Sicherheitsgemeinschaften

Deepening segregation, seclusion and at times the return of violence are often characteristic by-products of peace processes. Likewise, formerly effective mechanisms of control lose their legitimacy, leading to a heightened intra-community desire for social order. The erosion of the community’s moral fabric is perceived as threatening. The flip side of a community spirit shaped by strong emotional bonds is marked by moral entrepreneurship, vigilantism and rigid, conformity-constraining forms of social control – backed by the threat of violence. This threat is thus not a remnant of the past but part of the peaceful order.
Nadja Maurer explores the local concepts of security that are manifested in the discourse and practices of residents in marginalised working-class communities. Security is negotiated and re-formulated in the peace process, but it remains decisive for the formation of social and political communities.