Safe
A desire for safety is exacerbated in an insecure world (to paraphrase Zygmunt Bauman) which is negotiating globalisation, terrorism, and the fragmentation of certainty. Feeling ‘safe’ can cover a range of issues, including physical, mental, social, and economic wellbeing.
For the Queensland Department of Education and the Arts, child safety is prioritised, particularly for refugee and humanitarian school children. Queensland, and Australia more generally, is also concerned with biosafety: the introduction of pests, the control of disease, and the prevention of bioterrorism. Safety is also conceptualised as cultural—preserving Australia’s social and economic fabric. Safety necessarily means exclusion, and the costs of this need to be carefully weighed up in some instances.
The Safe Cooperative aims to explore the permutations of ‘feeling safe’, and how a sense of security is preserved and conserved. What is the effect of an increased concern with safety? How does it impact in communities, in educational institutions, and on individuals? Eidos seeks research that examines how to improve safety, but also analyses of the effects of safety measures.
