The Everyday Life of Security: Capturing Space, Practice, and Affect

Abstract Security shapes everyday life, but despite a growing literature on security there is no consensus the meaning of “everyday.” At same time, research methods that dominate field are designed to study elites and high politics. This paper does two things. First, it brings together synthesizes existing argue we should think about life as constituted across three dimensions: space, practice, affect. Thus, adds conceptual clarity, demonstrating multifaceted exists in mundane spaces, routine practices, affective/lived experiences. Second, works through methodological implications three-dimensional understanding security. In order capture all dimensions ways which they interact, need explore different methods. The offers one such method, exploring contemporary China participatory photography project with six ordinary citizens Beijing. central contribution capturing—conceptually methodologically—all dimensions, develop our