Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law

The components of the individual program points "Scenario Oriented Research" and "Technology Networks" deal with societal questions about technological research processes. The task of the Security Research Dialogue is to bring research resources and networks together, which includes the "mapping" of current social science research in the aforementioned fields.

The security issues are examined under four different heads. These heads are, 1. Security culture (societal); 2. Security architecture (international, national); 3. Security organization (operational); and 4. Security technology (micro level). The project is not directed solely at the acceptance of new technologies, but is rather designed to unearth adequate research methods for security and technology developments. Accordingly, the focus of the project is on firstly, assessment issues (perceptions and expectations of security, socio-cultural and politico-normative dimensions of threat definitions and security policies), secondly, exhaustive contextual reflections of each relevant dimension (conditions, meanings and consequences of security strategies) and, thirdly, a social and technological way of thought (technical structuring of society, social and cultural impact of technological automation, and the conscientious configuration of both processes).

The Security Research Dialogue began in November 2008 at the congress ... mit Sicherheit: für Freiheit – Die gesellschaftlichen Dimensionen der Sicherheitsforschung, where fundamental developments pertaining to security culture and security architecture were addressed. As part of the Dialogue, regular interdisciplinary meetings with representatives from the humanities and social sciences are planned to enable the identification of current and future security research needs. To this end, three working groups have been created to cover the topics "Security awareness and requirements in society," "Technological and economic issues of security" and "Societal agents of security." In this context, a workshop on security perceptions in the 21st century was held at the Max Planck Institute on 30.10.2009. An international comparative conference on issues of European home security also took place in Berlin between 26.-28.11.2009. Lastly, a workshop on the technological and societal aspects of biometrics was held in Bonn on 09.12.2009.