The funding for this project comes from Oxford Brookes University under the Research Excellence Award scheme.

The Principle Investigator is Dr. Juliette Koning

Start Date: September 2016

 

This research will focus on how private security organizations are ‘organised’ internally and externally and the impact of this developing sector on perceptions and experiences of security in both the UK and South Africa.

The following questions guide the  research:

• The codification and regulation of the sector
• The ethical and social responsibilities of private security companies
• Public-private partnerships in security governance
• The organisational practices and cultures of private security companies.

An underlying relevant question is to what extent this sector should be ‘allowed’ to regulate itself and how this growing sector impacts on the idea of ‘secure’ societies.

The main purpose of the project is to investigate the private security sector from the perspective of representatives from the sector, which is an omission in the field.