Research project Promises and consequences in security technology

Parallel to the rise of digitalization of different welfare areas, the idea of safety/security (trygghet) has also shifted focus, from traditional welfare issues to (fear of) crime. Technologies – for example digital maps, sensors, apps etc. – are produced to create secure communities, reduce the number of crimes and related costs and to provide citizens with tools to secure their everyday lives. This project focuses specifically on security apps, i.e. mobile applications aimed at individuals. That digitalization increasingly affects crime prevention is more of a prerequisite than a question for the future. However, we know less about how this happens and what social consequences it has. Through a sociological approach on producer-user relationships, the ambition with this project is to contribute on knowledge on how expectations and actual practice of security technology can be understood in relation to the everyday society at large. Through a focus on both producers and users of security apps, the project explores the promises and implications that the emerging technology security apps brings to questions of responsibility, fear of crime and citizen participation. A long-term aim is to create better conditions for discussing what crime prevention has been, what it is now, and what it can become in an increasingly digitized world.

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