Vigilant subjects

Abstract

A vigilant subject foregrounds the terrorist event, working immanently to its development and disrupting its realisation. Individuals are tasked with spotting the antecedents of future attacks in the present so as to ward off catastrophe and with being mindful of processes of radicalisation so as to counsel against extremism. A vigilant subject monitors others – as much as himself or herself – according to proscribed conduct, while at the same time he or she co-evolves with uncertainty in order to prevent emergent threats: be they those yet to materialise (signs of an attack) or yet to be even thought of (signs of radicalisation). This vigilant subject is explored through two cases: the British Transport Police campaign to make commuters aware of, and report, terror-related activity and the Prevent duty that asks university staff to limit students being drawn into terrorism.

Staying in the Game: Activation, Vigilance, and Normalization of Emergency Calls in Austria

“…Other scholars trace the historical connection between the implementation of emergency centers and efficient police management (Reeves and Packer 2013;Wilson 2019) or focus on contemporary anti-terror campaigns. The latter accounts highlight how police strategies rely on people's vigilance, suspicion, and awareness by also stigmatizing and stereotyping certain social, and often migrant, groups (Reeves 2012;Szpunar 2016;Larsson 2017;Emerson 2019). These studies do not put emergency services and public discursive struggles center-stage; nevertheless, concepts such as vigilance, responsibilization, and activation are highly relevant and will be discussed in the following theory section.…”