Harvey Molotch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163581
- eISBN:
- 9781400852338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163581.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
This chapter focuses on air travel, perhaps the most notorious venue of the security apparatus. We learn once again from the appliances and procedures, this time of the especially elaborate system of ...
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This chapter focuses on air travel, perhaps the most notorious venue of the security apparatus. We learn once again from the appliances and procedures, this time of the especially elaborate system of precautions in the post-9/11 world of flight, that much, in concept as well as in the detail, is quite beside the point. And some of it, as per pattern, runs counter to making things safe at all. The choices that have been made are just that, choices—explicable in the specifics of their moment in the United States' political and moral history. The chapter offers up alternative ways to deal with the fear of others' flying, ways that at the same time enhance other human goals, simple ones like convenience and complex ones like contentment. The trick is to offer a response to fear of flying through less odious forms of intervention—and indeed enhancements of pleasure.Less
This chapter focuses on air travel, perhaps the most notorious venue of the security apparatus. We learn once again from the appliances and procedures, this time of the especially elaborate system of precautions in the post-9/11 world of flight, that much, in concept as well as in the detail, is quite beside the point. And some of it, as per pattern, runs counter to making things safe at all. The choices that have been made are just that, choices—explicable in the specifics of their moment in the United States' political and moral history. The chapter offers up alternative ways to deal with the fear of others' flying, ways that at the same time enhance other human goals, simple ones like convenience and complex ones like contentment. The trick is to offer a response to fear of flying through less odious forms of intervention—and indeed enhancements of pleasure.
Harvey Molotch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163581
- eISBN:
- 9781400852338
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163581.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the ...
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The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? This book explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. The book takes the reader through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities—along with smarter design of public spaces. The book criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security that requires body searches while generating long lines of queuing people; New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents; even gender-segregated public restrooms. The book recommends simple improvements, from better structural design and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service procedures that help employees to spot trouble. More so, it argues for a shift away from command and control toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of the culture of public fear.Less
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? This book explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. The book takes the reader through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities—along with smarter design of public spaces. The book criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security that requires body searches while generating long lines of queuing people; New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents; even gender-segregated public restrooms. The book recommends simple improvements, from better structural design and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service procedures that help employees to spot trouble. More so, it argues for a shift away from command and control toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of the culture of public fear.
Rob Kitchin
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529215144
- eISBN:
- 9781529215168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529215144.003.0021
- Subject:
- Sociology, Science, Technology and Environment
This chapter investigates the Kafkaesque procedures involved in data-driven airport security. It considers the experience of a passenger who keeps being selected for a special security check. While ...
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This chapter investigates the Kafkaesque procedures involved in data-driven airport security. It considers the experience of a passenger who keeps being selected for a special security check. While waiting in line for the security check, he has a conversation with another passenger who had been suffering the same drama for four years. The passenger recounts how he has been trying to find a way to get off the list, but the Transportation Security Administration officers do not seem to know why a passenger is on it. Moreover, there is no process to get off it. A man told the passenger once that not even the people that programmed the system know why a person is selected; they do not know what the critical data points are because the system self-learns.Less
This chapter investigates the Kafkaesque procedures involved in data-driven airport security. It considers the experience of a passenger who keeps being selected for a special security check. While waiting in line for the security check, he has a conversation with another passenger who had been suffering the same drama for four years. The passenger recounts how he has been trying to find a way to get off the list, but the Transportation Security Administration officers do not seem to know why a passenger is on it. Moreover, there is no process to get off it. A man told the passenger once that not even the people that programmed the system know why a person is selected; they do not know what the critical data points are because the system self-learns.
