Research Methods in Critical Security Studies, 2nd Edition

41 Materiality and the production of objects

Joanna Tidy

DOI: 10.4324/9781003108016-47

Introduction

How might we study the materials of security? By materials I mean, in this instance, objects, stuff, things, items. We might immediately think of things like weapons and military kit or perhaps anti-ram vehicle barriers or airport scanning devices, but the ‘objectness’ (Rech 2019: 5; see also Austin 2019) of war and (in)security also encompasses an array of less obvious, quotidian ‘stuff’. Researchers have brought our attention to the ways that items such as food, clothing, and toys and games, military recruitment ephemera, and hand-crafted hats and colourful pillowcases (Enloe 2000:1; Tidy 2015; Tynan 2013; Machin and Van Leeuwen 2009; Rech ...