STRATEGIC NARRATIVES AND COUNTERNARRATIVES. TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGY OF SECURITY

The article brings under scrutiny the issue of strategic narratives and counternarratives. It works from two basic assumptions. According to the first assumption, security should be explored as a process. This process, according to the second assumption, is an intersubjective one, which means security could be examined as a constant negotiation between elites and population with respect to the sense of threats. The School of Copenhagen has deemed this negotiation securitization. What differentiates my approach from the one proposed by the School of Copenhagen, is that I lay emphasis on population, as the most important actor of the securitization process. Under such circumstances, I argue that sociology is able to explore security events. I also part ways with the School of Copenhagen’s approach because I argue that security discourse includes strategic narratives which are used by elites to interpret security events in line with a certain political interest. The article advances some theoretical solutions for the study of strategic narratives, and in its last part, the article scrutinizes the issue of strategic counternarratives.

Keywords: security, securitization, the Copenhagen School, strategic narratives, counternarratives.

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