Human security and women’s security reality in Northwest Russia - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 243

of individual women, and convey their understanding of these difficulties
to a broader public. This is the essence of their involvement in the symbolic
struggle for power to produce a vision of the world of violence against women.
By using their experiences to promote advocacy of measures against violence
towards women, they also use this knowledge and experience to the benefit of
other women that may experience violence.
Describing how security practices are conducted does not necessarily
explain what kind of security is produced. A few quotes from the interviews
suggest what sort of key issues are relevant to the kind of security established
by crisis centres. For example, it is said that 'We talk about abuse, make
words, phrases - what it is that we are doing, that is, building' (Informant
16/2006). This implies that a key activity is to make sense of the kind of
insecurity experienced by people. The importance of such meaning-making
is emphasized through the experience of Russian crisis centres regarding
women who do not acknowledge that they live in a situation of violence.
Making words to describe women's insecurities in situations that were previ-
ously naturalized was therefore a key aspect in the work of non-state crisis
centres in Russia. Closely connected with this is access to information. In one
interview it was stated that: 'If you are informed, it means you're protected'
(Informant 9/2006).
This includes the information needed to acknowledge that you are a vic-
tim of violence. Beyond that, however, information is security because it
implies that a victim knows where help can be found and whom to contact
and through which methods. To act, however, requires a belief that the sys-
tem functions. In one interview it was commented that: 'They [Norwegian
women] are more confident [than Russian women] that they will receive
help' (Informant 16/2006). The kind of security produced by non-state crisis
centres in Northwest Russia was tied to processes of meaning-making and
information provision that required confidence in those processes.
Human security and women's (in)security in
the North
Bringing human security studies to a local, people-centred setting makes con-
tingencies in security production visible. In regard to women's security in
Northwest Russia, security is addressed institutionally, i.e. by crisis centres,
but is still subject to personal connections and ad hoc organizations, which
implies that security for women is an ambiguous project in this context.
Therefore, the analysis of the work of non-state crisis centres in Northwest
Russia provides an empirical case that can explain in some detail what local
actors are doing in regard to women's security. But is this a re-conceptualiza-
tion of (human) security?
Marlies Glasius (2008) has pointed out that human security involves a
shift in epistemological perspective from objectivism to an engagement with