Fitting Security into the Swiss Value Landscape

What comes to people's minds when they think of security? Is there a relationship between global security threats and local, everyday events that influence our feeling of security? Drawing from telephone interviews of 1'000 Swiss citizens, this work attempts to provide a missing link between the spheres of personal and public security. Based on empirical data and using quantitative statistical methods such as correspondence analysis and logistic regression, security is conceived through the statements of common citizens. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of the different notions of security in contemporary Switzerland.

Autorentext
The Author: Jonathan Bennett studied psychology, psychopathology, and English literature at the University of Zurich. From 1999-2004 he worked as a research assistant at the Military Academy at the ETH Zurich publishing numerous articles and book contributions on security from a psychological and sociological perspective. He is a research associate in the public health administration of the canton of Berne, Switzerland.

Inhalt

Contents: Security - a signifier with many significations - Personal security - psychological approaches - Conceptualizing security from the perspective of values - The research question - Method - Results - The relationship between self-efficacy and predictions of future value importance - What do Swiss citizens associate with security?