Trapped: Does the Security Industry Make Us Less Safe?

Can security be bought? At this moment when people are nervous about their safety, authors Setha Low and Mark Maguire discuss how security has become a commodity, causing both those with and those without it to live in fear. In their new book, Trapped: Life Under Security Capitalism and How to Escape It, they explore — in interviews with police, private contractors, and ordinary citizens — how the security-industrial-complex actually increases anxiety — and what can be done to break down walls for a freer, safer, and more just society. Low, a distinguished professor of psychology, anthropology, earth and environmental sciences, and women’s and gender studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Maguire, a professor anthropology at Maynooth University in Ireland, speak with Alex S. Vitale, a professor of sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Presented with the Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, the Ph.D. Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the Public Space Research Group.