Models and Order
In this cluster, we examine the security models used in interdisciplinary security research and question what these models have to say about the formation and preservation of order – whether that is the order of technical or information objects, order of society or groups and communities, or the order of relations between objects. It has been argued that security becomes visible when two or more partially ordered sets of values collide. It could also be said that many (but not all) modes of security thinking focus on the preservation or restoration of order.
Models are a means of both describing and reasoning about order and what can change or challenge such an order. More generally, models are the abstractions through which security is both practised and theorised. Models describe, create, and mediate security thinking. It can be said that models contain inscriptions of order - whether that is the order of data, technology, human-computer interactions, society, or nation states. Models also articulate the relations (actual or intended) relations between things. Models are a means through which we can reason about the dynamic contingencies of an order and how security interventions of different types shape these contingencies. And yet, despite the importance of models to interdisciplinary security and security more generally, relatively little attention has been paid to the practice of modelling and the impact that modelling has on security thinking. The ISC aims to address this gap with this cluster.
Potential areas of study include:
- What are the relationships between models and security truths?
- What different types of models are at work across the full range of security studies?
- Which security ground truths are represented in each type of security model?
- How do the models at the core of [security] technologies conceptualise social order?
- How might models be used to better understand how security technologies shape social order?