treatise charts the rise of the security-industrial complex. Starting from a critical appraisal of ‘productive labour’ in the works of Karl Marx and Adam Smith, Rigakos builds a conceptual model of pacification based on practices of dispossession, exploitation and the fetish of security commodities.
Rigakos argues that a defining characteristic of the global economic system is its ability to productively sell (in)security to those it makes insecure. Materially and ideologically, the security-industrial complex is the blast furnace of global capitalism, fuelling the perpetuation of the system while feeding relentlessly on the surpluses it has exacted.
Introduction: Security Under Capitalism
1. Productive Labour
2. Dispossession
3. Exploitation
4. The Security Commodity
5. Security is Hegemony
6. The Productivity of Security
Conclusions: Security After Capitalism
Bibliography
Index.
In an age when capital wins time and again and everyone from politicians to academics insist that we must all bow down in the name of security, this book challenges the power of both. The outcome is a radical deployment of the concept of pacification which will transform our understanding of the wars carried out in the name of security/capital.
In this powerful interrogation, Rigakos clarifies and extends pacification theory by showing the intimate connection between capitalism and (in)security, historically and here today. His passionate message is that no vision of a post-capitalist future can afford not to take security seriously.
