ABSTRACT
Air travel is a traditional symbol and expression of whatever it is that “modern” means. Air travel is a mass-produced phenomenon. Millions upon millions of individuals fly every year, many of them repeatedly. Commercial travel has been made available to an astonishing degree. Such questions of (in)security have been technically/bureaucratically/legalistically addressed. In response to the dangers of flight, and through another notably modern process, a UN body emerged during the 1940s to govern the “general security” of aerial life: the International Civil Aviation Organization. For an example of the tactical evolution, airport security traditionally has erected static checkpoints in order to filter entrants to the “airside” zone, i.e., airport security sought to protect the planes and their passengers from hijacking. “Security” has been engaged derivatively, as the expression of a hegemonic state, i.e., the construction of the discipline has meant that security it is rather under-studied.
