Grounding Security

Introduction

This book examines some of the mechanisms which are currently conceived as affording individual security. The idea of security includes emotional and financial components. These interconnect so that such common concepts as trust in someone and care taking include both ideas of emotional and financial support.

Family and Insurance

State policies on security rest on perceptions of two other institutions, the family and insurance, both of which are subject to change. At one time the extended family was seen as a major security-providing institution, but the contemporary nuclear family is more fragile.

The concept of insurance originally entailed ideas of community and mutual aid; however, the institution has developed, in its modern private form, as a profit-driven entity.

State Power and Security

This book addresses various uses of state power in providing security for individuals, and outlines different ways in which this can be done.