Rethinking Frontline Private Security Work in Quasi-Public Space

We are delighted that Dr Adam White has agreed to deliver a talk as part of the our seminar series. He will be hosted by Megan O’Neill, Reader in Human Geography in the Division of Energy, Environment and Society, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law and Associate Director, Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR).

The seminar will be in person (4:00pm -5.15pm), followed by a short drinks reception (up to 6pm) allowing time for networking.

Title and topic : Back to the New Feudalism: Rethinking Frontline Private Security Work in Quasi-Public Space

Writing forty years ago, Shearing and Stenning (1983) wrote how the proliferation of shopping malls, business parks, gated communities and other forms of quasi-public space signalled the emergence of a ‘new feudalism’: a disconcerting new era in which private security officers enforce localised regimes of social control governed by instrumental corporate interests rather than moral concerns for citizen wellbeing and safety. Over subsequent decades, however, they consciously distanced themselves from this critically-oriented medieval rhetoric in favour of the more neutral (indeed positive) language of ‘nodal governance’. With this move, the term ‘new feudalism’ – and its accompanying critique – disappeared from plural policing scholarship.

This paper seeks to bring it back – but with a twist. Drawing upon two recent empirical studies (Loader and White 2018; Kostara and White 2023), it explores the tension between corporate interests and moral obligations in the decision-making processes of frontline private security officers as they police the boundaries of contemporary quasi-public space. It argues that while the troubling economically-determined behaviours captured in the feudal depiction continue to resonate, moral considerations make-up a much larger part of the picture than Shearing and Stenning ever envisaged. This revision, it concludes, allows us to harness the critical potential of the feudal conceptualisation, though in a more nuanced manner.

Dr White is an internationally-recognised scholar in the field of private security and private military industries, including their governance, legitimacy and regulation in a range of jurisdictions and his work encompasses criminology, politics and geography .

This seminar will have a wide appeal in the ISSR community and be of interest to academic staff, our PhD community and researchers. Read more on Dr White

4:00 pm - Welcome and Introductions (Room TBC, Dalhousie Building)

4:10 pm - Dr White

4:50 pm - Q & A

5.15 - 6pm Drinks reception (Space TBC, Dalhousie)

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Dalhousie Building, Smalls Wynd, Dundee, United Kingdom