1st Edition

Vernacular Security Studies Concepts, Cases, and Critiques

Edited By Lee Jarvis, Michael Lister, Akinyemi Oyawale Copyright 2026
202 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

202 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

202 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book covers new conceptual, methodological, and empirical issues that will progress debate on Vernacular Security Studies (VSS) and the value of studying ordinary articulations of (in)security. Bringing together established and emerging scholars, it offers a timely and much needed engagement with this explicitly critical – and increasingly prominent – framework in security research.... Read more

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Vernacular grammars of in/security: (post)colonial language games of border ‘crisis’ in the Channel Thom Tyerman

Chapter 2: Insecurity of migrant women and complex state violence: a vernacular security approach
Alexandria Innes

Chapter 3: Material measures and (im)material threats: a 'vernacular' exploration of security in Istanbul
Samarjit Ghosh

Chapter 4: Branding vernacular (in)security in and with the city: an Appnographic Study of Snapchat in Marseille
Joseph Downing

Chapter 5: Vernacular actors in Trieste’s migrant geographies: towards a spatialisation of vernacular security studies
Noemi Bergesio

Chapter 6: Relational security: a ‘vernacular turn’ in the Pacific
Maima Koro

Chapter 7: Speaking for, speaking with: vernacular research in the Global South
Hannah Owens

Chapter 8: Security: vernacular, more-than-human, and otherwise 
Nils Bubandt

Conclusion

Index

Biography

Lee Jarvis is Professor of Security and Society at Adelaide University, Australia. He holds honorary professorships at the University of East Anglia, UK, and Loughborough University, UK. Lee’s research focuses on the construction and communication of security challenges. He co-edits the journal Critical Studies on Terrorism, and has published over 60 articles and 18 books on the politics of security, including Times of Terror: Discourse, Temporality and the War on Terror; Anti-Terrorism, Citizenship and Security (with Michael Lister), and Banning Them, Securing Us? Terrorism, Parliament and the Ritual of Proscription (with Tim Legrand). Lee’s work has been funded by organisations including the ESRC, the AHRC, the Australian Research Council, NATO, and the US Office of Naval Research.

Michael Lister is Professor of Politics at Oxford Brookes University, UK. His research focuses on the intersections between citizenship and terrorism/counterterrorism. He is the author of Public Opinion and Counterterrorism: Security and Politics in the UK (2023) and co-editor of The State: Theories and Issues, 2nd Edition (2022). He has published research in Political Studies, Parliamentary Affairs, International Relations, British Journal of Politics, and International Relations, amongst others. He has presented his research findings widely, including to the Home Office, the Welsh Assembly, and police officers.

Akinyemi Oyawale is a multi-award winning scholar and Assistant Professor in International Relations in the Politics and International Studies Department (PAIS) at the University of Warwick, UK. Akin holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia and is interested in investigating terrorism, counterterrorism, radicalisation, and extremism through a critical approach, and he has previously investigated how Boko Haram terrorism and state counterterrorism have interacted to impact on the (in)security of citizens in Northeast Nigeria.