The needs of people in the focus of the security

#HumanSecurity #CommunityAction #Rights #Participation #Neighborhoods

Written by (*)

In this post we want to share The 2020 Document of the Human Safety and Community Construction Working Group aims to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of an alternative concept of security that places the needs of people as the focus of their attention and care. From this point of view, the notion of security is not oriented so much in the traditional conception centered on the protection of the State, but towards a conception that promotes the protection of people under the logic of human development, the right to the city and community construction. .

That is why the itinerary proposed for this article begins by presenting the concept of human security; It continues to analyze both the potentialities that it offers in terms of people’s well-being, freedoms and human rights, as well as the weaknesses at the level of conceptual clarification, as well as distortion in its use and application in public policies; and, finally, the need to bet on the notion of human security as a framework for the promotion of minimum material and social conditions for a dignified existence in the city is defended from a perspective of community construction of security.

This text appears with two premises: The first is that it is born in a specific context. It is in the current moment of exception, confinement and great uncertainty that we are living. The State has positioned itself with a centralist and authoritarian force making warmongering speeches against the Covid 19 virus. And the second is that the document is part of the work of a group that, around the concept of «human security and community construction», has been working for the last three years, and that was born with the support of Community Energies, a project of the Community Action Service of the Barcelona City Council managed by the Cooperativa etcéteras.

Now, without any intention of exhaustiveness and with a rather reflective posture, we want to share some of the ideas and lessons learned. As far as possible, we hope that these reflections help to build a conception of security aimed at providing care and satisfying basic needs, which allow the full development of people to live a life worth living.

(*) Irene Moulas, del equipo de Energies Comunitàries del Departament d’Acció comunitària de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona; Josep Maria Navarro, de la Cooperativa La Fàbrica; Antonio Alcántara Alcántara, de Facultat d’Educació de la Universitat de Barcelona y miembro de RISE; Inés Martínez Chacón, ESPAI CONEIX SCCL; Alejandra López Martín, del Servei d’Intervenció per la convivència a l’Espai Públic del Districte de Sant Andreu; Carlota López Rubio, del Servei d’Intervenció per la convivència a l’Espai Públic del Districte de Sant Andreu; Lito Barea, del Servei de Prevenció i Convivència y miembro de RISE; Houda Dahbi, del Servei de Prevenció i Convivència; Fatima Hassoun Mohamed, Servei d’Interculturalitat del Districte de Sant Andreu; Cristina Monteys Homar, Servei d’Interculturalitat del Districte de Sant Andreu.