Search

International audience; Our various studies in the sociology of quantification have convinced us that it is possible to look at social or political philosophies and seemingly technical tools at the same time, considering them as a totality. The works of Alain Desrosières have also demonstrated this. But our recent work on the French State accounting reform has shown that the new accounting system can be used in many different ways, for very different, and even divergent purposes. There seems to be no unequivocal link between a kind of quantification device and a specific social philosophy. This article aims to reconsider the nature and conditions of this link, on the basis of our recent work on state accounting reform.

"In this article the author will analyze the functioning of conspiracy dispositives from the bottom up and the nexus between conspiracy dispositives and security dispositives in the context of the political rise of right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn and the various conspiracy theories that arose after his murder and the effects these conspiracy theories had on Dutch politics and society. These counter-conspiracy theories revolved mainly around the suggestion that the political establishment was responsible for the murder or at least had turned a blind eye to it. The analysis shows that although a small Part of the conspiracy constructions can rightfully be understood as counter-conspiracy dispositives raised bottom up, in the majority of the cases a blurring can be noted between counter-conspiracy dispositives and conspiracy dispositives. This can be explained by the fact that - parts of - the seemingly counter-conspiracy dispositives were initiated, adopted and instrumentalized by actors from 'above': actors from the Dutch political and cultural establishment. In fact, an intra-elite competition was being battled out." (author's abstract)

This introduction offers a brief historiographic account on current histories of security. A case is made for historians to rely more on and profit from recent theories and concepts in political science, most notably the concepts invented by the Copenhagen School on securitization. Furthermore, an attempt is made to ‘historicize security’ and provide some new methodological perspectives, in particular the idea of connecting security to conspiracy as an operational dispositive for analyzing instances of security policy making., Historical Social Research Vol. 38, No. 1 (2013): Special Issue: Security and Conspiracy in History, 16th to 21st Century. Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1