Against Security: How We Go Wrong at Airports, Subways, and Other Sites of Ambiguous Danger - Updated Edition

How security procedures could be positive, safe, and effective

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? Against Security explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. Sociologist Harvey Molotch takes us through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities--along with smarter design of public spaces. In a new preface, he discusses abatement of panic and what the NSA leaks reveal about the real holes in our security.

Author: Harvey Molotch
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 08/24/2014
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 9.19h x 6.13w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9780691163581

About the Author
Harvey Molotch is professor of sociology and metropolitan studies at New York University. His other books include the classic Urban Fortunes and the more recent Where Stuff Comes From.