Human security and women’s security reality in Northwest Russia - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 245

The state has a very different understanding of security for women, it is argued,
and the problem-oriented focus reflected in the work of the crisis centres
allows for pragmatic recognition of various security concerns. Importantly, in
this context, it opens up the thinking about what and who produces security
for people locally. Ewan (2007:187) associates alternative security strate-
gies with ethical dialogue, empathy and self-restraint, while Fiona Robinson
(2008) has emphasized the importance of care in human security. These are
but two attempts to identify non-military security practices.
Human security research is not substantial in its specification of what
human security practices are in regard to a people-centred and not necessar-
ily military-centred approach. Over the course of my research on women's
security in Northwest Russia, the concern with defining what security 'really
is' has been an issue that I have continuously been confronted with, during
field work, at conferences and in other academic contexts of feedback and cri-
tique. In international documents, violence against women is acknowledged
as a security concern but, in practice, the presentation of my research project
under the heading of human security seldom if ever generated responses of
recognition by the respondents. The interviewees did, both in the interviews
and in written material, refer to violence against women as a security matter,
but other annotations, in particular 'human rights issue', is just as impor-
tant, if not more than the term human security, to their work in practice.
In academic contexts, the bringing together of violence against women and
human security in my project has also been questioned. One concern has
been why the human is included, as security on its own would suffice, it is
suggested. Other suggestions have been to exchange the term human secu-
rity with other terms, such as safety for example. Throughout this project
these debates have showed that delimiting security is a contingent task that
interconnects theory and practice, the local and the international. The analy-
sis of the work of non-state crisis centres in Northwest Russia exemplifies
the complex constraints that define people's security reality. The interest in
women's security in Northwest Russia has displayed specific and contextual
constraints on (de-militarized) security production. By studying ongoing
practices of security production that define people's comprehensive security
reality and making this visible, pre-conceived conceptions of security and
their connection to the use of military force are challenged. Regarding peo-
ple and their security experiences, a militarized security concept may not
be what is reflected on the ground. Particularly in the Circumpolar North,
the human security concept contributes to a much needed questioning and
reflection upon diverse understandings of security, from whose perspective,
when and in which context.