Towards a process-orientated account of the securitisation trinity: the speech act, the securitiser and the audience

This paper concerns how we understand and deploy securitisation-following speech act theory-from within a constative-performative continuum. The oscillation between each pole not only has analytical implications-moving from Schmitt-inspired prescriptive politics to performativity informed by Derrida-but also informs the actors and agency involved in the securitising move. Using this continuum as a point of departure, the paper has two aims. The first is to provide a state-of-the-art account of the Copenhagen school by locating the speech act, the securitiser and the audience within this continuum. Here, the securitiser shifts from a fixed agent to one constituted through the securitising move, while the audience moves from a proscriptive subject interpellated by the securitiser to an agent whose everyday life is integral to securitisation. The second aim is to interrogate the performative side of the spectrum wherein both the securitiser and the audience are subjects-in-process. A process-orientated account of securitisation is put forth in which the securitiser and the audience are enacted through the securitising move. Such an account rethinks the chronology of securitisation-placing greater emphasis on the enabling conditions that precede the utterance-and underlines the quotidian nature of security.