Securing safety on campus: A case study.

This paper seeks to contribute to an understanding of networks of governance beyond the state through an examination of the programs of one of the institutions of security within the University of Toronto, Ontario, the Personal Safety Awareness Office (PSAO). The analysis is aimed at exploring the ways in which three themes that have been identified in the literature as crucial features of contemporary governance--a focus on community, local responsibility, and a risk mentality--operate outside of established state structures. The analysis is based on two sources of data. The first source of data is comprised of lengthy discussions with the person who established and was responsible for running the PSAO for the six years of its existence. Secondly, the authors conducted an examination of PSAO files. As both of these data sources provide limited and filtered access to what really happened, the accounts provided both in the interviews and through the case files were analyzed for evidence of the nature of the programs for governing security the PSAO sought to realize. The authors use these programs to illustrate the sort of strategies for governing security that are emerging outside of police organizations.