Capital struggles in security networks: A theoretical framework
| Published date | 01 August 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13624806231204497 |
| Author | Gabriel Patriarca,Cleber da Silva Lopes |
| Date | 01 August 2024 |
Capital struggles in security
networks: A theoretical
framework
Gabriel Patriarca
University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
Centre for the Study of Violence (NEV/USP), São Paulo, Brazil
Cleber da Silva Lopes
State University of Londrina (UEL), Londrina, Brazil
Abstract
The theme of networks is at the forefront of studies on plural policing, but concepts,
typologies and theories focus more on collaborations than on conflicts. Based on a
case study of the largest port complex in South America, the Brazilian port of Santos,
this article proposes a theoretical framework for understanding capital struggles in
security networks. It explores how struggles emerge from dynamics in which the net-
work is at stake, such as membership and principles, or the forms of capital within it,
which are claimed, contested, disputed or abdicated.
Keywords
Capital, ports, plural policing, security networks, struggles
Introduction
In late 2017, we made the first of many visits to Santos, on the south-eastern coast of
Brazil. The city is home to the largest port complex in South America and is one of
Corresponding author:
Gabriel Patriarca, PhD Candidate, Graduate Programme in Sociology, Facultyof Philosophy, Languages and
Human Sciences, University of São Paulo, 315 Prof. Luciano Gualberto Ave., Office 1063, São Paulo 05508-010,
Brazil.
Email: gabriel-patriarca@usp.br
Article
Theoretical Criminology
2024, Vol. 28(3) 346–363
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/13624806231204497
journals.sagepub.com/home/tcr
the main cocaine export hubs to Europe. We had planned to map the collaborative secur-
ity network in the port of Santos and wanted to observe the site. After travelling around it
by bus and ferry, we spotted a Port Guard vehicle carrying two officers, flagged them
down and told them about our research. When we asked if they interacted with the
private security guards who work at the port, one of the officers looked surprised at
the question and promptly replied: ‘They interact with us!’
As the Port Guard officer’s reaction suggests, security networks are formed as much
through collaboration as through conflict. Although this observation is nothing new in
studies of plural policing, the literature focuses much more on collaborative relationships
(Dinchel and Easton, 2020). Some scholars attempt to overcome this bias by proposing
theoretical frameworks to account for how actors accumulate and mobilize various types
of capital, as they struggle for better positions within networks (Abrahamsen and
Williams, 2011; Diphoorn and Grassiani, 2016; Dupont, 2004, 2006b). However, the
application of these frameworks has still relegated the analysis of the negative dynamics
from which these struggles emerge to the background.
This article proposes a theoretical framework for analysing the dynamics that give rise
to struggles in security networks. Based on the case study of the port of Santos, we argue
that struggles in security networks can arise from dynamics in which the network itself or
the capital within it is at stake. Struggles in which the network is at stake emerge from
membership, when actors strive to participate or remain in the network; or from different
principles that are not always reconcilable and coexist and compete with those of secur-
ity. Struggles in which capital is at stake emerge from claims,contestations,disputes and
abdications of significant resources for the actors that make up the security network.
In the first section of the article, we review the literature with a focus on its normative bias
towards collaborations, and on the limitations of previous attempts to take conflicts into account.
The second section presents the theoretical framework proposed, and the research methods of the
case study. In the third section, we apply this framework to the case of the port of Santos. The
conclusions contain remarks about the use of this framework in further studies.
From collaborations to conflicts
The normative bias in the literature
The language of policing—an activity now pluralized among a wide range of actors—has
echoed a ‘collaborative discourse’(Powell and Glendinning, 2002). Networks and part-
nerships have become common buzzwords. One expression used to describe this ten-
dency is the nautical analogy proposed by Osborne and Gaebler (1993): the state
should steer the boat of government and let society and the market do the rowing, con-
ducting their activities according to the state’s coordinates. Rather than governing dir-
ectly, the state has taken on a regulatory role, forging alliances to govern ‘at a
distance’through other actors’resources (Braithwaite, 2000; Rose and Miller, 1992).
Several scholars have reflected on such alliances, proposing concepts and typologies
on co-production arrangements, and levers for third-party involvement (Bueger and
Mazerolle, 1998; Grabosky, 1995). For example, Ayling et al. (2006) have proposed a
typology of exchanges that enable the state to integrate public and private resources
Patriarca and Lopes347
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