Security for sale in modern Britain: security provision, ensembles and cultures, 1785 - 1995

今天，我们被安全商品包围：我们的购物中心有私人警卫巡逻，我们的城镇中心有闭路电视监控，我们的电脑受到反恶意软件系统和防火墙的保护，我们的家用锁和警报器加固。随着物联网的到来，安全格局正在进一步扩大，因为物理安全设备与其他技术联网，形成了“智能”安全系统。似乎在几乎所有地方，我们都是通过购买由庞大的全球行业提供的安全商品--寻求保护财产和信息免受风险的产品和服务--来驾驭日常风险。在这些发展的背后，是一段发人深省但基本上被遗忘的历史。过去两百年见证了商品化安全的深刻增长：仅在英国，少数专业制锁公司就演变成了一个庞大而强大的行业，到20世纪90年代，这个行业养活了超过12亿GB的市场。这一发展的社会和文化后果是深远的。安全的商品化不仅微妙地塑造了我们想象犯罪、火灾和其他风险的方式--它还支撑和促进了社会生活的根本性变革。为了确保有价值的财产和信息的安全，安全产品和服务保护了博物馆和画廊的藏品，保护了富人的资产，维护了现代官僚机构的记录，保护了国家和企业机密，保护了运输中和通过海关的货物，并使纸币得以大规模流通。简而言之，通过市场提供的安全商品帮助缝合了现代经济、社会和文化生活的结构。该奖学金将探索1785-1995年间英国商品化安全的发展--从布拉马的第一把不可撬锁的生产到议会对安全行业的关键调查。这项研究聚焦于五种关键的安全商品--锁、保险箱、报警器、警卫和安全运输服务--将阐明安全贸易的商业史、安全系统(或“整体”)的社会和技术史，以及对风险和安全的态度的文化史。它将全面说明安全是如何商品化的，分析产品和服务的设计、生产和消费的变化，并通过整个社会追踪这些变化--进入银行、仓库、办公室、公共机构和私人住宅。这项研究将提供一个具有启发性的洞察，了解安全公司如何塑造我们对风险的理解，以及与安全的接触如何折射出对隐私、信任和保护责任的更广泛态度。它将展示安全商品在社会变革中发挥的作用--日常产品和服务如何与现代记录系统的出现、历史和文化文物的保护、保密文化的形成等有关。通过这些方式，这项研究将突出安全商品化的经济、社会和文化后果，远远超出犯罪和火灾等直接问题，深入日常社会生活的核心。此外，该研究金将与档案馆、博物馆和私人保安组织合作，突出“安全遗产”的价值--纸质记录、材料文物和安全历史的其他碎片--并倡导保护和利用这些历史资源。它还将与公众接触，利用安全遗产的创造性利用，说明这项研究在“智能”安全时代的当代相关性和共鸣。通过这些方式，该研究金将把当代安全问题与丰富的历史联系起来，展示历史研究在解决我们这个时代如何最好地与风险共存的关切方面的价值。

Today, we are surrounded by security commodities: our shopping centres are patrolled by private guards, our town centres watched over by CCTV, our computers protected by anti-malware systems and firewalls, our homes fortified by locks and alarms. With the arrival of the 'internet of things', the security landscape is expanding further, as physical security devices are networked with other technologies to form 'smart' security systems. Almost everywhere, it seems, we navigate everyday risks through the purchase of security commodities - products and services which seek to safeguard property and information against risk - supplied by a vast global industry. Behind these developments is a revealing yet largely forgotten history. The last two hundred years have seen profound growth in commodified security: in Britain alone, a handful of specialist lock-making firms have morphed into a vast and powerful industry, which fed a market of over £1.2 billion by the 1990s. The social and cultural consequences of this development were profound. Not only has the commodification of security subtly shaped the way we imagine crime, fire and other risks - it has also underpinned and facilitated fundamental transformations in social life. Guaranteeing security for valuable property and information, security products and services have preserved museum and gallery collections, shielded the assets of the rich, maintained the records of modern bureaucracies, protected state and corporate secrets, safeguarded goods in transit and through customs, and enabled the mass circulation of paper currency. In short, security commodities - provided through the market - have helped stitch together the very fabric of modern economic, social and cultural life.This fellowship will explore the development of commodified security in Britain, 1785-1995 - from the first production of Bramah's 'unpickable' lock to a key Parliamentary inquiry into the security industry. Focusing on five key security commodities - locks, safes, alarms, guarding and secure transit services - the research will illuminate the business history of the security trade, the social and technical history of security systems (or 'ensembles'), and the cultural history of attitudes towards risk and security. It will provide a holistic account of how security was commodified, analysing shifts in the design, production and consumption of products and services, and tracing them through society - into banks, warehouses, offices, public institutions and private homes. The research will provide a revealing insight into how security firms have shaped our understanding of risk, and how engagements with security refract wider attitudes towards privacy, trust and responsibility for protection. It will demonstrate the role security commodities have played in social change - how everyday products and services were implicated in the emergence of modern record systems, the preservation of historic and cultural artefacts, the formation of cultures of secrecy, and more besides. In these ways, the research will highlight the economic, social and cultural consequences of security commodification, reaching far beyond immediate problems of crime and fire into the heart of everyday social life. Furthermore, working with archives, museums and private security organisations, the fellowship will highlight the value of 'security heritage' - paper records, material artefacts and other fragments of security's pasts - and advocate for the preservation and utilisation of such historic resources. It will also engage with members of the public, harnessing creative uses of security heritage to illustrate the contemporary relevance and resonances of the research in an age of 'smart' security. In these ways, the fellowship will connect contemporary issues in security with a rich history, demonstrating the value of historical research in addressing concerns regarding how best to live with risk in our own time.