Just a Matter of Words? The Construction of a Self-Legitimation Discourse by Private Security Companies
Magnon-pujo, Cyril
Just a Matter of Words? The Construction of a Self-Legitimation Discourse by Private Security Companies - 2016.
39
Focusing on the case of internationally active private security companies, the present article examines the role of discourse in processes of legitimation. Long decried as mercenaries, these companies are today widely used and recognized as specialized, private and regulated businesses. Endowed with this newly acquired identity, they now seem to be legitimate actors. It is therefore worth considering the forms that this process of legitimation has taken by comparing the discourse produced by the security companies themselves with the manner in which they are discussed in other arenas. This side-by-side comparison reveals the constraints that operate on the production of a discourse in the area of private security and, above all, allows one to assess the conditions of its authority. For imposing a discourse – and an identity – in a domain considered as falling under the competence of the state cannot be reduced to a process of self-definition.
Just a Matter of Words? The Construction of a Self-Legitimation Discourse by Private Security Companies - 2016.
39
Focusing on the case of internationally active private security companies, the present article examines the role of discourse in processes of legitimation. Long decried as mercenaries, these companies are today widely used and recognized as specialized, private and regulated businesses. Endowed with this newly acquired identity, they now seem to be legitimate actors. It is therefore worth considering the forms that this process of legitimation has taken by comparing the discourse produced by the security companies themselves with the manner in which they are discussed in other arenas. This side-by-side comparison reveals the constraints that operate on the production of a discourse in the area of private security and, above all, allows one to assess the conditions of its authority. For imposing a discourse – and an identity – in a domain considered as falling under the competence of the state cannot be reduced to a process of self-definition.
Réseaux sociaux