Being a Nodal Police

Abstract

This paper advances a ‘nodal governance’ perspective, which understands the delivery of security as being accomplished through the thinking and practices of various ‘nodes’ or entities characterized by ways of thinking about problems and influencing events. In this light, policing should be understood sociologically as involving the activities of state and non‐state entities (e.g. corporations and well‐resourced communities) as well as the public police. The authors argue that it is essential for police to recognize the nodal world within which they live and to locate themselves within ‘nodal assemblages’ for the delivery of security. As illustrations, the paper discusses two practical projects devoted to exploring nodal security governance arrangements in the country contexts of South Africa and Australia. The authors add that the question of what precisely nodal policing can or should look like in concrete terms is an empirical matter to be resolved within site‐specific contexts.

Keywords: governance; nodal governance