Awards

• Winner of PROSE Awards: Sociology & Social Work 2012.

Overview

Remember when an unattended package was just that, an unattended package? Remember when the airport was a place that evoked magical possibilities, not the anxiety of a full-body scan? In the post-9/11 world, we have become focused on heightened security measures, but do you feel safer? Are you safer? Against Security explains how our anxieties about public safety have translated into command-and-control procedures that annoy, intimidate, and are often counterproductive. Taking readers through varied ambiguously dangerous sites, the prominent urbanist and leading sociologist of the everyday, Harvey Molotch, argues that we can use our existing social relationships to make life safer and more humane. He begins by addressing the misguided strategy of eliminating public restrooms, which deprives us all of a basic resource and denies human dignity to those with no place else to go. Subway security instills fear through programs like See Something, Say Something and intrusive searches that have yielded nothing of value. At the airport, the security gate causes crowding and confusion, exhausting the valuable focus of TSA staff. Finally, Molotch shows how defensive sentiments have translated into the vacuous Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site and massive error in New Orleans, both before and after Hurricane Katrina. Throughout, Molotch offers thoughtful ways of maintaining security that are not only strategic but improve the quality of life for everyone. Against Security argues that with changed policies and attitudes, redesigned equipment, and an increased reliance on our human capacity to help one another, we can be safer and maintain the pleasure and dignity of our daily lives.

Full Product Details

Author:   Harvey L. Molotch
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.571kg
ISBN:  

9780691155814

ISBN 10:   069115581
Pages:   278
Publication Date:   26 August 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1 Introduction: Colors of Security 1 Chapter 2 Bare Life: Restroom Anxiety and the Urge for Control 22 Chapter 3 Below the Subway: Taking Care Day In and Day Out with Noah McClain 50 Chapter 4 Wrong-Way Flights: Pushing Humans Away 85 Chapter 5 Forting Up the Skyline: Rebuilding at Ground Zero 128 Chapter 6 Facing Katrina: Illusions of Levee and Compulsion to Build 154 Chapter 7 Conclusion: Radical Ambiguity and the Default to Decency 192 Notes 225 Index 251

Reviews

The author is concerned with the complex systems that permit us to feel safe in public places. He traces a path from public toilet facilities through subways and airports to the reconstruction of Ground Zero before taking on the catastrophic effects of nature in the hurricane damage and flooding of New Orleans in 2005. Molotch treats each phase of the narrative separately and considers the design and organization of space, entries, and exits, fields of vision and patterns of activity, whether encouraged or not. The author's approach to public spaces as an environment permits an insightful, provocative treatment of whether the security we seek is fostered or not--and if so, how... A humane, well-researched examination of privacy and security issues. Kirkus Reviews

Mr. Molotch ... present(s) a vivid picture of the ways in which poorly designed security measures can deform everyday life and defeat themselves. -- Jordan Ellenberg Wall Street Journal America's obsession with safety makes us angry, alienated, and ultimately less safe, argues this penetrating study of public security. Sociologist Molotch criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security gates that require useless and humiliating body searches while generating long lines that make tempting targets for terrorists; ill-conceived New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents. Even gender-segregated public restrooms (co-ed restrooms, he contends, would be more convenient and safer for women). Molotch recommends simple hardware and procedural improvements, from better stairways and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service regimens that help employees spot trouble. More than that, he argues for a conceptual shift away from rigid, rule-bound 'command and control' toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises through spontaneous order and mutual aid. Molotch shrewdly analyzes the ways in which anxious, stressed-out people interact with their physical and social environments in a lively, engaging prose that skewers the verities of the post-9/11 security state. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of our culture of public fear, one that stands conventional wisdom on its head. Publishers Weekly The author is concerned with the complex systems that permit us to feel safe in public places. He traces a path from public toilet facilities through subways and airports to the reconstruction of Ground Zero before taking on the catastrophic effects of nature in the hurricane damage and flooding of New Orleans in 2005. Molotch treats each phase of the narrative separately and considers the design and organization of space, entries, and exits, fields of vision and patterns of activity, whether encouraged or not. The author's approach to public spaces as an environment permits an insightful, provocative treatment of whether the security we seek is fostered or not--and if so, how... A humane, well-researched examination of privacy and security issues. Kirkus Reviews Against Security is an interesting book that will appeal to all sorts of readers, published by a prestigious academic press, and retaining some of the trappings of a serious academic study. It never falters in presenting interesting and thought-provoking stories, which will make it attractive to an audience much broader than social scientists. -- David E. Spiro New York Journal of Books

Author Information

Harvey Molotch is professor of sociology and metropolitan studies at New York University. He is the author of Where Stuff Comes From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers, and Many Other Things Come to Be As They Are .

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