International Political Sociology. Internal Security as Transnational Power Fields
Abstract
This contribution sets out one of the most critical approaches to studying EU internal security cooperation, which has been coined the ‘PARIS’ school related to International Political Sociology. It draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s drive to rethink security in terms of practice rather than norms, values or interest, and specifically looks at the relations amongst professionals that constitute and shape the field of internal security in Europe. Thus, the PARIS school shows how networks of police cooperation have pragmatically developed around ‘Euroterrorism’ and organized crime, and been gradually expanded to the domains of border, intelligence, and military cooperation. As a result, the distinction between external and internal security threats has been increasingly blurred, and one can discern new European transnational guilds of experts around risk management and (in)security.