Exploring and modeling the societal safety and societal security concepts - A systematic review, empirical study and key implications

This paper explores and models the concepts of societal safety and societal security in tandem, with the aim of understanding how the concepts are composed, related, and can be reconciled. The need for reconciliation can be seen in how the concepts address similar topics and issues in literature, which calls for an exploration of the concepts' similarities and differences. The exploration offers both a systematic literature review of the societal safety and societal security concepts and the empirical analysis of how these concepts inform debate through in-depth interviews with leaders and key stakeholders in Norway. Data from the empirical study were analyzed by means of a systematic content analysis using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). The combined insights of the literature review and the empirical study resulted in a model of the societal safety and societal security concepts that highlights the concepts' multi-dimensional composition and closely related nature. The conceptual model represents an effort to reconcile the societal safety and societal security concepts. Associated implications to practice, policy, and research are discussed, along with the paper's contributions to safety and security research. The paper's theoretical contribution lies in its approach to conceptualizing and reconciling the interrelated and many-dimensioned nature of the societal safety and societal security concepts for further testing and extension. The methodological contribution is the explicit and systematic qualitative research design to facilitate transparency, structure, and insights in future explorations of safety and security concepts more broadly. While my findings coincide with much of the existing literature on what makes for good stakeholder involvement in discussions of societal safety and security, the paper offers new insights and dimensions for these concepts and further research. Two dimensions stand out. Firstly, threat discourses, defined by a societal elite and media, may enhance security measures and centralization tendencies that challenge democratic values such as the right to privacy and ability to influence the society's political course. Secondly, societal safety and societal security are about creating favorable physical and psychological conditions for people to experience the good life when society is faced with new/unknown elements.