ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the growth of community nodes in the governance of security with an eye to examining their implications for conceiving of “common” goods. State agents have traditionally undertaken the governance of security under state auspices. The iconic responsibilization program is that of “community policing”, a state-led “co-production” initiative that, while involving “consultation” with citizens, retains the position of the police as the bastion of security expertise and know-how and as bearers of public interest concerns. While considerable emphasis has been placed on the phenomenon of corporate auspices, community governments also exist in communal spaces that are constituted by a mix of public and private property. A common concern with markets for security goods is the ways in which these markets are constituted. The development of new forms of community governance that promote accumulation of economic and social capital within poor communities is one possible normative tact.
