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

今天，我们被安全产品所包围：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，我们的电脑有反恶意软件系统和防火墙保护，我们的房子有锁和报警器。随着“物联网”的到来，安全领域正在进一步扩大，因为物理安全设备与其他技术联网，形成“智能”安全系统。似乎几乎在任何地方，我们都是通过购买由一个庞大的全球工业提供的安全商品——旨在保护财产和信息免受风险侵害的产品和服务——来应对日常风险的。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。在过去的200年里，商品化的安全得到了深刻的发展：仅在英国，少数专业的锁具制造公司已经发展成为一个庞大而强大的行业，到20世纪90年代，这个行业的市场规模已经超过了12亿英镑。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，而且还支撑和促进了社会生活的根本变革。安全产品和服务保障了贵重财产和信息的安全，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，保护了国家和企业的秘密，保护了过境和海关的货物，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把现代经济、社会和文化生活的结构连在一起。该奖学金将探索1785年至1995年英国商品化安全的发展——从布拉玛的“不可开锁”的第一次生产到议会对安全行业的关键调查。重点关注五种关键的安全商品-锁，保险箱，警报器，守卫和安全运输服务-研究将阐明安全贸易的商业历史，安全系统（或“整体”）的社会和技术历史，以及对风险和安全态度的文化史。它将提供一个关于安全如何被商品化的整体描述，分析产品和服务的设计、生产和消费方面的变化，并在整个社会——银行、仓库、办公室、公共机构和私人住宅——追踪这些变化。这项研究将揭示安全公司如何塑造了我们对风险的理解，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所起的作用- -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存、保密文化的形成等等有关。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，进入日常社会生活的核心。此外，该奖学金将与档案馆、博物馆和私人保安机构合作，突出“保安遗产”的价值，即书面记录、实物文物和其他有关保安过去的碎片，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使用来说明研究在“智能”安全时代的当代相关性和共鸣。通过这些方式，该奖学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问题方面的价值。

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.