The concepts, the poor relation of the (critical) security studies ? Proposal for an archaeology of security knowledge

Despite the extraordinary development of the field of "security studies", the concepts and knowledge (savoirs) underpinning the field remain largely understudied. This programmatic paper seeks to lay the foundations for a historical analysis of the emergence and the transformation of security concepts and knowledge (savoirs) from within a practice-oriented approach to security. To this end, the paper first offers an epistemological critique of securitization theory to affirm the utility of a practice approach. It then explores the conceptualization of the concept, especially in relation to knowledge and practice. Finally, the paper defines the empirical component of this type of historical - i.e.," archaeological" in the Foucauldian sense - analysis of security concepts and knowledge.